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Same Old, Same Old

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Contributed by: Bonnie Pfiester on 4/13/2006

Have you ever been at the gym and noticed another member always doing the same routine every day. They do the same 10 exercises, with the same weight and with the same intensity, as if they are just going through the motions. Maybe you are that member. That's fine if you are just maintaining your weight and just generally trying to keep in shape, but often times the SAME person that's doing the SAME old thing complains about looking the SAME old way!

Think of it this way. When I was young I took piano lessons. My teacher always gave me a piece of music to practice that was a little bit harder than the previous week. It would challenge me, and although I didn't like it, I would eventually master the piece only to receive a more difficult one. Your body reacts the same way. You have to challenge your body if you want to see improvement. It's not always fun, but it's worth it. Thank goodness my piano teacher didn't let me settle on Chop Sticks and Mary Had a Little Lamb!

When attempting to improve your physique or health, it is important to always challenge your body. Each workout should be a little more challenging than the last by increasing your intensity, resistance or repetitions. With weight training, it's also helpful to try new exercises in order to target muscles at different angles. The idea is to moderately break down the muscle during a series of exercises and then allow the body enough time to repair and rebuild. The benefit of this type of exercise is a firmer, more sculpted muscle.

OK, so you don't want to be a bodybuilder. I don't either; I want to be a body sculptor! The term bodybuilder has really tainted the idea of weight lifting. Women avoid weights in fear of "bulking up" when there are men out there, like my husband, working out as hard as they can just to add a couple of pounds of muscle. The truth is "bodybuilding" is a very difficult task. It has taken a lot of protein, glutamine, creatine and 13 years of heavy lifting and hard training for my husband to have only gained about 10-12lbs of muscle. So if you have been avoided weight training in fear of "bulking up" don't worry. It's not that easy.

Another fantastic benefit of weight training and increasing lean muscle mass is that it speeds up your metabolism. Cardiovascular exercise, like jogging or doing aerobics, burns calories while you workout, but lifting weights helps you to burn more calories at rest. Who doesn't want that?!

You can still do the same old routine if you would like, but just don't expect any changes. If you are satisfied where you are and have already reached your goals, maintaining a regular routine is just fine. The fact is, most people reading this article are not happy with where they are and have not reached their goals and are still playing Mary Had a Little Lamb with their body. Whether you want to improve your piano playing skills or keep up with your grandchildren, the higher the effort, the bigger the reward.

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