Read 51 times since Wednesday, January 18, 2012
People often blame a lack of time for not training. For the most part these people are just making excuses to justify their laziness because if you want to train you can find the time. For those that really are busy but are still determined to train ultra abbreviated training is the answer. Working as a Glasgow personal trainer I often have to squeeze a quick session in for myself between training groups for clients. In these situations ultra abbreviated training sessions are always the answer.
What is the essence of ultra abbreviated training? You are simply going to eliminate almost everything but the effort. All you need are 2 exercises, one each for the lower and upper body. Intelligent exercise selection still applies so don't think leg extensions and bicep curls will cut it! Pair up big movements like walking sandbag lunge with pull ups, slow sled push and farmers walk, reverse sled drag with dumbbell floor press or deadlift with keg press. The more whole body involvement you can get in each exercise the better your results will be.
People usually spend way too much time trying to find a training plan that will work like magic without realising that with the exception of safe technique, effort is the only thing that really matters. A basic plan with great effort gives outstanding results while a half heartedly followed state of the art plan is worthless.
To get started pick weights that will let you easily do about 8 reps on each exercise. Now set a timer for 2 minutes, start the timer and do one set of each exercise, lower body first then the upper body, with no rest between exercises. Whatever time you have left after your upper body set is your rest and you will use it to add some weight to both exercises. When your 2 minutes are up you do another set of each exercise before upping the weights again. Your first few sets are your warm up so start easy and gradually increase the weights. You should end up using weight that you have to work hard do 8 quality reps on each exercise. You will continue until one of two things happens, either you will fail to do 8 reps on both exercises or you will not be able to complete both sets within 2 minutes. Either way you will have pushed yourself to your limit and had a great training session. Then rest for a day or two before training again with two different exercises. Iain Smith (MPhil/CSCS) owns Standout Gym, an independent warehouse gym in Glasgow, focusing on weight loss. He offers small group training as an affordable alternative to Glasgow personal training. Iain is a former international decathlete with 17 years coaching experience. www.standoutgym.com.
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