Written by my trainer Brad of Bradley Fitness:
When we met I asked what your goal was, and for you to be completely honest. Do you want to increase your fitness capacity or just look better? Maybe both? You said both but when I really pulled your arm you picked the latter and I was cool with it. When it comes to training I believe in efficiency. Figure out what your goal is and stick to that for a few months, then reevaluate. If you want to get stronger, lift heavy things. If you want to increase your cardio capacity, train in aerobic and anaerobic states. Yes, it’s possible to work on multiple goals, but considering body composition change I find it’s more efficient to do one thing at a time.
In your case, you were slightly underweight and kind of skinny fat. If you’ve never heard that term before, it basically means you’re thin but lack muscle and everything is kind of soft. So, my program for you from January until now has been very simple; build muscle, also known as hypertrophy.
Because of your body type, just adding some muscle onto your frame will help you lower your body fat levels and improve your posture, which it has done since we’ve started. Training in this phase you want to use moderate to heavy weights in the 8-15 rep range, and anywhere from 2-4 sets per exercise. It’s high volume training, or time under tension that packs on the muscle. When I have you do a superset, in your case two exercises in a row of the same muscle group without rest, what you’re really doing is keeping the muscle group under tension for a longer duration.
Diet plays a huge role in changing your body composition, and unfortunately, it’s more important than the actual training. You cannot out-train a bad diet. For you, I just wanted you to start eating more food and more often while keeping it as clean as possible. The increase in your macronutrients help pack on solid muscle, especially protein.
Here is an example workout of what Liz has been doing lately.
10-15 minute dynamic warmup. This means move your whole body, work on mobility movements, and get warm as in, break a sweat!
Strength
3 sets of pullups/chin-ups. As many reps as possible. Rest 60-90 seconds in between sets.
Muscle building/Hypertrophy
‘Superset’ means do the Goblet Squat, then follow immediately with Dumbbell reverse lunge. Take 60 second break and do it again for another 1-2 sets. Once you’ve completed that superset you can move on to the next exercises which is Pushup & Dumbbell floor press.
If your goal is to also get your heart rate up then you can do this workout in a circuit, meaning start with the Goblet squat, then move to the dumbbell reverse lunge, pushup, and until you’ve completed all exercises in a row. Once complete rest 2-3 minutes and repeat the circuit again.
Goblet Squat 40 lb. X 8-10 reps
Superset w/
Dumbbell reverse lunge (2) 20 lb. X 10 reps
(2-3 sets, 60- second rest between sets)
Pushup X 10-12 reps
Superset w/
Dumbbell floor press (2) 20 lb. X 10-12 reps
(2-3 sets, 60- second rest between sets)
SA Dumbbell Row (2) 20 lbs X 10-12 reps
Superset w/
Band row X 15 reps
(2-3 sets, 60- second rest between sets)
I’m sorry, we should have pictures, those will come soon (promise!!) but if you google these exercises, you can find plenty of youtube videos that will give you a better understanding of the movements. It’s such a great workout and has delivered amazing results for me! Sometimes I still can’t believe the level of fit I’m at, I’ve never had muscles like this and I LOVE IT.
Now, onto the fun part! This salad is a summer favorite and nothing beats the combo of watermelon, arugula and feta cheese – yummm. This is perfect to bring to a BBQ or picnic, or for a light lunch at home, my kids even like it!
For the salad:
I use a combo of baby romaine and arugula
watermelon cubes
feta cheese broken into chunks
english cucumbers
chick peas (this is optional, I threw them in for protein, 1 cup has 12g and it made the salad more satisfying)
For the dressing:
EVOO, a teeny tiny bit of balsamic vinegar (only a couple teaspoons to not take over the taste of the fruit), salt & pepper
Have an amazing weekend everyone!
