The Body Sculpting Bible for Women (15 page)

We might feel like we can lift our max weight right at the beginning, but this is the wrong approach and a very hazardous one. You must warm up your muscles and the surrounding joints and connective tissue that you intend to stimulate to ensure safety and prepare your body for high intensity training.

OVERTRAINING

Overtraining is a condition caused when the body is taxed beyond its ability to recover. The main causes may include long workouts, an overload of training volume (too many sets and reps), a bad diet lacking nutrients, lack of sleep, etc. People experiencing this condition might notice such symptoms as a loss of muscle mass, weakness, trouble sleeping, loss of appetite, a lethargic and constant tired feeling and feelings of depression.

It is impossible to overtrain with our weight training program (assuming you follow the nutrition and rest practices prescribed) because after you stress the body’s recuperative capabilities to the maximum (by doing supersets for two weeks and then moving on to giant sets for two more), you back off into the less stressful modified compound supersets. In addition, you get a rest day after every day of lifting (unless you are using the advanced version) and you also get the weekends off. During rest days, you concentrate on fat burning aerobic exercise (which aids in the recuperation process by removing the lactic acid created by weight training) instead. We use Sunday as our total inactivity day; you can choose any day of the week as your rest day. This day serves to rest the body and the mind.

FAQ:

How much time should I wait between warm-up sets?

ANSWER:

You shouldn’t rest a lot. The time it takes you to change the weight or take a drink of water will be approximately 30 to 60 seconds, which is fine. Don’t let too much time pass, as your muscles will get cold and you could quickly stiffen up and risk injury.

Finally, the ample nutrients provided by the diet, along with the recommended supplements, eliminate the possibility of getting overtrained.

Provided that you follow the training program as laid out, in conjunction with the nutrition and rest components, for the purposes of this book, overtraining is a state of mind and does not exist.

SKIPPING WORKOUTS

Skipping workouts is unacceptable
. You hear it all the time, people constantly making excuses about how they have not time to exercise. Baloney! Unless you are in a situation where you are on call 24 hours a day and are being utilized at least 23 hours out of the 24, then we are more than sure that you can find the time to train. The fact of the matter is that some people don’t want to spend the time exercising, so instead, they make excuses about how busy they are. We don’t care if you only have 15 minutes to allocate towards exercise, it’s still 15 minutes of exercise!

If you are interested in completely changing the way you look and feel, all the excuses in the world can not hold you back from doing what it takes to fit a workout into your schedule. All you need is the vision, the motivation and the determination to do so.

FAQ:

What is the best type of warm up? Would running on a treadmill suffice?

ANSWER:

Running on a treadmill would be enough for leg training, but it wouldn’t warm up the upper body at all. The absolute best way to warm your muscles, joints, and connective tissue prior to weight training is to actively practice the exercise movement you will execute. In other words, if you are going to do heavy squats, your warm up should be doing a squat with your body weight only at high repetitions, or even a 45 pound Olympic bar for the same amount of reps. The key here is to warm up the muscles you are about to train, not to exhaust them. You don’t want too much time doing reps with lots of weight. Listen to and feel your body as you warm up.

For example, if you were planning on doing three working sets of 10 repetitions using 225 pounds, your warm up sets might look something like this:

1st set:
45 pound bar, 5 reps

2nd set:
95 pounds (25 pound plates on each side of bar), 4 reps

3rd set:
135 pounds (45 pound plates on each side), 3 reps

4th set:
185 pounds (45 & 25 pound plates on each set), 2 reps

If you still feel a bit stiff, you could do one more set with the same weight and reps you used in the last warm-up set.

Skipping workouts will severely jeopardize your toning and fat burning efforts, in addition to destroying your body sculptor’s mindset. However, if for some reason you are not able to train (let’s say because all the gyms in the world are closed on that day, and you have no gym at home and don’t know anyone with one), then remember back to what your grandparents use to say, about how they had to walk over five miles just to get to work, in the snow, with no shoes or socks! In all seriousness, if you miss a workout one day, simply make up the skipped session the next day. This might mean training twice in one day (doing your cardio session in the morning and weights in the afternoon) or sacrificing your Sunday rest day.

If you miss a workout for whatever reason, don’t beat yourself up about it. Just realize that tomorrow is a new day and you will be able to make up the skipped session. However, don’t make a habit of skipping training sessions—you will ultimately limit the results you expect to receive.

Stretch your
thighs
by grasping a pole with one arm and bending the opposite leg, bringing your foot towards your buttocks (if you grasp the pole with the left hand, then bend the right leg). Grasp your ankle with the free hand and slowly lift your foot as comfortably as possible. Hold this position for a count of five and repeat with the other leg.

Stretch your
hamstrings
by stepping forward with your left heel while bending your right knee. Keep your left leg straight and toe pointed up. Placing your hands on your left thigh, bend forward at the waist and feel the stretch in your hamstring. Hold this position for a count of five and repeat with the opposite leg.

Stretch your
calves
by grasping a pole with both arms, standing on a raised surface, and placing one foot on the edge of the surface in order to allow your heel to go down as far as comfortably possible. Hold this position for a count of five and repeat with the other leg.

Stretch your
chest
by grasping a pole with one of your arms, ensuring that this arm is parallel to the ground. Slowly turn away from the pole and allow your arm to be as far behind the body as possible. Ensure that you do not overextend your chest by going as far away as is comfortably possible. Hold this position for a count of five and repeat with the other arm.

Stretch your
back
by grasping a pole with both arms, bending your knees, and sitting back in order to fully extend your arms and achieve a stretch in your lats and lower back. Hold this position for a count of five.