Body Sculpting 101

This past week, I decided to challenge my body in several new ways. As I mentioned in an earlier blog this month, my boyfriend has challenged me to explore a new physical activity each week for the month of September. A couple weeks ago, I ordered a book online entitled The Body Sculpting Bible for Men. I already work out everyday; I primarily do anaerobic exercise- or lift weights, but I also do aerobic exercise- cardio. The problem is that I tend to fall into the same routine week after week. Of course, your body gets used to your routine, and eventually you reach a plateau. So I figured that reading this book might give me some new ideas for how to take my workouts to the next level.

The Body Sculpting Bible for Men has A LOT of great advice for guys who want to get lean and gain muscle. So far, I’m only five chapters in, and it has already challenged nearly everything I do at the gym as well as my nutrition. I’ve began to implement many of the suggestions from the book immediately into my lifestyle. For instance, I typically eat before I go to the gym, because I presumed that eating before hand would give me energy for my workout. This book however, states otherwise. If you save your meal until after your workout, your body will burn it up much quicker. Also, when you work out, your body needs nutrients immediately after to help you recover. When I would eat before the gym, I would never eat anything immediately after because I wouldn’t be hungry yet. Also the book has really challenged me to consider not necessarily the amount of calories I’m consuming, but what I’m consuming and how and when I’m consuming it. I.e. what time of day to eat carbs vs. protein vs. fat; how many meals a day to consume; and in what ratio to consume carbs, protein and fat.

Regarding my actual workouts, the book has challenged me in several new ways. It explains that in order to continually progress your level of fitness, you must adjust your routine every 14 days. This doesn’t mean that the exercises you perform need to change every two weeks (although I certainly think that a little variety is a good thing)- you’ll probably always do bench press for your pecs, curls for your biceps, etc. But the number of repetitions you perform per set and the amount of time you rest in between sets should only be consistent for about a two week period and then should change entirely for the next two weeks. By consistently changing your routine, your body is forced to continually adapt to new things, and is continually challenged to grow and get stronger. Work outs should never last more than an hour. I learned that if you only rest 90 seconds or less in between sets, it feels nearly impossible to train any longer than 60 minutes. Another little trick I learned is to focus on the muscle you are training and flex the muscle for a few seconds immediately before and after each set. Trust me, do this for a whole session at the gym and you will totally feel the burn!

Finally, I’ve learned that cardio should only be done first thing in the morning or immediately after weight training. Otherwise, when you do cardio or aerobic exercise, it takes your body about twenty minutes before you actually start burning fat. Simply stated, if you do cardio first thing in the morning before you’ve eaten anything or immediately after your weight training regimen, your body is already at the point where it is ready to burn fat. You literally can save yourself time and energy if you follow this simple rule.

Clearly, I’m learning a lot of valuable lessons from this book. Now, it’s time for me to really test them all out and measure the results. I feel very excited about developing and improving my work outs and nutrition. But more than anything, I’m excited to look and feel better than ever before!