Who said it’s hard to lose weight and build muscle after 40s? Meet Anne, 49 yo, mother of three. In only 3 months, Anne lost 3kg, dropped her body fat from 22.5% to 20.7% and reduced 2cm on her waistline. But not without work. She trains 5 times per week and maintain a healthy diet.
Here’s what she has to say:
It’s that time of the year again. New Years always inspire big promises. “This year I will lose weight”; ” This year I’ll be fit”. Unfortunately, only a few people will act on their goals and succeed. Where do you want to be in 2017? Among the ones who abandon their goals because life got too busy or among the ones who stick to their dreams and make them happen? Be aware that the choice is yours. You are the only one who can decide to change.
The good news is that you don’t need to have a perfect plan. All you need is a first step. Think of a small habit you could easily adopt in your life. The easier the better. You will be more likely to stick to it if you can see yourself doing it. It may be something like drinking 2 liters of water per day or going for a walk two times per week after dinner. Resist the urge of trying to do too much. If so, you will soon feel overwhelmed and give up.
“As many others, Vivian came to me for help with weight loss. She wanted to get in shape for her wedding which was only a couple of months away. I told her that it was an ambitious goal but it could be achieved if she put enough effort into it. Together we set a realistic plan of action which included exercising most days of the week plus a major dietary adjustment. In order to keep her accountable, we had weekly check ups during which we’d not only taken measurements but also talked about her progress and struggles. Vivian took all my advice to heart and had the most amazing results: she lost 10 kg in two months, just in time for her big day.”
Most people limit their leg workout to squats and lunges and while those are quite effective exercises, they only target the muscles in a single plane of action (sagittal). However, in order to get a fuller development of the muscle fibres, it is fundamental to work all muscle groups in different angles.
The following workout focus mostly on hip dominant exercises, putting more challenge at the posterior chain (gluteal group and hamstrings). The goal is to engage these muscle groups in different planes of action, recruiting more muscle fibres throughout the workout. The challenge comes from pairing moderate to heavy loaded exercises with more cardiovascular demanding ones. The result is a kick-ass workout which will get you the best of both worlds. Enjoy!
Are you bored with your regular workouts and looking for a challenge? Then give this one a try.
I created this simple upper-body routine for a very dear friend who asked me some tips for exercising from home. As many of you, she is time-poor and needed a quick and easy routine to keep her active when she couldn’t make it to the gym. I used resistance bands because they are fairly cheap and easy to store. Also resistance bands are great because they make you work on both phases of the movement (concentric and eccentric). Keep in mind that you must control the band on the way back (which requires a good core engagement) otherwise it will pull you out of balance.
Preparation:
The workout:
Hey guys
Here goes my new Glutes and Hamstring program. This routine focus on the posterior chain. In order to increase the challenge I chose to set up exercises in trisets and supersets. I also used a body weight exercise going to muscle failure as a finisher.
Triset (no rest between exercises, repeat 3 times):
I know you might be thinking this is just another leg workout but it is not. Yes, this is a leg routine. However, the main goal of this training session is to target the muscles of the back part of the leg. Hence the posterior chain. You see, most leg workout over work the quads (front part of the leg) and overlook the glutes and hamstrings. The problem is that most people are already quad dominant meaning that they probably don’t need more quadriceps exercises. When glutes and hamstrings are neglected, they become weaker than the quads and hip flexors which creates a muscle imbalance. This imbalance pulls the pelvic bone out of alignment and may lead to back pain.
