“The Skinny People Are Over There”
Filed Under: Fat Loss
Filed Under: Fat Loss
“The fat people are over here and the skinny people are over there,” said a new client before her first session at the healthclub.
At one point I worked in a large healthclub that was part of a complex owned by a professional sports team, who had their own private training facility there. This club had programs for everyone from kids to older adults, with an area that had pre-programmed exercise machines.
These weight machines were used with a special key that had a program for that individual that could be downloaded from a kiosk. When they put the key in the machine it would automatically adjust the seat and the amount of weight to be lifted.
A trainer would take a new member through a few sessions to show them the exercises and determine how much weight to be used. Later on the new members would go through the program on their own and turn their workout results in to a trainer with comments about how difficult it was.
The trainer would then make a few simple adjustments such as adding more reps or weight or sets. When the member came in for the next workout, the new info would be automatically updated. This was a big selling point for those with little experience lifting weights, particularly those over 40.
So as I took this new member back for the first of her 3 free sessions, she made that comment – that the “fat people” were in the section with the computerized equipment while the “skinny people” were working out in the free weight section (low-tech).
I didn’t say anything, but thought that she was very observant. She had been coming in for a month and working out with her sister prior to our first session.
Even though high tech equipment can be useful from time to time, its not necessary for great results. Simple tools like dumbbells, barbells, sandbags, medicine balls, bands or kettlebells will all get the job done just fine.
The big difference generally between these two groups is how hard they worked, combined with the fact that these simple tools require you to use more muscles to stabilize the weight. Machines usually stabilize the weight for you……
which sounds like a good idea, but really isn’t, unless you have some special circumstances due to an injury. The Power Plate is an exception to this, but I’ll talk about that in more detail, later.
If fat loss and general fitness is your primary goal, then gradually increasing your intensity is key. Since most people hit a plateau at some point, where you struggle to lift more weight, cutting the rest periods between exercises will help, as this allows you to get more work done in the same time period.
This increased amount of work will burn more calories and let you get more done in a shorter amount of time than most people at the healthclub.
Unless you enjoy the 2 hour workouts – or you are training for a bodybuilding or endurance competition.
Otherwise, it makes more sense to do your training in the shortest time possible. When time is a factor you definitely want to use multi-joint exercises to work more muscles. Go from a pushing exercise to a pulling one or throw in a lower body movement and do a circuit.
Get moving!
Brian
