Dear Health Conscious Reader,

I recently sat down with my friend, Darin Steen. Darin is one of the top fitness trainers in the world and a contributor to Natural Bodybuilding and Ms. Fitness magazines. I wanted to chat with him about our top strategies for helping you build a better body.

We talked about specific exercises you can use to build functional strength – the kind of strength you use in everyday life. You don’t get it from lifting a big weight in isolated weight-lifting exercises.

You get it through doing body weight exercises. And the best part is you can do them without expensive gym memberships or clumsy exercise equipment. All you need is your own body weight — think push-ups, pull-ups, lunges, squats, etc. — to achieve a body that not only looks good, but functions well.

The problem is how do you get motivated to start and stick to an exercise routine? We talked about this because, as we all know, this is the biggest reason weight loss programs fail. To listen to our conversation, go here now.

In the meantime, here’s a few tips to get you started building functional strength and burning fat right away.

Your legs and your butt contain the largest muscles in the body. By strengthening them, you’ll experience dramatic improvement in your overall functional strength. Here’s a great leg and butt exercise you can do anywhere:

• From a standing position, take a step forward with either leg. Lower yourself toward the ground until the upper part of your forward leg is parallel to the ground.
  
• In one smooth, relaxed motion, stand back up and step forward with the leg that was behind you.
  
• Repeat for a total of 10 steps with each leg.
  
• It’s important to breathe in as you step forward, and breathe out as you stand.

Of course, you can adjust the depth of the bend to your ability. If you haven’t done any exercise for a while, you might want to lower yourself just halfway down. Or if you have knee or hip problems, you’ll want to lower yourself just part way.

If you are in shape, you can hold dumbbells in each hand for an extra challenge.

To add the PACE® element to this exercise, vary the rate of your steps. Also, vary the number of steps per set and the weight you use. The key to all PACE exercises is to progressively accelerate your exertion over time. For example:

For week one, follow this routine every other day:

• Do one set of five complete steps, one step every 4 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds. Do one set of 10 complete steps, one step every 4 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds. Do one set of 5 steps, one step every 2 seconds. Recover.

Week two, every other day:

• Do one set of 10 complete steps, one step every 4 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds. Do one set of 10 complete steps, one step every 2 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds. Do one set of five steps, one step every 1 second. Recover.

Week three, every other day:

• With one 10 lbs. dumbbell in each hand, do one set of 10 complete steps, one step every 4 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds. Do one set of 10 complete steps, one step every 3 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds. Do one set of 5 steps, one step every 2 seconds. Recover.

Then you can add your own variations to continue to challenge yourself. Did you notice that this routine takes less than 10 minutes each week? That’s how easy great health can be. For other great body weight exercises like this, pick up a copy of Darin’s book.

And to learn more about how real world fitness principles work together to bring you the greatest health of your life, listen to our recorded conversation here.

 

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD