A Word From Brutus About Show Me Your Guns!

Hi all. This is “Brutus.”  Millie asked me to give tips and strategies to help you get the most out of the Fitblogger workout. The article providing the workout gives a lot of sound advice and I commend them for encouraging you to incorporate weight training into your weight loss program. I would however like to give some suggestions on ways to utilize the workout prescription outlined in the article.

First you should know that the basic format of the workout is that of a body building routine. The reason why this is because of what the repetition count suggests.  Sets with repetition counts ranging from 8-12 at 70-85% of the maximum amount of weight you can lift will encourage the body to make the working muscles bigger. If that (read: gaining muscle mass or body building) is not your goal, you may want to modify these numbers.

For a fitness /weight loss regimen, you’re going to want to do a high number of reps at an above medium weight intensity. Use a weight that allows you to perform 15 to 20 reps (with difficulty). It’s all a matter of trial and error- if you can’t do five reps, it’s too heavy for your goal. Drop down the weight and try again. After you’ve completed your exercises you will need time to recover before beginning the next set. A good method to how gage how long you should recover is by determining your RPE (rate of perceived exertion).  Your RPE is measured on a scale of one to ten, one being not tired at all, ten being exhausted wait until you’re at a RPE of 6 before you start your next set. Remember, you should not be able to easily do more than 20 reps per exercise per circuit.

 So now that you’ve figured out at what intensity you’re going to work at, you now need to figure out what to do. Below are links demonstrating how to do certain exercises from the FitBlogger workout.  What we want is to work as many muscles as possible continuously in order to maximize what weight training and cardio can do for the body. A perfect example of this would be circuit training. This training method is when you do multiple exercises back to back. When those exercises are finished, that would be one set. A good way to implement this would be to pick six out of the ten exercises listed between upper/lower body A and B. Then grab your necessary weights and dumbbells, run through the 6 exercises you’ve chosen, then rest until your RPE reaches six.  Perform each exercise back to back doing at least 15 to 20 repetitions per exercise. In the beginning, especially if you've never exercised before; take it easy. Perform no more than 2 to 4 sets. Also remember to get good rest between sets.

Hope these tips help. Look forward to more helpful tips in the future. Good luck and have fun.

Bench Press
Lat Pulldown
Barbell Bent Over Row
Military Press
Lateral Raise
Concentration Curls
Tricep Kickbacks
EZ Bar Curl
Bench Dips
Push Up