Your Best Body In 1 Hour

June 28, 2007 by Thundercat
Filed under Health & Hygiene

I found a really good article over on MSN about a 1-hour workout you can do that looks really promising. Check out this exerpt:

Fire Up Your Muscles

The strategy: Put your body in motion in ways that will recruit more muscle fibers in your workout, leading to bigger gains in the end.

The investment: 5 minutes

The drill: Junk
your traditional warmup. If this were just about getting warm, you
could sit in a hot tub. Instead, do calisthenics. They not only
hot-wire nerve pathways that connect your brain to your muscles, but
also help you move through full ranges of motion before adding weight.
If the workout is the show, this is your rehearsal. See "Kickstart Your Workout."

Target Weak Spots

The strategy: Troubleshoot problem areas to eliminate weak links and reduce injury risk.

The investment: 4 minutes

The drill: Do
any of your joints or muscles hurt? If you answer "a little" or "only
when I . . . , " see a physical therapist. And train your glutesвЂ”your
butt musclesвЂ”and your scapular muscles, which include the rhomboids,
trapezius, serratus anterior, and pectoralis minor. You don’t need to
be able to pinpoint them on a dangling skeleton. Just remember that
weakness in these areas signals "Danger: Work Ahead" for hips, knees,
and shoulders. Use the exercises in "Injury-Proof Your Body," to ward off trouble now. For years to come, your body will thank you every time you get out of bed.

Train Your Core

The strategy: Sculpt
a stable, injury-resistant core. Like a baseball team, a healthy body
needs to be strongest right up the middle. Plus, women think a tight
midsection is hot.

The investment: 8 minutes

The drill: The
coreвЂ”your abs, hips, and lower backвЂ”is the most important area of your
body when it comes to injury prevention and overall performance. For
great results, train it early in your workout, while you still have the
energy and focus to put forth your best effort.

Build Your Biggest Muscles

The strategy: Lift more weight in less time to supersize the muscles you want to make bigger.

The investment: 30 minutes

The drill: Weight
training is the most critical part of a muscle-building,
strength-boosting workout. Streamline your routine with the
alternating-set system. Do one exercise, rest 1 minute, and then do
another exercise. Alternate between moves until you’ve completed all
your sets for each, then move to a new pair. This strategy allows you
to fit 15 to 20 sets in 30 minutes. And it provides sufficient stimulus
for muscle growth, provided that 90 percent of those exercises are
squats, deadlifts, dips, chinups, rows, and presses.

Accelerate Fat Loss

The strategy: Squeeze in a fat-burning cardio session to reveal rock-hard muscle.

The investment: 4 minutes

The drill: You’re
no doubt familiar with interval training, in which you run hard, rest,
and then repeat. That burns fat, for sure. But here’s another option.
Perform squats, chinups, or pushups for 20 seconds, rest for 10
seconds, and repeat, alternating for 4 minutes. This technique boosts
your metabolism and your strength. What’s more, Japanese researchers
found that it provides the same cardiovascular benefits as a 30-minute
bike ride.

Prepare For Tomorrow

The strategy: Reduce postworkout soreness as a means of maximizing your next training session.

The investment: 9 minutes

The drill: Spend
a few minutes stretching and improving the quality of your fascia, the
tissue that covers your muscle fibers. Injury, overexertion, or
extended inactivity can cause fascia to knot up with adhesions. But
when you use a foam roll to apply pressure to tender spots, the knots
untangle and blood flows through those tissues more freely. For more
details, check out "Reclaim Your Flexibility," and "Stretching Exercises."

More Muscle in Less Time

The
following routines show how to put your new workout strategies into
action. (See the main story for more details on these strategies.) As
you become more comfortable with the movements, feel free to substitute
exercises of your own.

Kickstart Your Workout

Perform
these exercises at the beginning of your routine. They prepare your
shoulders, back, hips, knees, and ankles to perform at a high level.