Strength Training:

Today we’re going to talk about strength training at home, and the tips you should follow to get the most out of your strength-training workouts to help boost your metabolism. Strong muscles are one of the best defenses against aging. Muscle burns three times more calories than it does fat, so the more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns – even while you’re sleeping! Besides boosting your metabolism, strong muscles can help protect your bones from osteoporosis and improve your posture. When muscles are toned and taught, nothing can droop or sag! So if strength training is something YOU want to add to your routine, start your DeniseAustin.com membership NOW!!! I have dozens of strength training workouts (check out the one below for a sneak peek!!) plus a great eating plan and more workouts, for a well-rounded plan to help you lose weight, trim up, and feel amazing!!

Strength training is truly one of the best age defying secrets around. You have over 640 different muscles to help you look toned, fit and young. The key is knowing how to use these age stoppers. Strength training is the fastest, most effective way to build metabolism-boosting muscle. After 40, our muscles shrink at a rate of about one percent each year unless we do regular strength training exercises. Aerobic exercise like walking or cross-country skiing can help strengthen your muscles, but not enough to compensate for the loss. The best way to prevent and reverse muscle loss and help boost your metabolism is by strength training.

Luckily, it is never too late to rebuild muscle, and you don’t need to pump iron like a bodybuilder to benefit. Studies on strength training show it’s never too late to start, and evidence also suggests that weight training can lower resting blood pressure by two to four percent, decreasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

There are several different ways to strength train. You can lift hand weights or dumbbells, which is part of my DeniseAustin.com Membership workouts. You can also use weight machines at the gym, and exercises such as push-ups or Pilates, when you use your own body weight as resistance, can also help. This is why I also include weight-bearing workouts in my Whole Body Plan – you can do them anywhere, no equipment needed!

Once you start strength-training, as you replace fat with muscle, you’ll look and feel leaner. Your clothes will fit better, and your body will be tighter and firmer. More muscle equals less fat. Research proves it! Check out this 10-minute clip from one of my popular strength training workouts for a peek at what you will get when you start your free trial!

To get the most benefit out of strength training I recommend 30 minutes, two to three times per week.  if you’ve never practiced strength training before it’s best to start slowly and ease into your new exercise program. Beginners should start with 10 minutes a day, three times a week, and work their way up to the recommended 30 minutes two to three  times per week. Also make sure you warm up before you start any strength training. Light activity such as walking or marching in place will increase the flow of blood and oxygen to your muscles, preparing them for the stress to come. Once your muscles are warm, lightly stretch the ones that you plan to use during your strength training workout. This will help loosen up your muscles, so you’re less likely to develop injuries.

Use these 8 tips for strength training success:

1. Lift the weights in a slow, controlled manner.
2. Use proper form – don’t get sloppy!
3. Move your muscles through a full range of motion.
4. Squeeze your target muscles as you do each move.
5. Muscles need 48 hours to repair themselves after a workout so skip a day between strength training sessions.
6. Don’t let your mind wander. If you focus your thoughts on the muscle you’re working, you’ll get better results and really feel all the good that you’re doing for your body.
7. If you can do all the reps easily, it’s time to add weights.
8. Stretch after each exercise or at the end of your workout.

Ready to get lifting and boost your metabolism? Start your free trial of my Whole Body Plan! I’ll guide you through workouts that include weights, body resistance and more. You can do it – I will show you how! You will feel and look great in just weeks, so give it a try!

Let’s get fitter, together – inside and out,

Denise

Video Script

Welcome to the warmup for the total body toning sculpt and strengthen. Now I would like to introduce you to my team. This is Lindsey and this is Chad and they’re a cute couple, so let’s begin with a good warm up. Take a deep breath. Inhale and exhale out. One more strong. Inhale and exhale right out. And let’s stretch to the side and to the other side. Warming up for the whole body, head to toe. That’s right. Great warming up. Really get your body ready, your muscles prepared for our toning workout, head to toe two more, just side to side. That’s great. Last one and turn it to the side and let’s lunge it down slightly so we can get a good hip flexor stretch right here. Feel that stretch. Excellent. Stomach is in back is strong and straight. That’s it. And shift your weight back and let’s get a hamstring stretch hold that stretch. Feel it, toe is up so we really feel wonderful. Stretch right through the hamstrings. That’s it. Come all the way up and switch legs to the other side. Just hold it out there. That’s it. Hamstrings. Woo. I love this stretch, one of my favorite stretches, stretch, and really wonderful stretch for the upper body. I want you to bring your arms forward and stretch your shoulders. Stretch it out. That’s it. Great to work all the major muscle groups, your arms, your chest, your shoulders, under the other arm, great stretch for the shoulder. You can do it a wonderful. Get it already and they’ll stretch it back up and out for the chest, forward, upper back and checks. That’s it. Really reached forward. Open up the chest, great. That’s it. side to side, open, lift, cross lift two more. Last one. Okay, and stretch it all the way over. Full body reach long through the rib cage and the other side. Reach up and over. Feel the length through the spine, stretching out, warming up those muscles.

Stretch, stretch, and lift straight all the way up and place your hands on your hips and hip hinge. Just shift your weight to the back. Your back is straight. Feeling a wonderful stretch through the back of the thigh. Lift it up using your buttock muscles, squeeze the buttock muscles as you come up. Great. Let’s do that again. Hip Hinge, getting a good stretch in the back of the legs it, and come all the way up using your buttock. Squeeze the buttocks. That’s it. Take a nice deep breath. Bring your legs together, inhale all the way up, inhale and exhale. That’s it. One more. Inhale, lengthen through the spine all the way up to the tippy top and relax. That’s it.

Now you’re all warmed up for our strength workout. Let’s begin our upper body workout. Grab your weights and let’s get started. Okay. Let’s first begin with the reverse fly, so hinge at the hips and let’s start – lift it up. That’s it. Lift it up and down. When you reach it to the top, squeeze at the top. That’s it. You’re back. Sexy back. That’s right. That’s firm and strong. It’s sculpted. Keep it going. Lift and down to your tummy, in your back, straight and your neck. Long nose down to the floor like that. Lift. We got two more. Last one. Now we’re going to do a power up. Power up and slow down. That’s it. Be centric and constant. The tempo really changes the shape of the muscles. That’s what we want. Variety and a little mixing it up really to make a difference in the shape. We got one more. Give it all you got. Lift it up and down. Now it is single at a time. Lift and down, and the other one lift. Can you feel it in the core? Really activating the ab muscles and core.

That’s it. We got two more. Last one on this side. Lift and lower. Okay. Stand up nice and tall. Let’s begin our overhead press. Hips are a little further apart with the feet and let’s start. Press it up and down. Up and down, that’s it. Lift and lower. Strong arm. Strong shoulders. Sexy upper body. That’s it. Keeping your body nice and strong. Great. We’ve got two more of these. We’ve got the power move. Last one. Good. Now we’re going to power it up. Powered it up, slow it down. Beautiful power and really work through the upper back and the lats, lat pull down, power up and down. Up and down. That’s it. One more power. Up and down to hold it right here. Strong and just slip it up here. Reach. That’s great. Lift the arms. Great. Keep your shoulders nice and strong. Your back straight. That’s it.

We’ve got one more on each side. Last one. Oh, okay. And let’s begin our bicep curl system. Bring it up and all the way down. This is full range, all the way up and all the way down. Beautiful looking biceps. That’s it. Muscles work miracles on your metabolism. That’s it. Let me see those arms. Okay, now we’re going to change it up. It’s power up. Take it down. That’s it. Power of beautiful Elongate, power up. Show me those muscles. You got them. Use them. If you don’t use them, you’ll lose them. And we all need a last one. Power Up, good. power up and take it down. Beautiful. Now halfway up and take it down. That’s it. Just halfway. Great. Two more of these halfway. Good. Last one. Great. Okay.

Turn to the side and let’s begin our tricep kickbacks, elevate both elbows behind you and press and pull and press. This is one of the best exercises to shape those arms. Triceps, great strong sculpted arms and a couple more than we do pulses down last one. Now hold it up there, little pulses, little pulses, press them, press them is your back straight? Your abs in. Make sure your abs are tucked in. That’s it. Notice how well his elbow stay up, so important for the triceps is excellent. Great. Last one, and hold it. Release. Great. Okay, now we’re going to do our front raises and laterals. Lift your arms all the way up and down. Sexy shoulder, strong shoulders. That’s it. Strong, lean, lifted. Beautiful. That’s it. Good. Really feel the abs. Tighten up. That’s it. You want the core muscles to be engaged here. Wonderful. Good. We’ve got one more good. Last one on this side. Beautiful. And now just lateral raises out and hold it out, and release. Pull it out and release.

That’s great. Hold it out. Pull down. Strong arms, upper back, shoulders, working. It all. Got two more of these last one and now hold it up there. Just hold it up there. Turn your hands up and little pulses up. abs are tight. That’s it. Keep your abs tight. Little pulses. You’ve got it. That’s it. That’s fine. Oh, okay.

Let’s come to the floor. Bring your weight and let’s begin in a plank position with the weights legs apart. Hold yourself in a nice tall plank. Your abs are tight. Let’s begin renegade row, up and down the other arm, up and down. Lengthen through the spine here. It’s all about the upper back, beautiful, sculpted, shaped, sculpted nicely. Really pull. I want you to really squeeze at the top. That’s the way to do it. Squeeze one more, squeeze it. Now I want you to squeeze it up, open all the way up to a t stand, bring it back down and hold. Again to the other side.

Lift open up squeeze, pull it down and release. Lift open, tighten those, bring it down and release again. Row reach, reach up, reach, lift up, release, and pulled it all the way up. We’re going to add a little push up to this. Ready. We’re going to do a push up a row and opened up. Ready, push up and push up tricep pushup row. Open up and take it down. Push up and open up and take a break. Okay, let’s come down to our backs. Now it’s time for our chest fly slowly, release all the way down and open up through the chest and squeeze all the way up. Open up the chest muscles, and really squeeze all the way up so it’s open. Really feel it. Squeeze. Beautiful. Open up, and now squeeze and open. We’ve got two more of these then we’ll do our power move. That’s it. Last one. Really pull up and down. Now this time I want you to power up and slow. Three, two, one. Power up open.

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