Another belter from my good friend (who shall STILL remain nameless), the friend who sends me an email every few months, asking for my advice on how to shed his spare tyre. Check out his last effort here.
Him: “I’m still struggling with losing the gut! I’ve been hitting the gym once or twice a week, doing a 10-15 minute run, a 10 minute row, some abs work and press ups”
Me: “Nice. Try dropping either the rowing or run for some lower body strength work.”
Him: “Ah my legs are fine, I do plenty of walking and don’t carry much weight on them.”
Now first things first, the man is doing well – he’s actually making it to the gym once or twice a week – which is real progress.
But he’s been doing that since January, and the results aren’t what he expected. And THIS is where most people (myself included) tend to become demotivated. What is the point in dragging your arse to the gym or off to pilates twice a week, if you’re not going to feel any better about yourself or see a difference in the mirror?!
Our friend has, however, scored another point here, by not just giving up. Not yet. He didn’t take the easy way out and head down to the pub or go back to bed. He reached out to me for some advice. He was aware enough to know that he needed some help.
But here is where we hit a roadblock. See it doesn’t matter that I’ve known this guy for 18 years, as this is true of at least 95% of all men.
We all hate leg work.
Squats, deadlifts, lunges. Grim. Just typing those words makes me wince. We much prefer standing in the mirror working on the (perceived) majesty of our biceps.
Now I can’t speak for the ladies, but in my experience with clients you don’t exactly treasure leg-stuff either.
But it works. And here’s the technical bit – so scroll down if you’re not interested!
For the men
When you train muscles they release testosterone. Your legs are the biggest muscle group in your body. So…the bigger the muscle group, the more testosterone you get.
Testosterone = good news all round. Increased muscle size, lower body fat. Sounds like the dream ticket, eh?!
Still on the fence as to the benefits? Ask the next person you see if they find chicken legs attractive on a man. We all know the answer.
For the ladies
In many ways the reasons are similar. Resistance training activates muscle fibres and burns calories. The bigger the muscle, the more calories you’re going to burn. Your legs are your biggest muscle group…get the picture?
“But I don’t want to get all muscly Ian.”
Don’t panic. That is not going to happen by accident (just ask any man!). Women produce around a tenth of the testosterone that men do, meaning you would have to work 10 times harder to put on even a teeny bit of muscle size.
But you can activate more of your existing muscle fibres, meaning you get stronger and your body burns more calories all day, every day. Which means…you burn fat, tone up and look even more amazing. Not too shabby.
So…
Take-home message here? Get squatting! Don’t neglect your legs and you’ll see the results in just a few weeks.
Or if you really want to turbo-charge your training, get in touch and we can talk about sorting out those chicken legs. Just click here or hit the link below and we can get the ball rolling.
Either way, you need to take action (remember I was talking about that the other day?), just reading it doesn’t make it happen.
Ian “super-stems” Male
PS. After a bit more coaxing I’ve managed to convince him, so we shall see how he gets on!