Good Workouts
Good Workouts: Easier than it may sound
Can I let you in on a little secret? Up until quite recently I really thought I had the “secret” about good workouts and fitness nailed. And well … I basically had a lot of it dead wrong…
You see I have been doing martial arts for many, many years – over 30 years to be precise. Not only that, I’ve also part-owned a fitness center for quite some time back in the days. So I really figured I got it down to a T.
Having done strength training, as well as cardio and technique quite extensively – plus guided, instructed and helped a huge number of others along the way, I was pretty sure there wasn’t really that much I didn’t know. A “little” cocky perhaps?
You know the feeling when reality comes and bites you, right? For your truly, it was time for a major reality check – some would even call it a good kick up you-know-where.
Getting a 7 minute workout lesson
Through my hosting provider (GVO – rock solid stuff by the way), I was invited to be a sort of beta tester for a new program called 7MinuteWorkout. Dare I say I was just a wee bit skeptical?
Good workouts in seven minutes? Are you kidding me? Here I was used to slaving at the gym (something I found to be a chore by the way) for hours every week, in addition to all the other training. And then comes this program telling me I could get better results by training far less – as little as seven minutes, three times a week to be precise…
I simply had to try these 7minuteworkouts, just to prove it wrong! There was simply no way that little training could benefit me … or anyone else for that matter. Plain and simple: It goes against most of the things we’ve been taught about getting results for weight loss, muscle gain, fitness, increased strength, a slimmer waistline and wellness in general.
Learning by doing
To keep things fair, I followed the program as instructed. Did my weight training workouts – short and to the point, no other additional strength training and no other changes to my regular training.
The only thing I added was as per requested a few very basic changes to my supplements/diet, and that was to add fiber and enough water, plus drinking no soda or diet soda.. The last point was an easy one to follow since I hardly ever “drink my calories” to begin with.
And so, I am quite certain you wonder whether these workouts were good and delivered results as promised, or if I could lean back and smugly say in triumph: “I told you so…”
The jury is in
Quite frankly, I hate to admit that the results were such that I couldn’t simply brush them off as mere coincidence, or me just having a good month for a change.
Well no, I didn’t lose that much weight during the first month. However, that was expected since I’m not really after losing weight any how – I really don’t want that too much.
Still, close to 8lbs in a 30 days without really trying … I’d say that’s pretty significant!
The main thing for me was to see – and feel – that the waistline started to shrink, quite a fair amount really. I can now get into pants I couldn’t use just a month or so ago. The strength have increased, even though I have only done at home workouts – no gym workouts what so ever.
I know for sure that I would have blown way past my previous personal best weights had I used the gym. And the time saved… wow! Rather than spending an hour each time at the gym (easily 3-5 hours, some times more, every week), I can now get it done in about one hour each week. I don’t know about you, but to me, that is a huge deal!
So what is the “secret” behind these 7 minute workouts? really, how can effective and good workouts be that short? Doesn’t it go against the grain of a lot of things we have taken for granted?
Well that’s what I’m going to look into further in the following articles. On my quest to find great workouts, if not the best workout routine, my curiosity had definitely been awoken! I knew I had to learn more in order understand how I could get better results by training less…
