Even the prospect of weight training can be intimidating. How much weight should you lift? How often? What muscle groups need to be worked?
To help sort it all out, we called on trainer Mike Alexander, owner of MADfit, a private Beverly Hills training studio. Alexander, who did post-graduate work at the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas, has trained celebrities such as Jessica Simpson and Kristin Chenoweth.
Here, he outlines a four-week program that works the body's major muscle groups, building muscle strength and endurance and improving the cardiovascular system. Stick with it and pay attention to his basic nutrition tips, and Alexander says your goals are within reach.
Before wrapping your hands around a barbell, he recommends a few tips:
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Getting started
* Examine your diet and tweak it if necessary. Even those who don't want to lose weight will benefit from more healthful foods. "There's little point in strength training and eating whatever you want," he says. "If you're putting on muscle but you still have all this fat on top of the muscle, you'll be a big, bulky person."
Incorporate lean meats such as chicken, turkey and fish -- women especially need to take in adequate protein. Also eat more whole-grain breads and pasta, brown rice and fruits and vegetables. Cut down on refined sugar and avoid empty calories in fried foods and white bread. Instead of going cold turkey, Alexander recommends making small changes, getting used to those, then making more changes.
"People hate being told they can't have something," he says, "and that's really where most people fall off a diet, because they make it too strict. It shouldn't be something that's constantly on your mind." Alexander admits to once having a pretty fierce Frappuccino habit (A venti Frapp is 340 calories) until he got wise and switched to iced coffees.
* If losing or gaining weight is a goal, hop on the scale about once a month, not several times a day. Progress can be slow and, maybe, discouraging. Also, consider measuring body fat with calipers, because the scale doesn't tell the entire story. Because results can easily be skewed if the caliper test isn't done correctly, make sure you're tested by a certified trainer or health professional. Of course, keeping track of how your clothes fit is a good way to keep tabs on your physique too.
