Summer is ramping up so it is time to tone and beef up our arms so they look great in our sleeveless dresses and tank tops! Supersets are a great way to save time by working two different muscle groups back to back with little to no rest. And there is no better efficient and effective place to make this happen than on your Total Gym in the convenience of your home.
We all want results and benefits from our resistance training program or why would we take the time? Bottom line: We want progress. My favorite mantra when it comes to lifting weights is “To keep your muscles progressing, you’ve got to keep them guessing!” What I mean by “keep them guessing” is you need to change up your workouts periodically or your muscles will get used to your routine and you’ll experience diminishing returns. No Bueno.
When will you know its time to mix up your exercises? Easy. You’ll stop getting sore after your workouts! Remember when you first start a new routine and for the next day or two you have “heightened awareness” in the muscle groups you’ve trained. Learn to embrace that soreness because that is your body’s way of telling you it was taxed enough to produce the benefits. Those benefits include better looking, stronger, toner (or bigger) muscles, stronger bones and a nice increase in your metabolism so you can lose weight or, if you’re like me, eat more food! The main reason I still bang weights is because I love to eat and drink what I want (within reason) while maintaining a healthy weight.
One of the ways you can easily keep your muscles guessing and progressing on the Total Gym is closely monitoring your intensity. To reap all the juicy benefits of resistance training, I recommend you choose a level on your Total Gym where you hit fatigue around 10 repetitions. If you’re doing a bicep exercise on level 6 today, should you be doing it on level 6 two months from now? I hope not because as you properly tax those muscles they will get stronger. When this happens, you need to bump the intensity by raising the level on your Total Gym so you can’t do more than 10 reps with good form.
Another way to keep the body guessing and progressing is by challenging those muscles at different angles by choosing different exercises. Another reason to love your Total Gym is its versatilely. You can do thousands of exercises on this awesome machine so you, nor your body, will ever get bored and stagnant. Make sure you watch the video as I give you six different arm exercises performed in three different positions in the Superset style. Here are the positions along with some fun options.
Three Arm Supersets:
Side Seated or Kneeling
Use the front handle. So, when you’re facing to the right of the tower, use the right handle.
Seated or Kneeling Backward
You can sit your butt on the glideboard, kneel and sit your butt on your heels or try high kneeling for a balance and proprioception challenge. To mix it up, try performing the exercises with two arms together, alternating one arm at a time, or the ultra-cool Static Equilibrium as demonstrated in the video.
Seated Forward
Once again, try performing the exercises with two arms together, alternating one arm at a time, or the unique Static Equilibrium.
Thanks Total Gym Team and enjoy all those admiring gawks at your toned, pumped up arms!