Your workout strategy, is it working?

If you currently exercise, how long has your gym commitment been? Whatever your commitment, I congratulate you, but are your workouts productive? Is there rhyme and reason to your exercise selection, same goes for the order in which they are performed? How did you devise your routine, from previous personal experience, from a professional or a fitness magazine? Before you make or modify your fitness resolutions keep reading.

"Roughly 85 to 90 percent of the people in the gym are NOT getting the maximum benefit from their workouts" reports John Porcari, Ph.D., F.A.C.S.M., a professor in the Department of Exercise and Sports Science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Most of the general population all share the same goals and have similar time constraints. The majority of men and women want to lose weight, tone up and feel better. Two factors of this equation are results and limited time to achieve them, a tough order but not impossible.

Q: What exercises will maximize your time and are most beneficial?

A: Compound exercises move the body through more than one joint movement, while isolation exercises only move the body through a single-joint movement. This is important because of the underlying value of compound exercises opposed to single joint. Can you guess what the value is before you read further? Compound exercises will recruit not just one muscle but many during the exercises various range of motion. It’s like more bang for your buck basically. The more muscles you work, the more calories you burn, the more productive your workout is and the faster you get to your end result.

An example of a compound exercise would be the barbell squat. This is a terrific example of all compound exercises. During the squat you are using a majority of your muscle groups which occurs by bending at your ankles, knees, waist, hips, and to some degree, even your shoulders. Compare this to an isolation exercise such as leg extension, which only moves your body by bending one joint, the knee. Please, do not be mistaken about isolation exercises. In no way am I saying they’re invaluable, they’re just not as time effective and efficient as compound movements.

To explain simply with regard to order of exercises start with compound exercises first and then taper off with single joint movements to finish.

I’m tired of hearing about all the zone intensities for cardiovascular exercises that are listed on cardio equipment to achieve different results. Let’s apply KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). Time and intensity, how would these be best used? Well you can’t modify how much time you have to work with if you are limited. So with your allotted time to work it would be best to work as hard as you can in that time period. The harder you work the greater the benefits such as increased heart and lung capabilities and more calories burned. The more calories you burn the more weight you will lose. I cannot fathom any way to dispute the mathematics behind this?

*FYI: 3,500 calories = 1 pound

What a better time than the New Year to ensure your exercise efforts are going in the right direction.

Happy New Year & good luck with all your resolutions you set for 2008.