The Weightlifting Technique That Will Change Your Body

Ever plan to go to the gym and stop dead in your tracks because you just don’t know what to do? Maybe your goals are too broad? Maybe you’re expecting too much? How can you really lose weight, gain lean muscle, and build your dream body with just one simple workout plan that doesn’t require you move into the gym for the next year? Clearly, you’re expecting too much from your efforts, right? Wrong! There is a way to reshape your body by losing fat and gaining muscle without spending countless hours in the gym. What do you have to do? Lift heavy weights to create lean muscle and lift light weights to promote fat loss. The best part? You can be in and out of the gym in less than 30 minutes each day. Here’s how!

The heavy and light strength-training plan combines a couple of the most fundamental principles of lifting weights. The intention is to do an exercise for four sets with a heavy weight and low reps (up to six) and then another exercise that targets the same muscle for four more sets with higher reps (up to 12), but with a lighter weight. According to personal trainer Brian Pankau, CPT, you need to take “two to three minutes of rest between heavy [sets], and 45 to 60 seconds between lighter sets.”

How does this plan work? When you lift heavy weights your muscles fatigue and ultimately grow (you won’t look like a bodybuilder — we promise). From there, you work the same muscles with lighter weights to totally exhaust them, which burns more calories, creates a leaner body composition, and increases endurance. Muscles grow, body fat decreases, and you’re only doing two exercises per body part. According to Anthony J. Yeung, CSCS, with this plan, “you’ll burn more calories, shed fat, add more strength, and feel more energetic in daily life.”