Five Strength Training Exercises To Transform Your Body In One Month or Less

Strength Training Changes Lives

If you want to transform your body fast, you’ll need to put it through some pain and commit to some real effort.  That’s the truth!

You can try plenty of other gimmicks that promise results, usually incorporating some form or other of calorie depletion.  That’s not what I consider becoming healthy, rather it’s just starving yourself, and therefore you won’t be able to maintain it.

Strength training is one of the most effective ways to get your body to change.  It can give you that lean athletic look like no other training can.  And here I’m giving you five of the big compound exercises that you should focus on.

Don’t worry, you won’t get bigger!  That’s a common misconception about strength training for women.  Basically, we’ve got much less testosterone in our bodies then men do, and so it is much harder for a women to gain “mass”.  That’s ok, because it’s not what most of us want in any case.  A women needs to undertake extreme training coupled with special diets for a prolonged period to gain substantial muscle mass, that would make you look “big”.  The muscle that you’ll develop first will give you more definition, and a toned look.

There are still a lot of people who believe that heavy weight training is a man’s domain, and women should only train with light weights.  That’s out dated and just false. I feel much healthier due to the strength training that I do, which includes maximising my strength, and I’m certainly not “big”.

If you’re spending your time strength training with light weights, doing small isolated movements you really won’t see or feel much difference.  I’m not saying don’t do it, but if you want real results in the shortest possible time, then focus on getting better and stronger at the following exercises;

1. Deadlift:
   

   Dead lift

   It is one of my favourite exercises, because it involves different muscles from the upper body and lower body, making it a genuine whole body exercise.  If you’re working hard enough at deadlifts you won’t really need to do anything else for that days workout. The muscles that work in this kind of training are rhomboid, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, biceps femoris, quadratus lumborum, trapezius, levator scapulae, erector spinae and gluteus maximus.  Or simply, deadlift works, back, legs and gluteus, with shoulders and arms also engaged. There are different variations of deadlift such as Conventional, Romanian and Sumo and you can vary your routine between them as you get more experienced.

 

2. Bench Press:
   

   Bench Press

   This exercise is great for upper body as it works chest, shoulders and arms. The different variations of bench press are the conventional, close grip, incline and decline bench press.

 

4. Squats:
   

   Squat

   When we do squats, it’s another great whole body exercise involving different muscles including the largest muscles in our body like, rectus femoris, gluteus medius, vastus intermedius, gluteus maximus, vastus lateralis and medialis and biceps femoris. In simple words, squatting is beneficial for quadriceps, adductor, hamstrings, calves, gluteus and lower back. You will develop great legs and bum!.

 

 

4. Pull ups or chin ups:
   

   Chin Ups

   These are great for developing a shapely back, and toned arms as well. It involves muscles like: trapezius, biceps brachii, brachioradialis, teres major, rhomboid, latissimus dorsi and posterior deltoid.  Or simply, back and arms.  If done properly you’ll also feel your abs working.

 

 

 

5. Push ups:

This is an exercises that you can do when you first wake up, to speed up your metabolism and you are getting stronger at the same time. The muscles involved in push ups are triceps brachii, deltoideus, pectoralis minor, coracobrachialis and pectoralis major.  Or in simple words, your chest arms and back.

The variations depend of your strength. If you are just starting out, you can start with your knees on the floor. The conventional is from the feet, incline, decline, close hands or raise one leg and maintain the same activation pattern and movement sequence.

You need to give yourself sufficient time for your body to recover in between training sessions when completing major moves like these, so that your body can recover, so program to do your strength training on alternate days.  If you are training effectively, I.e pushing yourself hard enough, you can simply rest in between training days, or if you are more advanced in fitness, or just want to do more, do cardio workouts on your rest day from strength training.

When you start, test your strength to gauge what the maximum you can lift is, and then set a target for the end of the month.  Eg. If you can do three push ups, target being able to do ten or even fifteen by the end of the month.  That way you will be progressively improving your bodies capacity to perform, which cannot help but change it’s appearance too.

If you work hard at improving your strength in these exercises for a month, you will feel and see the difference in your body.  You’ll be stronger in your every-day life too, with less chance of injuries in whatever sport your participate.

The calorie burn from doing big compound exercises like this is excellent, and continues for longer after you have finished your work out, compared to cardio training.  Once you have developed some extra lean muscle, your metabolism will be naturally higher, helping to burn more stored fat as well.

So, focus on these five exercises, and change your body!