Mosbe's Muscle Minutes
Four-square, kickball, tag, hide-and-seek, roller skating, bike riding, that’s how we stayed active and fit as kids. Then came college, work and family and “playing outside” became but a fond memory. The good news is there are many ways to remain fit and healthy without changing into our play clothes and running around the neighborhood until we’re called for dinner. That’s what I’m here to show you with my “Muscle Minutes”.
My Muscle Minutes approach is based on the reality that during an hour long strength workout at the gym, [without a trainer], a great deal of time is wasted. In fact, only about 8 minutes of the 60 is spent with our muscles under tension. The other 52 minutes is spent resting, changing weights, texting, chatting with or watching others in the gym, etc. (Not to mention the time to get there and back home.) That’s fine if you have the time but if you don’t then try Muscle Minutes instead. With my Muscle Minutes approach your muscles will have the same time under tension, but the other 52 minutes will be available for whatever else you need to get done.
Conventional weight training recommends a day of rest following a strength workout to give your muscles time to repair. This would mean that your muscles are put under tension for about 8 minutes every 2 days. If instead you put your muscles under tension for 4 minutes each day your muscles would receive equal adaptive stress. Regardless of how busy each of us is, we can find 4 minutes each day for our muscles, especially since the 4 minutes do NOT need to be consecutive! How about: 1 minute while you get ready for work + 1 minute before lunch + 1 minute before dinner + 1 minute in the evening. Or maybe, 2 minutes before you leave for work + 2 minutes before you sit down for dinner.
You can do 4 minutes a day!
The 3 keys to success with this approach are consistency, intensity and form.
1. Consistency
Commitment to your Muscle Minutes every day, unless you have a health issue. However, if your health issue is limited to a specific area of your body, (i.e., your ankle is sore because you twisted it when you tripped over a co-workers computer cable that afternoon), while the rest of your body is fine, then do Muscle Minutes for the unaffected areas like your abs, biceps, shoulders, etc. Don’t look for excuses, look for solutions. Remember, a few drops of water every day will soon fill the whole glass.
3. Form
All strength movements should be performed with optimal form throughout the movement from first rep to the last rep. Maintaining great form will ensure that you get the most benefit from the exercise and it will help avoid injuries.
2. Intensity
Give it ALL you've got for that 1 minute. That will ensure that your muscle has been put under enough stress to contribute to the gradual yet continuous improvement this approach provides. Push yourself. If you did 20 squats the last two times, do 22 this time. Keep advancing. If the exercise feels too easy, then modify it so that it is not. Don’t worry about your shirt, you won’t be sweating in 1 minute but you should be breathing heavy. This will indicate that you’ve elevated your heart rate and your metabolism. Every time you raise your metabolism, you burn more calories. The more intense you perform the minute the more muscle you'll build and the more calories you will burn. Cumulatively, this translates to more lean tissue and less fat. Perfect!
