Fitness: Body Weight Lifting Part I

So, as I've ramped up my workouts and cleaned up my diet, I've learned that it's not all about cardio.  Sure cardio is good for the body, especially the heart.  And it allows me to burn off calories.  BUT if I want to keep the weight off, tone my body, and do something about my metabolism, I need to be doing some sort of weight lifting.

I am not all that familiar with weight lifting.  I didn't even know where to start really.  I have my little 3 lb and 5 lb hand weights.  And I do bicep curls with them.  But that was pretty much the extent of my knowledge of anything requiring weights.

Lucky for me, someone on MFP introduced me to TwoHundredSquats.  It's a six-week training program that allows you to increase your lower body strength by gradually building up to doing 200 squats in one workout.  The site shows the proper form for a squat, has you do an initial test, and then gives you a six-week program for building up to 200 squats.

I was surprised to find that in my initial test, I could do 28 squats!  I'm now through week one of the program and can definitely feel that I'm working most of my leg muscles in doing this workout.  Looking forward to getting to 200 at a time!

At this same website, they have programs for push-ups, dips, sit-ups, and pull-ups.  I'm also doing the one for sit-ups.  I eventually want to do the one for push-ups as well...but I'm ashamed to say I can't even do ONE PUSH-UP from my knees.  My arm strength is so non-existent!  So, I've picked up the 3 lb and 5 lb hand weights.

Tune in tomorrow for another website on Body Weight Lifting that I really like.