What Skincare Can Teach You About the Gym
Just as with your nighttime skincare routine, you must know the proper order for doing your exercises to get the best results.
Knowledge is power!
And this concept certainly applies to creating a body that you will be satisfied with and feel good about for the rest of your life, not just during the time of your high school reunion.
Why is it so important to learn the basics and tricks for working out, eating well, and overcoming mental challenges?
When you’re trying to get into shape, the rule isn’t “The harder you work out, the better your body looks.” It is actually quite the opposite. I am sure you have had the experience of consistently working out harder and harder, yet barely seeing any changes or results.
One of the reasons you may not be seeing any progress could be that you’ve been using the wrong “layering.” Just like with your nighttime skincare routine, it is extremely beneficial to know which product comes first: the cleanser, the toner, the serum, the eye cream, the Retinol, and the moisturizer. If you are using the right products but in the wrong order, they will cancel each other out, and you’ll end up wasting lots of money and time on your ineffective nighttime routine — or, worse, you might end up with damage like skin irritation. The same is true with the precise alchemy of the order of exercises for shaping our bodies. With the wrong layering, you might actually gain weight instead of losing weight, which is frustrating but not rare. I have had so many conversations with women who pour their hearts out because, after two months of hard workouts, they have actually gained weight.
Working out the smart way is all about “layering.” (What do I mean by working out the SMART way? I am talking about accomplishing the most beneficial workout in the least amount of time…while not killing yourself in the process!)
Here are three main principles that you can (and should) apply in order to create workouts with the most beneficial effects:
- If you want your workout to also enhance weight loss and not just increase muscle tone, then start with cardio (running, biking, walking) and then do your weights workout afterwards with high repetitions. So, your layers in this case will be: 1. Cardio, 2. Strength training superset: combining and alternating exercises targeting upper (chest, back, arms) and lower (legs and glutes) body, 3. Abs supersets: obliques, lower and upper ab muscles. (The best time to burn any extras from your mid-waist area is at the end of the workout when your body is hot and has no other calories to use except the ones from your waist.) Just picture that slab of butter on a hot pan, melting away!
- If your goal is muscle definition (let’s say you want to see a little more muscle on your thighs to look good in your shorts), start with a “generic” leg exercise that involves the bigger leg muscle groups, like squats or leg press, and then follow it up with a more specific leg exercise like leg extensions, which will create that “burning” effect: that’s the moment when you begin defining your muscles. So, in this case, the layers would be: 1. Big muscle group exercises (to make them tired first), 2. Smaller, targeted muscle group exercises and leg pulses using just your body weight for resistance (after you’ve made those big muscles tired, now you can work on those smaller muscles; if you’d started with the smaller muscles, the big muscles would keep trying to take over the work, and you would never get to those little guys), 3. Cardio (since you want to build more muscles, you need to use your energy for the muscle toning and then use whatever is left on the cardio).
- If you don’t have time to do cardio and warm up for your weight workout, you should start with your specific, smaller muscle group exercises and then gradually “wake up” your muscles for the bigger resistant workout. Then, finish the workout with a short 10–15-minute intense cardio session at the end. So, the layers in this case are: 1. Small muscle group exercises, 2. Big muscle group exercises, 3. Cardio.
As you can see, the third example of “layering” is exactly the opposite of the first example. In order for your workouts to be effective, it is important (I say — SUPER important) to know the right layers for your specific circumstances. Otherwise, you are cutting your results by 50% or completely sabotaging them.
As I am getting older, I am becoming an ‘efficiency snob.’ I try to get right to the bottom of everything so I can perform or accomplish my tasks in the most effective way, because my time is priceless. Although I do want to feel good in my body, I don’t want to be spending hours working out. Like I always say, my workouts are “in-and-out,” but only because I know the right layers!
Work out smart, not hard! Know your layers!
And always feel free to ask if you need help with your layers.
For more tips or coaching please contact me at: heavenlybodyafter40@gmail.com
