Last week I went to the gym with my good friend AnnMarie and asked her what she does to build up her hamstring muscles: my new area of toning-up focus. That’s when she took me down to the big, scary muscle-man weight room on the bottom level of Tostrud.
Is it just me, or is that place intimidating? To AnnMarie, it isn’t. The epitome of confidence, she marched right up to what I think is called the Smith Machine (the one that holds a large bar on which you can put more weight on the ends if you so choose), showed me how to position the bar behind my neck, and proceeded to do three sets of 10 squats.
Squats are a fantastic lower body workout, working your quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves. Position your feet shoulder-width apart and toes slightly pointed outward (this works your inner thighs, too). Keep your back straight, head up, and bend your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor, then go back up again. It sounds simple until you realize that there’s a large, 45-pound piece of metal on your back around squat number two. ?
Next, AnnMarie showed me the dreaded deadlift that works even more muscles than squats: the traps (trapezius), lats (latissimus dorsi), lower back, glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves. Put the barbell in front of you and grab it with a shoulder-width grip. Bend your knees and scoot close to the bar to keep your back straight (this is very important!). Push up with your legs and straighten your body, then bend your waist forward and lower the weight back down to the ground. We did 3 sets of 10-15 lifts.?
Okay, so what’s kind of weird about all this – other than the fact that I was surrounded by a bunch of big muscular college boys – is that I used bodybuilding.com for my research info. Stealing guys’ workout stratagems is a great idea to switch-up your workout! According to Lucy Danziger, the editor-in-chief of Self Magazine, only 17% of women do strength training, which means the remaining 83% who don’t are missing out on a metabolism-booster, calorie-burner, muscle-sculpting workout. So ditch the machines and use the barbell like I did, because it exercises several more muscles!?
The day after my escapade to the weight room, my legs definitely felt a little funny and it wasn’t until two days later that I could walk without wincing. Now the soreness has completely subsided and I have started to incorporate these two exercises into my workout routine with hand-weights. My legs definitely feel stronger! And while I haven’t been back down to the weight room yet, it really isn’t as intimidating as it looks. If you want to have some strength of body, you’ve got to have some strength of mind, too. Be confident, and show those boys that anything they can do, we can do better!