This is this first thing my wife told me when I got her into heavy barbell lifting. The thing about it is people don’t understand how it works, and I will admit I used to be one of them. Conventional “gym wisdom” states that doing many reps of light weight will “tone” your muscles, and doing few reps of heavy weights will bulk you up like a body builder. But that is completely backwards! By doing heavy sets with few reps, you build denser, stronger muscle fibers. This means smaller muscles, that are stronger, increasing your strength to size ratio. Doing high reps at low weight promotes muscular hypertrophy (big puffed up muscles that aren’t as strong relative to their size).

Now if you are worried about getting all big and bulky, and just want nice firm and strong muscles, stop doing so many reps! It’s not going to “burn out the fat” in the target area, its just going to shred the muscle fibers, making them get all puffed up! And for you ladies who want a smaller butt, and slender hips, get off the elliptical and hit the squat rack. Do heavy squats and create a denser and stronger posterior chain. (read smaller and stronger butt and thighs). Oh and while you have the barbell (shouldn’t be in too high demand in most gyms these days…) you might as well do some overhead presses and dead lifts.

The thing about doing these natural and functional lifting movements is that they will make you strong in a functional sense. You will be able to lift things in real life. And training for function beats training for esthetics any day. It’s easier to gauge progress, stay motivated, keep it fun, and best of all, it will get you better esthetic results then training only for looks!

If you don’t believe me look at gymnasts, sprinters, and athletes. Don’t they all look ripped? Don’t they have the esthetic you’re most likely training for? Do you think they train specifically to look like that? No, they train for function, and that look just happens. It just happens as a result of doing functional, useful movements, with intensity. Couple that with a clean diet and you will build muscle, and drop fat.

If you don’t believe me here’s what I want you to try. Pace out a length of about 50 ft. Get a stopwatch. You’re going to do walking lunges for 50ft, and then 50 air squats. Then Walking lunge back 50ft and 50 air squats. Do this 5 times, as fast as you can, full range of motion, and report back here on how your butt, thighs, hips and core feel. Then report back in 2 days and tell me if you can feel it still.

Here’s a refresher on the proper range of motion and technique.

Squats: Weight in your heels, butt goes back and down until below parallel. Keep a tight core in order to maintain proper lumbar curve in your spine. (no dog pooping squats). Then reverse the movement, keeping the angle your back makes with the floor, pushing thru your heels, lift your hips up and stand to full extension.

Lunges: Take a step forward, drop your rear knee to the ground about a fist width from your front foot. Don’t bang it into the ground, just touch and go. Stand up and take another step and repeat. Make sure you keep your torso upright, with a tight core, maintaining proper back posture.

Chris Walls is a Personal Trainer at the newly opened Crossfit Kelowna training centre. For more information on Crossfit, please visit www.crossfitkelowna.com