Exercise is enjoyable if you let it be. Don't look at your workout as if it were a week's worth of yard work. "It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger, or you'll lose all the heavenly glory," Bruce Lee used to say. He hit that nail on the head, for sure. A workout can hold a lot of challenges, a few yuks if you're with the right crowd, and you could prove yourself to have just a wee bit more warrior inside you than you thought.
One thing that most everyone wants to know at some point in their workout is, "Is this the best exercise (machine, execution, etc) that I can find?" What I'd like to do today is share a few opinions regarding "the best" thing (there really isn't one) you could be doing in the gym.
The best cardio exercise is ... OK, I am swimming with an anvil tied around my neck already, but let me say this; those Kenyans are thin for a reason. Running long and hard burns a lot of calories (100 per mile); any machine that tells you that you burn more calories than running does so for a reason - to make you like it and buy one. Running is the most difficult thing to do; that's why people come up with a million excuses not to do it! I like cross trainers, StairMasters and Arc Trainers; switching from one to another every 20 minutes and really going bananas for each session is the best way to shed body fat. And remember, nobody training to win anything is reading a book while they do it.
The best weight exercise is...I would like to let you all know that moving big weight makes your muscles stronger and bigger. You have the greatest opportunity to move weight by performing compound (multiple joint) lifts; lifting weight using many muscles over a large range of motion. Squats, deadlifts, bench presses, clean and overhead presses - the more simple and brutal the exercise, the better bang for your buck. Cables are used to connect telephone polls, OK?
The best thing that you can do is realize that it took a lot of neglect and eating crap to get you where you are; tons of hard work and eating the same good foods over and over is what it takes to change that. I know of a lot of exercise machines, but there isn't a time machine in my gym. Look forward and pack a lunch - this is a long ride.
Darin St. George is a personal fitness coach at Gold's Gym in Natick. Visit his Web site at www.myspace.com/darinstgeorge.
author: Darin St. George