Lifted Heavy Today – ChaLean Extreme

Daily Fit Tips

I lifted heavy today working out with Beachbody’s Chalene Johnson and her awesome Push Circuit 3 strength training routine from ChaLean Extreme. As with all of Chalene’s weight lifting routines in this program, Push Circuit 3 consisted of nine different exercises along with some breakdown sets.

This workout targeted the legs, chest, and back. My back muscles are screaming right now as I write this post. Chalene constantly pushes you to lift heavy enough during this phase to fail between six and eight repetitions. That sounds easy, huh? Well, Chalene’s reps are slower than any I have ever done working out in the gym.

Lifting weights slowly and with purpose causes you to do a few things. First, your mind is totally focused on the muscle that you are lifting. When you pull weights in a rowing exercise for instance, your mind is on the muscles flexing your shoulder blades together. In the past when I have used a pulley system or back machines for rowing, I thought about my hands gripping the weight, my arms pulling the resistence and depending on the rowing machine, I might have even used the momentum of my upper body to force the weight back. Ugh!

That brings to mind the second reason I have learned that lifting slowly is helpful. When you lift slowly, you visualize perfect form in your mind’s eye. You can be your own personal coach and ensure your back is straight and your shoulders are up throughout the pulling movement.

The third reason that just comes to mind without even thinking is your muscle fibers stay engaged (contracted) for a longer period of time. Chalene teaches you to hold at the top of a movement and not to let the weight come all the way to a rest at the bottom of the movement. That means the muscle you are exercising works harder because it stays engaged not only through a single rep but through the entire exercise.

There are many lifting techniques out there. There are numerous exercise programs, exercises, and trainers. Pick up a copy of Muscle and Fitness or Fitness Magazine and you cannot help but agree that the variety in fitness training keeps them publishing new material month after month.

I like Tony Horton’s famous words in P90X. He said that we should keep mixing it up to create muscle confusion. When our muscles adapt to their current workload, they need something to change to continue to get stronger. In ChaLean Extreme, Chalene teaches that “muscle burns fat”. She wants you to go heavy to keep the workload changing as your muscles get stronger.

I love both P90X and ChaLean Extreme. They are so alike and so different. I saw results with Tony Horton. I am seeing results with Chalene Johnson. Muscle does burn fat. Muscle confusion is important. Keep pressing play!