oh god please lift weights!

Happy Monday fam.

Nick’s letters reader and subscriber who I am not gonna name here had embarked on a new fitness journey at the start of this year.

She talked with me on the phone for about half an hour on Sunday evening. We discussed some fitness stories and tactics and principals. To my amazement, she reported feeling and looking better even despite loosing about only 3kg in six months of lacking a proper plan.

All she wanted at the start was to cut off the bad baby fat. And guess what? She did a good job reducing that fat.

Anyway, we had talked a lot and circled back to one major point.

The point: Every fitness journey requires a PLAN.

At the beginning of her new journey, this lady leaned heavily on doing cardio exercises for fat loss. When she visited gym, she used to do a lot of jump and step and dance. More than she was lifting weights. Even when she was lifting weights, she was neglecting some significant muscle groups without knowing it. This happened more because she never knew about planning fitness and on top of that her trainer was a bit clueless about the anatomy of muscles.

I was surprised while on that call with her!

Eiih! Ati she had never laid on the bench to perform a powerful upper body exercise known as the benchpress. God! how was that possible? No wonder she kept mentioning that her tummy fat was not reducing the way she wanted it.

Something about the benchpress is that it is a mainly a chest exercise. It is mostly done and loved by men. So I suspect that is why she never tried it.

But we all know that the anatomy of muscles is similar in both men and women!

There is no gender limit. However, truth is that women respond to weights in a different way. Not like men.

Women cannot grow a chest like that of men by simply pressing weights. No!

But women can massively benefit from doing the benchpress. Apart from training the chest, this exercise also indirectly trains the core and abs. Something many women desire to have. This means that women who are still carrying baby fat around the tummy can do the benchpress to help reduce that fat. I am not a fitness expert. But that is something that loyal nick’s letters reader Lynn Thoya mgiryama who is an expert fitness coach would agree with me! I mean, we may disagree with her on other many things, but agree on this one.

Anyway. What really is a fitness plan?

Look at it as a structured approach to achieving your fitness and health goals.

When you go to the gym, make sure you have a plan. While you are making it, make sure to include the following 4 basic elements.

1. Type of exercises.

2. Duration and frequency of workouts.

3. Intensity of workouts.

4. The progression over time.

In the end, I came through with some advice for the lady. And I am going to tell you about the most important thing in a fitness plan.

To me, the type of exercises in the plan is the most important part.

Depending on your fitness goals, the type of exercise you choose can vary. But if you want to reduce body fat, look better in clothes and also feel better, I highly advise from personal experience that you train your strength through what we call resistance training.

Resistance training can also be called strength training. We talked about that in a past letter. You can read it here.

Let us look at the most important part of a fitness plan.

Here are 6 basic exercises that you must include in your plan.

1. Benchpress.

2. Overhead press.

3. Deadlift.

4. Rows.

5. Pullups.

6. Squats.

Of course these are not the only exercise you will do. But I list them because these 6 exercise fall under what we call compound exercises. What it means is that they work out more that one group of muscles. And they are highly taxing. And they result to more gains in strength which then can keep you in the best body shape.

When you do this exercises with the right intensity, duration and progression, you are going to become stronger. And remember, strength is a prime factor of loosing body fat and becoming lean.

So please go and lift weights. Go use this plan. Write these exercises down and remind your trainer to include them in your weekly workout. I guarantee you amazing results because it worked for me. It has worked for hundreds of thousands of others around the world.

I have never seen a person who lifts weights and is not happy. Do not fall victim for the home workouts on your living room or balcony. Weights are superior.

Good luck.

-nick