Heave Ho!

I'm a cardio junkie, you can tell me I have to run for two hours, I'm there, three hour kickboxing class, sign me up!  Tell me I have to lift weights and I am gone faster than the Road Runner. I find weight training tedious and boring. But here is the thing about weight training...you see results quickly!

Three days a week I drag my weary butt to the gym to weight train, casting longing looks at the runners, the cyclists, the power walkers...my heart pleads for them to take me with them but alas I have the attend to the task at hand. Ugh.

The benefits of weight training are endless, improved strength, posture, increased metabolism, improved bone density...need I go on?  So if I want to continue well into my 80's carrying ridiculously large handbags that weight 20lbs I need to lift the weights. So how do I motivate myself to do it?  Here are my tips:

1. Mix it up...I change my weight training program frequently. I may only do the same program twice, maybe only once..as soon as I hear the little Devil on my shoulder say...let's skip this and go for a run I plan something new.
2. Make it efficient...I can commit 30-40 minutes to weight train, after that I'm like a group of 4 year olds at a school  pageant, uninterested, lolly-gagging and getting grumpy. I do compound exercises that target multiple muscle groups at once.
3. Play some music! Music is a huge motivator for me, put on the headphones (does that make me sound old?) and crank it up.
4. Track your progress...I keep track of how much I lift each time, it really helps to see how far I've come.
5. If you can't make it to the gym throw in a DVD.  There are hundreds of DVD's on the market, even if you only do them a handful of times they can give you ideas for the next time you are at the gym.
6. Hire a trainer, no this isn't a plug to hire me, a professional can put a program together for you that will help you see results faster.
7. A pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat, but it takes up less space on your body. Who wants jiggly bits when you can have tight toned bits?
8. When I see that I can curl as much weight as the guy next to me I am pumped for the rest of the day.
9.  Don't fear the bulk, ladies your body is not going to turn into a man's! Muscles are sexy and some studies have shown weight training will only increase a woman's muscle mass 10 - 20%...if you want to be a body builder you will train and eat in a very specific manor, doing bench presses at the gym three days a week isn't going to give you Arnold's pecs.
10. Suck it up! I whine about lifting weights sometimes...but at the end of the day I just suck it up and get it done.

Have fun and ladies the next time you are at the gym and feeling like you shouldn't be in the weight room with all the guys throwing around hundreds of pounds remember this...they are comparing themselves to the guy next to them, they are not even looking at how much weight you are lifting.