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By this 4-day program you can develop and maintain strong muscles, a nice body, good condition, good flexibility and a good mental health.The author himself has used this program in several years with successful results. In this program you exercise in a different way each of 4 consecutive days. You repeat this program continually, but more powerful each time. You train 30 - 90 minutes each day.
If you are not used to training, you start out easily and you gradually increase the use of muscular power and work intensity as your total fitness develops. The program comprises exercises for all parts of you. If you are uncertain of how to to do the individual exercises from the short description, you can easily find more detailed descriptions on the Internet or in books.
The presented program is however constructed in such that the buttocks and the backside of the thighs will get somewhat more attention than other muscles in the body, because these muscle groups play a great role for a handsome body shape, and because they tend to be underdeveloped for most persons.
It is important to warm up in the beginning of each session. The customary way of doing this is to run or cycle some minutes. It is probably better to warm up by doing the same exercises as in the rest of the session but with light power and steadily work heavier during the whole session.
DAY ONE - MUSCLE BUILDING USING MODERATE BURDEN
This is a day for muscle building, with moderate weights, but with many repetitions so that you feel tired in your muscles after each series. The exercises this day are only done with the help of your own body weight, a couple of manuals and a chair. Therefore they can easily be done at home.
You repeat the following sequence at 5 - 8 times. Begin by using light weights to warm up and add weight each time you go through the series until you do the last two times with 65% of the weight you can manage. Each exercise in the series contains 10 - 15 repetitions depending on the exercise. If you feel this is too much or too little for you, you can adjust the number of repetitions:
A - Lifts of your lower body with the help of your legs - 10 repetitions: You lie at your back, flex your knees up and place your feet at the floor. Then lift up your lower body as high as possible by pushing with your legs. You can increase the intensity by laying some weight upon your stomach. Have some thick cloth between your stomach and the weight. You can also increase the intensity by only pushing with one leg and having one leg stretched out and then doing the other leg.
B - Curls with your arms using manuals - 15 repetitions: You can stand or sit. Hold your elbows at the sides of your torso. Then curl up your arms with a manual in each hand.
C - Squats - 15 repetitions: Stand straight and squat as deep as you can by flexing your knees: Do the squats with both legs without weights for low intensity, with one leg at a time or with manuals in each hand for higher intensity.
D - Lifting your body with your arms - 10 repetitions: Sit with your knees flexed up and with your hands towards the floor at hour sides. Push down against the floor with your arms so that you lift your body. For moderate strain, let your feet be on the floor, for harder strain let your feet follow your body up when lifted.
E - Pushups - 10 repetitions: Hold yourself horizontally with your front side down. Push yourself up and down with your arms. By letting your knees touch the floor, the work gets light, but with only your toes and hands touching you must use more power.
F - Leg curls using a chair - 10 repetitions: You lay on your back, have your legs lifted and your knees bent in a right angle. Place your heels upon a chair seat. Then lift your torso up by pressing with your heels towards the chair seat. For greater intensity use only one leg at a time.
G - Stomach curls - 15 repetitions: Lie down at your back and lift your upper body, while having your lower back on the floor. While doing this you can let your legs lie along the floor or have them flexed up.
H - Lifting of weights over your head - 10 repetitions: You stand straight. You lift two manuals or a weight bar from the height of your ears so high that your arm reaches.
Between each round you take a pause to stretch out a little all the body parts where you feel most tired. When all rounds are done you should stretch out some minutes all the parts of your body.
DAY TWO - CONDITION TRAINING
This is a day for condition training. The best condition training are outside activities like running, cycling, swimming or skiing. Ball play also gives good condition.
For smooth activities like running, cycling and swimming there are two basic approaches and you should try to vary between these approaches from time to time.
One approach is one long session where you some while act with law intensity to warm up, then gradually increase the intensity to the maximum, and slow down again at the end.
The other way is interval training where you begin with a couple of short rounds with moderate activity. Then you have 5-10 rounds with high intensity.
For more staccato activities, like ball play, you should first warm up a while with easy running. Then you go into play with your mates.
When the active training is done, you should stretch out some minutes all the parts of your body.
DAY THREE - MUSCLE BUILDING USING HEAVY BURDEN
The exercises this day are mostly the same as those of the first day, but with heavier weights and fewer repetitions. These exercises are best done in a gym studio, but you can do them at home with some adjustments.
You repeat the following series 7 - 10 times. Begin by using light weights to warm up and add weight at each time you do the series until you do the last two times with 90% of the weight you can manage:
A - Leg pushes in halfway laying position - 8 repetitions: You push with your legs against resistance in a partly lying-sitting position. Gym studios usually have equipment for this type of exercise.
B - Arm curls - 8 repetitions: You sit or stand. Your elbows should be at the side of your body or lay at some firm point in front of your breast. You hold two manuals or a weight bar and curl up your arms while lifting the weight.
C - Squats - 8 repetitions: For easy warming up or if you are untrained, you can do them just without carrying extra weight. To make the squats harder, you can carry manuals in your hand, use a weight bar on your shoulders, or do them with one leg at a time.
D - Lat pulldowns - downpulls with your arms - 8 repetitions: Gym studios usually have some equipment for pulldowns. As an alternative to pulldowns you can sit with your knees flexed up and push down against the floor so that you lift your body.
E - Hyperextensions - 8 repetitions: In this exercise you use your back and buttock muscles to lift your torso up from a hanging position. By holding some weight with your arms, you will make the exercise heavier and also train your shoulders and upper back.
F - Leg curls - 8 repetitions: Leg curls will train the back side of your legs. They can be done in sitting position or laying on your stomach dependent on the equipment you have available.
G - Stomach curls - 8 repetitions: You sit and curl your torso forward against resistance using some equipment for this purpose in the gym studio. Another way is laying on your back with your legs pointing upwards and then curl up while pointing your fingers towards your toes, and if possible touch your toes with your fingers.
H - Lifting of weights over your head - 8 repetitions: This exercise is good for your upper arms and your shoulders. You can lift manuals or a weight bar.
Between each round you take a pause to stretch out a little all the body parts where you feel most tired. When all rounds are done you should stretch out some minutes all the parts of your body.
DAY FOUR - FLEXIBILITY TRAINING AND MENTAL CARE
At this day you rest form hard training, but stretch out, relax, do some meditation and stress down. Here are the principles for the stretching exercises you do this day:
- You should stretch out al parts of your body. When stretching out, you should bend or twist in all the natural movement directions and angles for each body part.
- It is good to begin the stretching session with some active exercises with moderate stretching effect to make your muscles and joints warm. You swing, bend, twist and roll with your arms, legs, shoulders, torso and pelvic region so that every movement gives a moderate stretching effect.
- Then you do slow exercises with a stronger stretching effect. You swing, bend or twist each limb and your torso until you feel resistance and a little more so that you feel the stretch, and then hold the stretch in 30-50 seconds. You can make this stretching even more effective by doing it together with a friend and helping each other. Repeat each stretch at least 3 times with a pause between.
- When beginning a slow stretch you begin by emptying your lungs completely for air, and then breath deeply in when you go into the stretch. When holding the stretch you breath effectively, but in a calm manner. In this way the exercise will also benefit your chest wall, lungs and diaphragm.
As slow stretching exercises you can also use yoga exercises. You can find descriptions of many exact stretching exercises in specific books or websites. But you can also use your creativity and compose exercises that specifically fit you, as long as you use the principles listed above, and you can also improvise during each session.
At this day you must also do something to get complete relaxations mentally and physically. Yoga also has methods for body relaxation. Meditation is a good relaxation method both for the mind and body.
