Weight Training Monday

In addition to your new lifestyle of food portion control, you also need to increase your exercise.

Every day you should do some aerobic activity - walking, biking, playing tennis, even playing golf, but every Monday, Wednesday and Friday you should also do some weight training.

I've written about this before - the goal is not for you to bulk up - if you eat a normal diet you will not bulk up - those extremely muscular men and women you see achieve that look only by ingesting quantities of food supplements and muscle builders.

Any woman with kids wants to be able to pick up her toddler and carry him or her around a store for an hour... that's your natural weight training! But a systematic program is better.

For a woman, biceps and triceps are important, as well as back exercises - to prevent sagging breasts in later life. By firming the tricep muscles you eliminate the "widows weeds" - the flabby bit under the arms.

There's nothing like situps for keeping the stomach flat...keep your knees bent and do "stomach crunches" rather than situps - you can do more, it's easier on your bavk, and it works.

Leg exercises are simple: leg extensions for the tops of your thighs, leg curls for the bottom of your thighs and calves.

If you've been following my program but haven't gotten into weight training yet, today's the day to start.

No need to invest in a bowflex or anything of that nature - visit your local Play It Again Sports or even garage sales to find weight benches with leg attachements, barbells and dumbbells.