How does the program work?

The basic principle is simple: the most effective way to build strength is to make your muscles work harder than they normally do, forcing them to perform at or near the limits of their capacity. If this is done on a regular basis, they respond to the heightened demand with enhanced capacity. In other words, they get harder and stronger. Apart from their intrinsic desirability, stronger muscles indirectly produce many other benefits, including more rapid resting metabolism, increased bone density, firmer support to joints, lessened susceptibility to overuse injuries.

The most basic details of the program are:

1. Each workout is brief, often only 20 minutes, never more than 25.

2. The workouts are performed on MedX strength-training machines.

3. We perform only one set per exercise, each set lasting no more than 90 seconds, often less. A workout will normally consist of 5 to 7 exercises.

How can such a brief workout be effective?

Because of its efficiency. A traditional workout may call for 3-5 sets of 10 repetitions for each exercise. When you allow for rest periods between the sets, each sequence of 3-5 sets takes at least 10 or 15 minutes to complete. But that quarter hour will normally entail no more than about 100 seconds of actual work. Our 90-second set lasts about as long and is usually more demanding.

Why only once or twice a week?

Because no system of strength training works well unless you give yourself time to recover. Gains in strength occur not during the workout itself, but afterwards, as your body responds to the new demands you're putting on it. Interrupting the recovery undermines the response. In a way it's like healing from a cut. If you pick the scab, you subvert the healing process. A once-a-week workout of sufficient intensity yields all the health benefits that strength training can produce. Twice-a-week schedules produce more rapid changes in body shape and are also indicated in some special circumstances (such as rehabilitation, high cholesterol, hypertension, obesity, etc.).

What kind of results can I expect?

You should notice significant changes within 6 to 8 weeks. Most people gain muscle tissue while losing fat. The scale may spit the same number back at you, but you'll look different and feel different. Many women drop a dress size; men take their belts in a notch. Since you're leaner and firmer, people may ask if you're on some kind of diet, even before your weight has changed. You'll feel better because you're stronger. Even if you can't yet leap tall buildings in a single bound, you will scoot up stairs that used to leave you breathless. Once these initial changes set in, the rest is up to you. Here, as in most things, your goals are your own to set. How long it takes to reach the destination depends on where you want to go.

I just want to get toned and not bulk up. Won’t this workout make me bigger?

No way. The idea that if you want to get toned, you should do lots of repetitions with light weights is one of the most widespread misconceptions about strength-training. The truth is pretty much the opposite: the best way to gain strength without adding bulk is to lift the heaviest weight you can handle slowly and in low volume. High-volume strength-training (in other words, a lot of reps) will add bulk if the weight is high enough; if it isn’t, you’ll just be burning some calories while doing little or nothing for your muscles.