Workout I Did: Super-Set Full-Body Workout

David Allan Coe may have written the perfect country western song, but Tom Venuto, author of The Body Fat Solution came up with the perfect muscle-building, metabolism-boosting full-body workout. Here’s why I like it:

•  You can do it at home or in a gym with just a few sets of dumbbells and your own body weight.
•  It’s quick. Forty-five minutes max, including warm-up.
•  User friendly, basic exercises are appropriate for most everybody.
•  No burnout. This adaptable routine has loads of variations. As long as you’re working the same muscle you are free to switch up the exercise. (So if you’re sick of lunges, do step-ups instead!)

Super-Set Full-Body Workout: How It Works

Full-body workouts get fast results. They cause the greatest calorie expenditure and rev up the metabolism. The only problem is they can also result in injury from over use and take forever to complete.

The semi full-body split uses alternating exercises and movement patterns every other workout to avoid these potential pitfalls. For example, if you do squats on Monday, you’ll do deadlifts on Wednesday. That way you are still working the lower body but you’ve moved the emphasis from the quads to the hamstrings.

Super-sets get the job done fast and switching the exercises keeps the workout from getting stale. Alternate Workout A with Workout B and make sure to take at least a day off in between. I do a three-days a week — Monday/Wednesday/Friday. Aim for three super-sets of each pair of exercises and rest a minute in between each set.

If you are just starting out go for higher reps (12 to 15 per set) and lighter weights. If you’ve been working out for a while, up the weights and only do six to 10 reps; always stay with the higher reps for abs, cause we love ‘em so much.

How do you feel about full-body workouts? —Karen