Ultrafit Magazine

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Editorial from the latest edition.

Resistance training – and that includes weights (machines and barbells) and bodyweight exercises amongst many – is arguably the best way to be fit for your sport, fit for life and ‘fit to go’. You’ll develop stronger, more powerful, more injury resistant and more shapely muscles. You’ll also protect against osteoporosis (thinning of the bones), and achieve a body that will be much more capable of lifting, carrying and moving with agility as the years roll by. So if there are so many compelling reasons why you should resistance train why do so many people eschew it for CV exercise?

Women, in particular, seem to be averse to resistance training – for them a 30min low intensity effort on the exercise bike constitutes their training. Although this regime will reduce body fat overtime, in extremis a ‘workout diet’ based solely around aerobic work will potentially result in a shapeless, ‘curveless’ and often ‘tired’ looking body. Think of a marathon runner, slender they will be and in possession of a superb set of hearts and lungs, but aesthetically it’s not the best-look. At ultra-FIT we’ve been espousing the benefits of resistance training for over two decades and ‘yes’ we do advocate CV work, but for general fitness and body shaping purposes we believe that resistance training should come first. Consequentially, we’ve packed this issue full of resistance workouts of all kinds. With beach holidays just around the corner, part 2 of our Beach Ready workout – which has separate workouts for guys and girls – uses resistance training (and some CV work) to get you ready foryour trunks or bikini – see page 98. We’ve also our 6-week Body Transformation workout, written by our latest contributor, top fitness trainer and fitness model Natalie Muntean. Natalie is living proof that ‘resistance is indeed futile’ if you want to build a great body. Her workout is designed to suit all levels. Elsewhere on page 51 we’ve our ‘3-way, split super-sets workout’. Patrick Dale’s article shows you how to workout with weights in order to balance your muscular development and your appearance and will ensure that your joints are optimally supported to avoid potential strain and injury.

Fitness Express on page 58 is all about ‘taking your medicine’ – well that’s actually a medicine ball. This humble and often neglected piece of resistance kit is a great way to add some variety to your workouts. It’s modelled by top Olympic weight-lifter Sunny Brar. Sunny is in line for Commonwealth Games selection. Weighting in at under 63Kg (her weight category), she can clean 85Kg – she’s proof as a strong woman, you can still look
great too. Speaking of looking great we were swamped with great looking bodies – we’ve had over 100 people enter our fitness model search. Look out for progress reports and snap shots of some of the entrants on our website and over future issues.

And finally, just to show that CV training is still important turn to page 76 to find out just how important the air is we breathe for peak endurance performance. And we have a race report on the ultra-FIT Tri-Challenge – our very own half and three-quarter Olympic distance event, which took place in May, in the most glorious of conditions in Eton. Turn to page 26 to see what
happened and get a taste of the action.

So, don’t resist, emphasise your resistance training, if you don’t already and ease back on the CV work a bit and you will reap all the benefits of an all-round fitness lifetsyle.

Regards,

John,
Editor