Join certified trainer Maricris Lapaix for a 30-minute advanced total-body strength workout that will leave you feeling accomplished! In this routine, you’ll start with a dynamic warmup and then move on to some next-level circuits, including oblique crunches, planks, chest presses with glute bridges, under-grip rows, and more challenging moves that will make you feel the burn.
This workout combines resistance and weight strength training that will have you breaking a sweat.
All you need to get started is a mat and a pair of light- to medium-weight dumbbells. Lapaix is using a set of 3-4kg dumbbells, for example, but you can grab any weight that feels good to you.
Check out the video, and read a little bit more about the importance of strength training, below.
Lapaix’s outfit: Tully Lou
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Why Strength Training?
Strength training, as opposed to cardio-based workouts, engages muscle groups. It’s important to overall health and fitness because it builds muscle endurance, decreases abdominal fat (or “visceral fat” associated with heart disease and diabetes) and boosts your mood.
Related: Curious About Giving PNF Stretching a Try? Here’s What You Need to Know
Strength training even makes your bones stronger. Weight-bearing exercises place short-term pressure on bones, which triggers a message to cells in charge of bone mass to increase their output.
Maintaining long-term bone health is particularly important for women. According to The Royal Women’s Hospital, one in three women over 60 years old will experience a bone fracture due to osteoporosis. Humans stop increasing bone mass around the age of 30, at which point, bone mass begins to decrease. Women lose up to 10 per cent of their bone mass during the five years following menopause, coinciding with a decline in bone-protecting estrogen.
While diet and supplements can help with protecting your bone mass, strength training remains one of the best ways to increase it.
