How to Shape Your Body

If you’re new to the gym scene it can be quite an intimidating process to start a workout regimen. If hiring a personal trainer is not financially possible, then it is important that you understand some core principles of shaping your body the way you desire.

Manipulating the Resistance

Many people automatically assume that the more weight you add as resistance, the better chance you have of achieving your desired outcome. That is not entirely true. The amount of resistance you apply to a muscle or body part should coincide with the shape you ultimately want to achieve.

For instance:

If you’re looking to slim down an area and make it appear to lengthen: With a desired outcome of slimming down it is important to focus on more repetitions with a decrease in resistance. You decrease the resistance by either decreasing the tension in your resistance bands, or by decreasing the amount of weight you’re using.

So if you were looking to slim and lengthen body parts… do double the amount of repetitions at a decreased resistance level. This will give you longer, leaner looking muscles, rather than the stocky-built up muscles that higher resistance gives you.

If your goal is to bulk up a particular area: In this case you want to do the opposite. You want to increase the resistance by increasing the tension bands or increasing the amount of weight you’re lifting. You also want to do fewer repetitions with more of a power motion to them.

Adding muscle to an area is achieved through fewer reps and higher resistance. When your goal is adding muscle you need to gradually increase the resistance. It is important that you condition your body to handle the heavier weight.

If your goal is to tighten or firm an area: To tighten an area it is more important that you increase the intensity of the workout. You don’t increase the intensity by increasing resistance, but instead, by increasing the speed at which you do the movements.

If you’re looking to firm or tighten an area do more sets and limit the amount of rest in between sets. This almost gives you the feel of a cardio workout.

If your goal is to develop symmetry: Symmetry is a major factor what makes something appears attractive to the eyes. Symmetry refers to the balance of shape, size, and proportion of muscle on both sides of your body.

To achieve symmetry it is important that you increase sets, reps, resistance, and rest time evenly for both sides of the body. Even if one arm or leg is naturally stronger… make sure you let the weaker body part catch up before increasing resistance or reps for the stronger body part.

This is just a basic guide for shaping your body. There are many books and video programs available that will give you more details about what specific exercises you should be doing for the body part you’re most looking to shape.

The most important factor is any workout regimen is consistency. In the beginning it might feel awkward and unnatural to be at the gym… but eventually that feeling will subside and you will begin to see some real gains and results.