So I’m over a month in and I’ve completed just over 3 full cycles of the 7-minute workout (7MWO). I think I’m now a believer. For those of you who haven’t been following along, let me recap. I’m a registered dietitian who is great about following a healthy diet and staying within my target weight range, but who fails miserably where it comes to exercise…I’m constantly in a time crunch and simply don’t feel that I have the extra hours needed to devote to exercise and staying (okay… getting ) in shape, despite how important I know it to be.
So, a couple months ago when I heard from a friend about how she got in shape (she lost 76 pounds in 9 months!) in a program that advocated strength training for only about 7 minutes a day, 3 to 4 times a week, I thought it was worth checking out, both as something that could fit in my own schedule, as well as something I could advocate for my clients. To read my earlier reports, here are post 1 and post 2.
This past 10 days have been different from the days previous. For the first few weeks, I was really just trying to get a baseline more than anything. Much of the time I wasn’t using the correct weight for the exercise…how are you supposed to know what weight will be heavy enough that you can only do between 8-12 reps until you actually start testing them out? And it took me a few weeks to really figure out how to do a couple of the exercises properly (hello “knee pushups”). So 7minutes was a misnomer. This time, however, I knew what I was doing, and that makes a world of difference.
The results? AMAZING! Here are just a few examples:
Bicep curls: Jan 21 weight 15lbs 10 reps Feb 6 weight 15lbs 15 reps Bent flies: Jan 25 weight 10 lbs 8 reps Feb 8 weight 10 lbs 10 reps Hamstring curls Jan 31 43 reps Feb 14 50 reps
For other exercises I’ve been able to go to higher weights or graduated to more difficult exercises, which are hard to quantify here. But without exception everything has improved, and I haven’t exercised any body part more than once in 10 days (sometimes longer). 10-50% improvement with just a few minutes worth of effort? That’s simply too cool for words!
But before I have you thinking it’s all peaches and cream, the program is not without its hiccups.
I can’t seem to make time in my schedule “every other day”… I work better with fixed days for working out. So, I’m doing it 3 times per week, and that doesn’t seem to be a problem. Considering the number of days I missed because I didn’t have a fixed schedule, I’m probably doing better now.
Some of the exercises are dreadfully boring! You just have to keep doing them until your muscles fatigue…on more than one occasion I gave up before that point because it seems to go on forever. And now that I’m stronger, they take even longer! I suspect I’ll be dropping a few exercises just so I can stay within the 7-10 minute time-frame. I’m currently doing the “beginner, no equipment” exercises. I think the exercises with equipment probably target particular muscle groups better, letting you complete the exercises faster.
Finally, the 7MWO is a network marketing business, and there’s lots of advertising on the site to join as an associate, which I find mildly irritating. When I initially signed up, I kept getting e-mails about the compensation plan etc which I wasn’t remotely interested in. I figured out how to change my e-mail settings so I wouldn’t get any of those e-mails, so that has helped.
In my opinion, there are far more positives than negatives. So, in summary, I’m impressed! These guys seem to know what they’re talking about. For maximum muscle building, you don’t
need to work as hard, and you do
need to rest your muscles a lot
more than has been conventionally thought…that’s something I can totally get behind!
Winner of "Best Alternative Medicine/Healing" in 2020
All Rights Reserved | Heal From Your Past
Built With Love By The Awesome People at Flowerpot Marketing