How many of you exercise on a regular basis?

How many of you don’t exercise because you don’t have time? My name is Ana Nieto; I am a personal trainer and co-founder of Transform Fitness, a training facility in midtown Manhattan. I train my clients with low speed high intensity training, which means lifting heavy weights at a very low pace. This method of training is called “SuperSlow.” I first discovered this training as a client, and I quickly realized one of the main benefits of this technique: a very minimal time commitment of 1-2 times per week. When I began being trained with this method, I worked out just once a week for half an hour. Within three months, I went from a size 8 to a size 6…and I made NO CHANGES in my diet!

The workouts are designed to help a person lose fat and gain muscle. The biggest gains I had personally came from the increased muscle mass and strength all over my body. For example, I suffered from chronic lower back pain from scoliosis, but after I began training it disappeared. For the first time, I was able to beat my father at tennis – and my mother wanted to know what had I done to improve my posture so dramatically. (Being one of the tallest girls among my group of friends, I was always slouching.)

So, with a 30 minute per week workout, I was able to…

1. Lose fat
2. Gain muscle
3. Improve my athletic performance and posture

I was initially attracted to this technique given my nursing background, because it was developed initially to help women with osteoporosis. They discovered that the exercises were causing these women to develop muscle at an incredible rate! This was because they were lifting as such a slow pace. So, interestingly, safety was the motivation for such a slow speed, but incredible muscle gain was an additional result. If you only have only 30 minutes a week to work out, I believe in my heart and soul that this technique is what you should do…in many cases, it is all you will even need. However, if you want to take it to the next level, you can certainly complement this workout with your other favorite form of exercise whether it be yoga, running, or playing sports.