A 2007 STUDY PUBLISHED in the Archives Of Sexual Behaviour found that women were more attracted to men with toned arms, bulked shoulders and trim waist that conformed to the ”Golden Ratio”. That means if your waist size has a value of 1, your shoulders should be 1.6. Or, if your waist measures 29 inches, then your shoulders should be just about 46.4 inches.
To achieve the ”Golden Ratio”, you first need to address your diet and lose excess body fat – in the kitchen! A simple rule of thumb is, eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full, and eat consciously. A few years ago, I contracted E-coli, and it forced me to change my diet, which is a good thing given my age. These days I eat more fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish. I have limited my intake of sugar-sweetened drinks and fried foods, and there are no more pepperoni pizzas and Friday night fish and chips. I still drink alcohol, and I love dark chocolate. It’s hardly an ab-defining diet, but it works for me.
Everyone has their take on the best exercise for them. I love training in the water (Kun-Aqua), road cycling and JUMPGA (the yoga fitness hybrid). But I always incorporate doing press-ups (I use a rebounder to limit strain in my elbows and wrist). The joy of exercises like press-ups is that they can quickly be done anywhere and at any time, providing a whole-body workout without the need for equipment. A recent study over ten years involving over 1,100 firefighters in the US said press-ups was one of the best predictors of heart disease risk – above and beyond other types of bodyweight exercises.
In addition to press-ups, my other must-do exercise is squatting (again on a rebounder to save my knees). Squats are a great way to improve obveral strength and stability, working for multiple muscle groups, from your calves and quadriceps to your abdominals and glutes. Recent research suggests squats are one of the best exercises for improving brain function – it’s about intelligent exercise. According to recent research three to five minutes, three times a week, can be even better for your brain than 30 minutes of steady-state training, like a run or a walk.
Press-ups and squats don’t work for everyone. Especially beyond the age of 40, muscles, tendons and ligaments naturally lose some of their elasticity to a point where over-working them causes inflammation. Arthritis starts to set in, exercises become painful, injuries happen, and the joy is lost from having a good workout. By using my rebounder, I have adapted my routines to suit my body and minimise its stress.
GOOD TO KNOW!
- It is well documented that steady-state aerobic exercise alone has a minimal effect on fat loss. An Obesity study found that after a year of hour-long daily cardio sessions, partyicipants only lost 3.5 pounds – eating the same diet.
- High-intensity training affects overall fat loss more than others. A study found that men who performed sprint interval training for a total of 2.5 hours (including recovery) over two weeks had the same results as the group who performed endurance training for 10.5 hours over the same time frame.
• Combining aerobic exercise with strength training leads to more significant fat loss than aerobic exercise alone. A study showed that obese adolescents participating in a 30-minute strength-training plus 30-minute aerobic workout three times per week lost four times more fat than those who just did an hour-long aerobic training session at a similar intensity.
- In another study, this time from Penn State University, dieters all lost about 21 pounds. But the group who performed strength and cardio shed about six more pounds of fat than groups who didn’t exercise or who only did aerobics. The reason: The other groups shed muscle, too. Proper diet and cardio alone will make you weigh less, but weight loss includes losing power and zero athletic body shape. The good news is that strength training will preserve muscle so that when the fat is gone, you’ll have a muscular body to show for it.
- According to The Journal of Strength and Conditioning high-volume resistance training increased post-workout caloric burn by about 8 per cent for up to 72 hours.
FINAL WORD
You might not have given it much consideration before; when the weather is warmer, there is something incredibly stylish about a simple white T-shirt on a well-toned body. Bear in mind that Michelangelo’s David was created with the Golden Ratio. You don’t have to be 1.6, but the closer you get to that ratio, the better you’ll look in your white T-shirt.
