What do you call your exercise?

Minus the muscle of my 40s, but still having fun!

These days, they’re calling it “metabolic resistance training,” or MRT.

By “them,” I mean certain Internet trainers who act like they’ve discovered a new way of working out.

Sigh. MRT is just a fancy new name for the same methods used by The FIRM^® videos years ago, which is sort of how I started down this exercise road, actually.

The FIRM^® people call it “synergy training,” by the way.

FIRM^® videos combine cardio work with “body sculpting,” using light weights to work your muscles while getting your heart rate up.

Twenty years ago, when I tucked my children in for a nap, I’d pop a FIRM^® video into the VCR. I had several videos, so I varied them. I think I did about three a week, allowing a day of “rest” in between.

And I can say this—it worked. Assuming you’re not gorging yourself in the kitchen, the videos got you lean and toned. But not overly muscular.

It’s likely today’s online trainers are reacting to the way guys have worked out for years, as encouraged by bodybuilding magazines. First, you do your weights. Then, you get on the bike or treadmill and stay there for 30 minutes or longer.

But women have been doing this “new” kind of training for years. Using light weights, moving from exercise to exercise in almost circuit fashion.

So, I have to smile. What’s old is new and repackaged.

My story

I eventually joined the local Y, because summer arrived and it became too hot to work out in my un-air-conditioned living room.

But also because I imagined I could lift more than the heaviest weights I could manage while doing the videos.

I wanted to slow down my exercise to see how strong I could get. The videos had whetted my appetite.

So I bought a woman’s bodybuilding book and started going to a real gym (not my living room). And I did get a lot stronger.

When I first started using weights in 1988, a year after my son was born, I used 3-lb dumbbells to do a very short, very simple weight routine I fashioned from magazine articles.

These days, I use up to 25-lb dumbbells on the same exercise (chest flyes) I used the 3-pounders for.

All those years in between, I have been steadily reaching for the heavier dumbbells, and steadily getting stronger and stronger. 

My two cents

There are all kinds of ways to get lean and toned.

You can do it in your living room, using a DVD or not using a DVD.  

You can take a class.

Or you can do traditional exercises in the gym, squeezing cardio in either during your weight workout or afterwards.

It all works.

You have to find out what you enjoy.

Because what I enjoy might not be right for you. And what you enjoy, your best friend may not love, either!

And, guess what? What works at age 45 may not work at age 55 or 65. For a lot of reasons!

Don’t think you haven’t figured out the “perfect” exercise system.

Most systems work, as long as you buy into them, a performance expert once told me during an interview.

Bodybuilding? That works. Weight loss programs? They work.

Sometimes it takes a leap of faith to try something new, but what do you have to lose but a little time?

And what’s a few months when you’ve got years ahead of you?

Be open to change. Try different things. Don’t expect “perfect.”