Look Buff in the Bedroom

Flex your muscles and strut your stuff with these six body-building moves

By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

There’s nothing a woman loves more than a strong man to hold (and behold.) And it’s easier to impress her than you might think. You can up your flex-appeal with a few easy strength moves that target the muscles she loves to touch—in your back, shoulders, chest, arms and oh-so-squeezable butt. The exercises stimulate muscle growth. And with healthful eating (including a sufficient amount of carbs and protein), your muscles will grow bigger and stronger, helping you to look better in the bedroom.

This workout focuses on building bulk, also known as hypertrophy, and strength. Strength training is based on the principle of overload: You challenge muscle fibers to contract with slightly more force than usual. As a result, the body receives signals that it must adapt to the increasing load. During the first weeks of training, the muscles respond with neuromuscular changes that help them to become stronger by becoming more efficient in the way that the fibers contract. Over time, provided that sufficient nutrients are supplied to help fuel the anabolic growth, your muscles get stronger by growing bigger (more protein is added to the muscle fibers).

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to supplement what you eat—either by downing whole chickens at one sitting, or by using protein powders or bars. Although a novice body builder does need more protein than the recommended daily allowance of .8 grams of protein per every kilogram of a person’s body weight, the average person who eats normally already gets up to 50 percent or even double that amount in their normal diet. So it’s not necessary to add more. In fact, if you overdose on protein, you’ll simply add more calories than your body can use and it will be stored as fat. A smart muscle-building strategy that you should employ, however, is to never go into a tough workout hungry, and to eat some carbs and protein in the hour or two following your workout (yogurt and fruit, a peanut butter sandwich, or nuts, for example).

Get ready for your flexiest bedroom bod ever!

HOW TO DO IT:

• Choose a weight that is heavy enough to challenge your target muscles, but not so heavy that your joints feel strained. Start with dumbbells that are at least 8 to 15 pounds, depending on the muscle group targeted. Gradually work up to using 15 to 30 pounds.

• Start by building up a base of muscular strength and endurance by performing one to two sets of eight to 12 repetitions of each exercise, and work up to doing three sets of eight to 12 reps. Do this workout two to three times a week with a rest day in between. This initial fitness-building phase should last from six to 12 weeks.

• Once your muscles are trained, you can gradually challenge them by performing two to three sets of eight to 12 repetitions on two days a week, and, using slightly heavier weights, performing two to three sets of five to eight repetitions on one day a week. Always leave a rest day in between—recovery periods allow your muscles to repair and grow stronger.

• Modify this workout to match your fitness level. Follow the recommended moves, or adapt them as needed. If you feel any strain in your joints, do not ignore it and try to work through the pain. Instead, modify how you perform the exercise by doing fewer reps or using lighter weight, or substituting a different move.

• Warm-up first by moving through all the moves one time without weights. Then perform one set with light weights (3 to 5 pounds). Then start your workout.

• What you need: weights and a stability ball