Then, in 1984, I attended a course at the Heart House in Bethesda, Maryland, the national headquarters of the American College of Cardiology. There, I heard a lecture by a brilliant researcher and charismatic teacher, Bill Castelli, who headed the world-famous Framingham Heart Study. Dr. Castelli told us about the results of the recently completed National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored Lipid Research Clinics Primary Prevention Trial (LRCPPT). This was the very first study to prove that lowering cholesterol could reduce heart attacks. At the time, the only known treatment for high cholesterol was an unpleasant, grainy powder known as a resin, which was taken several times a day before meals. Therefore, we were all very excited when Dr. Castelli told the conference that if we put patients on the very first American Heart Association diet, we could lower their cholesterol and end the scourge of heart disease in America.

We all returned home filled with fervor, ready to guide our patients to restored cardiac health and dietary wisdom. I came back to Miami confident in my new found knowledge of how to save my patients’ lives. My wife and I even joked that with heart disease out of the picture, I might be better off switching to a growth specialty, like plastic surgery. It wasn’t long before I learned that unemployment as a cardiologist was going to be unlikely.

I began counseling my patients on the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet advocated by the American Heart Association, but the results fell far below my expectations. Often, there was an initial modest improvement in total cholesterol with mild weight loss. This invariably was followed by a return of cholesterol to its previous level or higher, along with a return of the lost weight. This scenario was not only my experience but also that of my colleagues. It was reflected in the many diet-cholesterol trials documented in the literature: we were unable to sustain cholesterol and/or weight reductions using low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets. There were no convincing studies showing that the American Heart Association diet saved lives.

Over the years I had suggested most of the highly respected diets out there—going back to Pritikin and then through the various, more recent, heart-healthy low-fat regimens, including the Ornish plan and several American Heart Association diets. Each of them, for different reasons, failed miserably. Either the diets were too difficult to stick with, or the promise of improved blood chemistry and cardiac health remained just that—a promise. Discouraged, I had all but given up on advising my patients about nutrition, because I was unable to suggest anything that actually helped. Like most cardiologists in that period, I turned instead to the statin drugs that were just entering the market, medications that had proven extremely effective in lowering total cholesterol, if not weight.

But I also decided, as a last-ditch effort, that I would devote some serious study of my own to diet and obesity. Like most physicians, I was not particularly knowledgeable in the science of nutrition. So my first task was to research all the weight-loss programs out there, the serious scientific ones as well as the trendy attempts that topped the best-seller lists. As I acquired that education, I was also reading in the cardiology literature about the prevalence of something called the insulin resistance syndrome and its effect on obesity

The Benefits of Exercise

No amount of exercise can guarantee a long life, however, even moderate amounts of physical activity can improve the likelihood of a healthy life. Along with a positive attitude and a healthful diet, your fitness level plays a major role in how well you feel, what illnesses you avoid, and how much you enjoy your life.

Consider the benefits of fitness presented here and find one or more reasons to to commit to your own fitness program:

• Relives tension and stress
• Provides enjoyment and fun
• Stimulates the mind
• Helps maintain a stable weight
• Controls appetite
• Boosts self-image
• Improves muscle tone and strength
• Improves flexibility
• Lowers blood pressure
• Relives insomnia
• Increases “good” (HDL) cholesterol
• Reduces risk of diabetes
• Increases energy and helps decrease fatigue
• Reduces anxiety and depression
• Improves balance and coordination
• Helps prevent constipation

Are you ready to get Started?

• Any activity is better than no activity…and you never have to run a marathon. You can start with a 5-minute walk today, and presto! You’re started!
• Then, you can look for ways to liven up every day with a few minutes of walking, gardening, bicycling, dancing, swimming, taking the stairs, playing games, etc….
• Some people like to write down all of their activity on their calendar. Then they can step back and say,
  “I did it!”

Your Personal Fitness Plan

No one can prescribe the perfect fitness plan for you. You have to figure it out based on what you enjoy doing and what you will continue to do.

Consistency is the most important, the most basic, and the most often neglected part of fitness. Consistency in regular exercise or moderate activity delivers all of the fitness benefits.

A good fitness plan has 3 parts: aerobic fitness, muscle strengthening, and flexibility.

AEROBIC  FITNESS

Aerobic conditioning strengthens your heart and lungs. Good aerobic exercises include brisk walking, running, stair climbing, biking, swimming aerobic dance, or anything else that raises your heart rate and keeps it up for a while.

MUSCLE STRENGTHENING

Strengthening your muscles improves your work and athletic performance and prevents fatigue.
Muscle-strengthening exercises will also improve your posture and help you feel more energetic.

Resistance training, with free weights, weight-training equipment, or inexpensive rubber tubing, can quickly increase your muscle strength.

Other simple, safe, and effective strengthening exercises include bent-knee curl-ups, chin-ups, push-ups, side leg-lifts, and other calisthenics to improve abdominal, neck, arm, shoulder, and leg strength.

FLEXIBILITY

Stretching can increase your range of motion and reduce stiffness and pain. Stretching is particularly important during the cool-down phase after exercising when your muscles are warm.

• Stretch slowly and gradually. Don’t bounce. Maintain a continuous tension on the muscle.
• Relax and hold each stretch for a count of 20.
• Exhale as you stretch, to further relax your muscles. If stretching hurts, you have gone too far or you are doing something incorrectly.

It’s  helpful to note that eating frequently throughout the day can be very good for boosting metabolism. There are a couple of reasons for this.

The first reason is that people who tend to eat throughout the day do considerably less snacking. As a result, they tend to avoid the potato chips or candy bars that they might otherwise consume if they suddenly felt hungry.

People who eat throughout the day don’t tend to experience severe hunger pangs, because they don’t reach that stage.

The second reason, and the one that you can probably guess based on your understanding of metabolism, is that by eating throughout the day, you are constantly keeping your metabolism in motion.

It’s kind of like having a generator run all the time; it will simply use more electricity than if you powered it on 3 times a day.

Now, it goes without saying (but we should say it anyway just in case!) that just because it’s good for metabolism-boosting to eat frequently, this doesn’t mean that you can eat junk all day long!

Rather, if you choose to eat more frequently, then you’ll certainly need to be very aware of what you eat; because you can easily exceed your required amount of daily calories if you don’t keep an eye on this.

That’s why, if your plan is to follow the eat-more-to-burn-more approach, then you should keep a food journal that notes what you eat (and drink of course) throughout the day.

You should not merely know the calorie levels of what you eat, but you should know the overall nutritional values, too.

For example, if you’re on target to eat 50 grams of protein per day, then you want to make sure you reach this target and not exceed it (or come in below it).

In other words, merely focusing on calories is only half of the job. You will need to ensure that you’re eating enough protein, carbohydrates, fats (the good unsaturated kind!), and the other vitamins and minerals that your body needs in order to function at optimal levels.

Eat Early

We’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And in terms of boosting your metabolism, this is indeed the case! There are a couple of reasons why eating a hearty and healthy breakfast can boost metabolism and lead to weight loss goals.

The first reason is that people who eat breakfast are much less inclined to snack throughout the morning. For example, if you had a good breakfast of fruit and low-sugar cereal in the morning, your chances of visiting the vending machine at work around 10:30am diminish significantly.

Of course, as you recall from our previous discussion on eating more frequently, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t eat something between breakfast and lunch.

It simply means that, since you won’t be extremely hungry at 10:30am (because you skipped breakfast), you’ll be less inclined to eat anything that you get your hands on; such as a nice donut that your co-worker was kind enough to offer you.

In other words, by starting your day in a nutritious way, you’ll have more control over what you eat throughout the day.

The second reason is more aligned with metabolism-boosting. Studies have shown that metabolism slows during sleep, and doesn’t typically get going again until you eat.

Therefore, starting the day with breakfast is like kick-starting your metabolism. You’ll actually burn more calories throughout the day, simply by eating breakfast (hey, who knew?!).

Remember: as you eat your breakfast, control both the portion and the contents. You don’t want to eat to the point of complete fullness; because, remember, you want to eat throughout the day and you won’t be able to do that if you’re stuffed.

At the same time, beware of high-fat breakfasts. Studies have shown that high-fat breakfasts, such as those that include bacon and sausage, not only deliver lots of calories (there are 9 calories for every gram of fat, as compared to 4 for every gram of carbohydrates and proteins, respectively).

But they also can make you very hungry again, very soon! So in addition to having ingested a lot of fat (and hence a lot of calories), you’ll typically find yourself rather ravenous again in a few hours.

Alternatively, breakfasts that are high in fiber take longer to digest, and thus, the body won’t be hungry again for a while.

This is something to bear in mind; and it may explain why many people who eat breakfast find themselves painfully hungry by lunchtime; it’s not their “overactive metabolism” at work; it’s the high fat content, which has been swiftly digested.

Eat that yogurt, lose that weight? Not so fast…
For years the dairy industry touted studies presumably showing that the more dairy you eat, the more weight you lose. Did these ads and the “research” they quote tell the whole story? In a word, no. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection saw to it that the ad campaign went the way of the dodo bird, at least “until further researcher provides stronger, more conclusive evidence of an assosiation between dairy consumption and weight loss.”

But despite the fact that the ads were pulled off the air, the idea that milk promotes weight loss remains in our minds. So let’s take a look at the research that formed the basis for the claims. Most of it was done by one researcher, Michael Zemel, Ph.D., professor of nutrition and medicine at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and sponsored by the dairy industry. Although the headlines frequently proclaimed a link between dairy and weight loss in the studies, the fine print told a different story. One study, for example, found that those eating three servings of milk, cheese or yogurt did indeed lose a bit more weight, but what was lost in translation was the fact that those who lost weight were low in calcium to begin with (and therefor likely to benefit from added calcium) and were eating a reduced-calorie diet (500 calories a day less than usual).

Another often repeated news story announced, “Calcium and Vitamin D Linked to Weight.” But the details revealed that although postmenopausal women who take calcium and vitamin D supplements may gain slightly less weight that women who don’t, the effect was – get ready- .28 (that’s decimal point 28) pounds less over the course of seven years. Do the math: that’s anout 1/25 of a pound – slightly more than half an ounce – of weight annually.

What is true, points out Walter C. Willet, M.D., Dr.P.H., chairman of the department of nutrition at Boston’s Harvard School of Public Health, is that a diet high in dairy and calcium has been implicated as a risk factor for prostate cancer. Milk has also been linked to acne, and there is a possible connection to ovarian cancer.

Bottom line: By all means, get your calcium, from a variety of sources including sardines, green leafy vegetables and seeds. Just don’t think for a minute that drinking or eating dairy products is going to help you lose weight.

Of Milk and Men
The Prestigious American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study confirming milk’s ineffectiveness as a weight-loss food. According to lead author Swapnil Rajpathak, M.D., Dr.PH., “Men who increased their dairy/calcium intake did not lose more weight. In fact, they gained slightly more weight in the 12-year period.” Still, we do need calcium-particularly in combination with other, often neglected bone-building nutrients such as magnesium, vitamin D, boron and vitamin K. Fifteen minutes of sunlight a day on bare skin should help keep vitamin D levels up. Boron is found in almonds, avocados, and peanut butter; magnesium is in dark leafy greens, legumes, tofu, peanuts and unpeeled potatoes. Vitamin K is in Spinach, lettuce, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower and cabbage.

Well, let me tell you right now, it is not going to work. And if it does, you’ll more than likely end up lying in a hospital bed rather than on some gorgeous tropical beach. No matter how unhealthy you are as a result of of excess weight gain, you’ll be even unhealthier if you are attempting to lose that weight by depriving your body of the nutrition it needs to survive. Your goal should not be to lose weight really fast by fasting. Your goal should be to lose weight sensibly by changing your eating habits.

If you really want to lose weight, the first thing you have to do is stop using the “D” word. In our mind, the word “diet” suggests that it’s simply temporary. You may eventually be ready to return to the way you were eating before you went on a “diet”. And that’s the most important reason that fad diets don’t work. Because in the back of your mind, you are thinking that these good eating habits are merely temporary and shortly, you’ll be ready to go back to the junk food and everything will be OK.

Those fad diets always have you take away some food group completely from your eating plan. Some have you totally drop carbohydrates and others tell you to skip dairy products. But your body needs vitamins and nutrients from all of the food groups. And usually, one nutrient works along with another. When you are trying to lose weight really fast by eliminating a particular food entirely from your diet you’ll be depriving your body of a nutrient that it really needs for your survival. So, let’s merely think of this as developing new eating habits. Because the word “habit” makes you think of something you’ll not ever change! Or better yet, think of it as a life-style change!

You are going to have to eliminate some of the junk foods and unhealthy choices from your diet. But that does not mean you cannot sometimes treat yourself to a candy bar or an ice cream. Once you’re on the correct track and have increased your metabolism, your body will be ready to handle those special treats while not gaining ten pounds over night. So you do not need to fast or deprive yourself of your favorite foods forever. You merely need to learn to eat sensibly.

So you need to ignore those fad diets that have you living on grapefruit juice or eliminating 2 meals every day in an attempt to lose weight really fast. They either don’t work, you will gain all the weight back and then some, or you will end up seriously ill. Instead merely start making healthier choices to lose weight sensibly.

Recording information in your log

Some people benefit so much from recording their weight routines (and cardiovascular workouts) that they jot down information daily. Other people find the paperwork annoying and prefer to keep a log for, say, one week every couple of months as a reality check. No matter how often you use your log, jotting down many or all the following details is a good idea:

• Your goals: At the start of each week, jot down specific workout goals such
  as, “Push extra hard on back and biceps,” or “complete eight push-ups.”
• The name of each exercise: We’re talking specifics. Don’t just write
  “chest”; write “incline chest fly” or “vertical chest press.” This way, you
  know whether you’re getting enough variety. Plus, you’re forced to know
  the name of each exercise. We know people who’ve worked out for years
  and still refer to the dumbbell shoulder press as “that one where you
  push the dumbbells up.”
• Sets, reps, and weight: Note how many repetitions you performed and
  how much weight you lifted for each set. Suppose that you did three
  sets of leg curls — first 12 reps with 30 pounds, and then 10 reps with 40
  pounds, and then 7 reps with 50 pounds. You can note this by writing “3”
  in the set column, “12, 10, 7” in the reps column, and “30, 40, 50” in the
  weight column.

• How you’re feeling: We’re not asking you to pour out your emotions like
  a guest on Oprah. Just jot down a few words about whether you felt
  energetic, tired, motivated, and so on. Did you take it easy, or did you
  act as if you were in Basic Training?
• Your cardio routine: Record how much cardiovascular exercise you
  did — whether it was a half an hour walking on the treadmill at 4 miles
  per hour or 15 minutes on the stair climber at level 6. Also, note whether
  you did your cardio workout before or after you lifted weights.
• Your flexibility routine: Record the amount of stretching time and how
  your stretches felt. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can record the names
  of the stretches or come up with names for your standard stretching
  routines.

Analyzing your workout log

choose to record your information. Watching your progress over time also gives you a big boost. If two months ago you could barely eke out 10 repetitions with 30 pounds on the leg extension machine and now you can easily perform 10 reps with 50 pounds, you know you’ve accomplished something.

Not only does a diary keep you motivated, but also recording your workouts helps achieve better results. If you’re dedicating plenty of time to your weight training but aren’t getting stronger or more toned, your workout diary may offer clues as to why you’re not seeing results. Scrutinize your diary and ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I getting enough rest? Maybe you’ve been lifting weights every
  other day, but your body actually needs two rest days between workouts.
  An extra day of rest may give you more oomph when you lift.
• Am I working each muscle group hard enough? Your log may indicate
  that you’ve been neglecting a particular muscle group. Maybe you’re
  averaging only four sets per workout for your legs compared to six or
  seven sets for your other body parts. Perhaps that’s the reason your leg
  strength seems to be lagging.
• Am I getting enough variety in my workout? When you flip through
  your diary, maybe you see the words biceps curl three times a week for
  the past three months, but you rarely see any other arm exercise. Maybe
  you’ve fallen into a rut. Add new exercises or vary the number of sets
  and repetitions you’ve been doing. Or mix up the order of your exercises.
• Am I lifting enough weight? Maybe you never write down the words
  “tough workout.” Perhaps picking up the 10-pound dumbbells for your
  biceps curls has become such a habit that you forgot to notice that
  those 10-pounders now feel light.
• Am I doing my cardiovascular exercise before my weights or after?
  Maybe you’ve been stairclimbing for 30 minutes before your weight
  sessions — and, therefore, are pooped out before you even lift a single
  weight.

Download the Planned-Diet Workout Log

The trick here is to start slowly changing your eating habits. Tip: Once you’re off The Negative Calorie Diet, try to maintain a daily intake of 60 to 70% Negative Calorie foods of the total amount of foods you eat.

This is where the majority of dieters fail. After they do a terrific job of sticking to a diet, they resort back to their original eating habits. If you do this, it’s only a matter of time until you put the weight back on. This is the “yo-yo” effect you always hear so much about.

If you want to maintain your new found weight, you’ve got to start re-programming yourself into new, healthier eating habits. Think before you eat. If you must have a burger at the local fast food establishment, order it without mayonnaise. Use more mustard instead of mayonnaise and ketchup. Get a smaller burger and ask for extra lettuce, tomato, and onions. See how it works?

You’’re in charge now! Instead of that ice cold soda, have a glass of ice-tea or fruit juice. Instead of cookies and ice cream, try strawberries and bananas. Be creative! You’ve got more than a hundred foods to choose from.

When you dine out, try to stick more to Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian restaurants. They use a lot of Negative Calorie foods in their dishes. If you watch yourself, even Italian and Mexican food restaurants can keep you in the Negative Calorie mode.

Prepare plenty of raw vegetables from the list as snacks to keep you going. It takes a little work, but if you can keep your supply maintained and available, you’ll have a much better chance of keeping the weight off. Most people are simply not prepared. Most of us really don’t mind eating healthy. It makes us feel good. We know we’ve done something wonderful for our body. The problem is our schedules. We make time for appointments, we make time for each other, we make time for everything. Everything but eating right that is.

Pick your day of the week to maintain your new found weight by making that day your food preparation day. Cut up your fruit and vegetables, seal them up and toss ‘em into the fridge. Prepare enough for the whole week. Figure out how much you’ll need for each day and get to slicing and dicing!

Use non-stick pots and pans to prepare food that you used to fry. For instance, I love fried potatoes as part of my breakfast routine, but one day, I tried frying my potatoes without any kind of oil, butter, or margarine. I cut up my potatoes, threw ‘em in the frying pan, and after they were a little warm, started adding some water. For seasoning, I added Italian seasoning, garlic and onion powder. They almost came out like regular fried potatoes! In fact, I think they were better.

You’re limited only by your imagination. Try frying vegetables from the list in a mixture of water and beef or chicken broth. They’re great! Steaming vegetables is a great alternative to boiling and frying. Buy a wok!

Instead of salad dressing, keep using apple cider vinegar. You can also mix some nonfat yogurt with some water and apple cider vinegar and your favorite seasonings. This makes excellent vegetable dip and salad dressing.

When you bake a cake or brownies, add applesauce instead of oil. It really works! When you prepare spaghetti, forget adding hamburger, sausages, etc. Add black olives and mushrooms instead of meat. If you’re like me and have to have garlic bread with your pasta, use sourdough bread instead. Mix a very little bit of olive oil instead of butter or margarine with a few fresh cloves of garlic and bread!

The point is to start really looking at your foods before you eat them. A lot of the foods we eat aren’t really that fattening. It’s the way we cook them! Throw your cooking oil away! Get some extra virgin olive oil and use it sparingly. Honest, you don’t need much.

I really love to make my own french fries. I like to cut extra large wedges and fry ‘em up. One day, I decided to take my medium size non-stick pot and throw my wedges in without oil. I turned the heat up to medium and added salt, pepper, and my favorite, Italian seasoning. No oil! In about 15 to 20 minutes, they had browned very nicely. I pulled them out. Kind of a cross between regular french fries and a baked potato. It was great! Try it! Be creative!

Start making the change slowly. Figure out little ways to cut the excess fat and calories out of your eating habits. Start by cutting everything you do in half. For instance, cut your usual fast food intake in half. If you usually have a burger twice a week, now have it only once.

If you’re used to drinking two sodas a day, cut it down to one. If you eat candy, cut that in half. If you must fry some potatoes, cut your usual oil amount in half. Instead of a bowl of ice cream, half a bowl.

If you want to continue to increase your strength over time, studies show that trained individuals require multiple-set training of at least three or more. A trained person is someone who’s been lifting consistently for at least three months. In addition to increasing the number of sets, you should also vary your training volume and intensity over time with periodized training as explained later in this chapter. Increases in training should be gradual to avoid injury from overtraining.

However, if your goal is to become as strong as you can or reshape an area of your body, you need to perform more than three sets per muscle group. Some serious weight lifters perform as many as 20. (However, they don’t do 20 sets of the same exercise; they may do 5 sets each of 4 different exercises that work the same muscle.) See Chapter 21 for more guidelines on how many sets to perform if you’re an experienced lifter.

The principle of specificity of training determines how much rest you should take in between sets. Beginners should take all the rest they need because you’re just becoming acquainted with your body and want to avoid injury. New exercisers may take up to twice as long to rest as those who’re more experienced. The National Strength and Conditioning Association recommends that your rest period be based on your training goal. If your goal is to increase endurance and you’re lifting 12 or more reps, your rest period should be up to 30 seconds. If your goal is to increase size, and you’re lifting between 6 to 12 reps, you should rest between 30 to 90 seconds. If your goal is to increase strength and you’re lifting fewer than six reps, you should rest between two to five minutes. People who train for pure strength are going for all-out lifts — a very intense approach. Circuit training, which emphasizes muscular endurance or what is sometimes described as cardio-resistance  involves taking little or no rest between sets.

Snack:
Same old thing. Water first. Think about the snack. Do you really need it? If you do, have some celery first. More water after that. If the pang is still there, eat an apple. It’s okay. But only one.

Lunch:
A bowl of the soup. Any fruits and vegetables from the list. Eat until full. Don’t stuff. Drink some more water after lunch.

Snack:
Here we go again. This is the last time. Have as much water as you can stand before hitting that snack. After the water, you pick. Apple or celery. Pretty neat huh? Try to have some more water after your snack.

Dinner:
Soup. Your last bowl or two. Yeah, have two. Create a nice salad with any of the vegetables from the list. Apple cider
vinegar for dressing. Tonight you can add salt, pepper, herbs and spices to your salad. That doesn’t mean bacon bits, croutons, or sunflower seeds. For dessert, have any combination of fruits from the list. Eat until you’re full.

You did it! You’re there! Try to take another walk tonight. Your metabolism is running in high gear now! Feeling a little energetic? That’s good. It’s working. You are burning fat big-time! Tomorrow is not stuff yourself with fast food day. Relax. Think about what you want to eat tomorrow. Throw in some Negative Calorie foods with it. Don’t mess up all your fine work. Savor your success!

• Strength: Muscular strength is the maximum amount of weight that you
  can lift one time — also called your one-rep max. For example, if you can
  squeeze out only one shoulder press with 45 pounds, that’s your one-rep
  max for that exercise.

• Endurance: Muscular endurance refers to how many times you can
  lift a sub-maximal weight over a period of time. Muscular strength and
  endurance are related, but aren’t the same. Muscular endurance is handy
  for everyday tasks like carrying a heavy box from your house to the car.
  Don’t confuse muscular endurance with cardiovascular endurance, which
  is the stamina of your heart and lungs. Muscular endurance affects only
  the muscle in question and lasts only a minute or two; you improve the
  staying power of one muscle rather than the stamina of your entire body.

• Specificity: Your muscles develop specifically in response to how you
  train them. For example, if you want to get stronger hips and legs, you
  should do squats, not push-ups. Similarly, if you want to become a better
  runner, ultimately you need to practice running. Weight training can
  complement your running program, but can’t replace the hours you
  need to spend at the track.

• Overload: To increase your strength or endurance, you need to train by
  pushing your muscles to do more than what they’re used to. You can
  overload your muscles by lifting a challenging weight load, doing a lot of
  reps and sets, or increasing how many times per week that you train.

• Repetition: This term, often shortened to rep, refers to a single rendition
  of an exercise. For example, pressing two dumbbells straight above your
  head and then lowering them back down to your shoulders constitutes
  one complete repetition of the dumbbell shoulder press.

• ROM and movement speed: Perform most of your exercises through the
  fullest range of motion (ROM) possible of your working joints to stimulate
  the muscles most effectively. Movement speed should be slow and
  controlled. Anyone who lifts weight for general fitness should perform
  four-second repetitions — two seconds to lift the weight, stop the motion,
  and two seconds to lower it. Stop for a moment at the mid-point of a rep
  to avoid using momentum, instead of your muscles, to power you through.
  Don’t pause for more than a split second at the end of a repetition —
  otherwise, it becomes a rest. Each rep should flow seamlessly into the
  next. Athletes and those who’re lifting for extreme strength or bulk may
  do slower or faster reps depending on their goals.
• Failure: To achieve overload, you need to take your muscles to failure.
  That is the level of fatigue where you can’t do one more repetition with
  good form. For instance, when you can’t complete the full ROM or lift
  your fist all the way up one more time when performing biceps curls,
  you can’t do one more rep. Time to end your set.
• Recovery: When your muscles reach failure at the end of a set, you need
  to recover or rest before you can challenge that muscle to work again.
  This is also referred to as the rest period. Similarly, after you’ve worked
  a muscle group in your workout, you need to allow it to recover for at
  least 48 hours before you train it again.
• Set: A set is a group of consecutive reps that you perform without resting.
  When you’ve done 12 repetitions of the dumbbell shoulder press to
  failure and then put the weights down, you’ve completed one set. If you
  rest for a minute and then perform 12 more repetitions, you’ve done
  two sets.
• Routine: This term encompasses virtually every aspect of what you do
  in one weight lifting session, including the type of equipment you use;
  the number of exercises, sets, and repetitions you perform; the order in
  which you do your exercises; and how much rest you take between sets.
  By varying the elements of your routine — say, decreasing the number
  of reps or adding new exercises — you can significantly change the
  results you get from weight training because of the principle of specificity.
  Your routine (also referred to as your program or your workout)
  can change from one exercise session to the next, or it can stay the same
  over a period of weeks or months.
• Progression: Overloading your muscles by lifting a weight to muscular
  failure stimulates your muscles to get stronger. This is the principle of
  specificity in action. To continue to overload your muscles and keep
  making progress, you need to find new ways to challenge your muscles.
  This is why you need to change up your program or routine. In general,
  wait six to eight weeks to see visible results from your training when
  you’re new. Internal changes start to occur immediately in response to
  your first training session.