Women's Health

You... Want to tone up He... Wants to bulk up (but not become a hulk)

Do-it-together strategy
Don't worry, lifting weights isn't going to turn either of you into a bulging muscle freak - unless you really want it to. What weight lifting does for you depends on the approach. To simply get lean and strong with weights, work large muscle groups like the back, chest and legs. "They burn the most kilojoules," says exercise physiologist Sheila Kalas.

Join your bloke when he's doing the following fat-obliterating exercises: squats, leg extensions and leg curls for the lower body; chest presses, flies, lat pull-downs and rows for the chest and back. To tone up and kill kilojoules, do one to three sets of 12 to 15 reps, using enough weight that your muscles are fatigued (but not spent) when you get to the last rep. To build mass, he should do three to five sets of 8 to 10 reps, using enough weight so that by the end of the last set, he can't do one more rep. Sick of waiting for your turn on the machine? Finish with a few time-saving, kilojoule-busting tandem moves like the three at right from fitness pro Michael Curry.

May 3, 2012