LIFTING
WEIGHTS: NOT JUST ANOTHER FAD
In recent years, women and men looking for
self-improvement, living in balance, feeling young,
exuberant, and joyful have been discovering weight
training as an important part of a healthy
lifestyle. Women especially understand the
connection between weight-bearing exercise and
longevity, since research has shown that weight
training can offset bone loss after menopause by
increasing bone density.
What is less well known is
that each muscle has a direct
link to the correct
functioning of an organ in the body.
Just by actively training with weights, a woman can
help get her system healthier and protect herself
against diseases commonly believed to be an
inevitable part of the aging process.
If better health isn't reason enough
to take action, proof that
weight training
increases metabolism
and does more than aerobics to burn fat has
been sending us to gyms and clubs in record numbers
during the last few years. Although this is good
news, choosing the right program and the right
facility has become a daunting task; new gyms spring
up every season, tempting us to join and partake of
their excellent programs and classes. A bevy of
machines promise to mold and shape our eager bodies,
revealing that beautiful person hiding inside us.
The story often goes like this...
EVOLUTION OF THE WEIGHT-TRAINING NEOPHYTE
Act 1: The decision.
That does it! I'm going to work out on a
regular basis! We take action...
Act 2: The
honeymoon. We find the perfect
fitness center and shop for classes and services
offered. We chat with others over the benefits of
this nutritional program or that class and begin to
throw together our routine. Since working out builds
muscle, we begin to look better and feel more fit.
After awhile, we hit the wall...
Act 3:
Reality sets in. We get frustrated
and confused, might start feeling sore and even
experience overuse injuries. Now it’s time to
consult with the professionals and find out about
our club’s pay-as-you-go services such as personal
trainers. For a fee, we learn that we can hire
someone to provide us with a program of exercises
that will target specific muscle groups
systematically, someone who will meet us at the gym,
stand by and goad us into action by making us
perform...
Act 4:
Damsel in distress: A personal
trainer to the rescue! We decide that a personal
trainer is exactly what we need to discipline our
efforts, so we suck in our breath and hire an expert
in fitness to take charge of us. We conscientiously
put in our time, pay our trainer to make us do our
reps and sets, and assume that we are taking care of
ourselves. Many of us will stop here because we are
patient, diligent and busy. But some will begin to
wonder if it's really worth it and start to slack
off...
Act 5: The
roller coaster ride and our demise...Maybe
our bodies aren’t quite turning out as we had
dreamed, or maybe we don’t shed the weight we
originally hoped we would lose by working out. But
we accept it--at least for awhile--until life gets
too busy and complicated. Then working out becomes
another item on the “to do” list of an overwhelmed,
overextended person who now has to lift weights and
log 2-3 hours in the gym doing aerobics to feel good
about herself. In the case of a person with low
self-esteem, the purpose of going to the gym
transforms itself into earning the approval of the
trainer. As women, when we aren’t doing well and
can’t achieve the level of performance demanded of
us, we often feel like failures, even if the trainer
says it’s ok to slack off a bit. The guilt begins to
set in, we feel more stressed than before and beat
ourselves up for the money we are spending only to
find ourselves worse off than ever. We’ll probably
quit that scene, forget exercise and working out
until things get bad again and we repeat the whole
cycle at another gym with another trainer.
Unless you happen to have met up with one of
Stephen Hercy’s former students, many of whom can be
found confidently working out at Gold’s Gym in
Venice, California, or find a magazine article
published about him either at home or abroad, the
idea that there is a revolutionary way to achieve
the body of your dreams might have eluded you.
Stephen Hercy is a renowned
International Body Designer who brings 35
years of experience in the field of physical fitness
to you. Through his own experience in transforming
his tall, fourteen-year old body into a muscular,
masculine physique, he understands what motivates a
person to transform the body. Years of working out
in gyms and professional academic training gave
Stephen the opportunity to observe women and men
engaged in all types of body-building exercise. Keen
attention to detail and a deep interest in the work
of Dr. Carl G. Jung, led him to conclude that women
should not work out like men. From these notions,
Hercy was led to develop a unique approach to body
design that is diametrically opposed to the
targeting of obvious problem areas used by personal
trainers. The results of this incredible system are
real and proven. From celebs to housewives, Stephen
has transformed the bodies of ordinary women into
proud-walking models of feminine grace and beauty.
WEIGHT TRAINING WITH THE HERCY
RXT+ FACTOR SYSTEM OF BODY DESIGN
When you meet Stephen, you will immediately
sense a difference: Stephen understands that you
have within you a personal divine design. His
revolutionary approach involves creating what he
calls “an individualized body design, which is a
choreographed set of specific movements with weights
that will sculpt your body into its perfect form.”
In this design, which will take him long hours of
intense concentration and study of your
musculoskeletal structure to create, he will correct
those problems by removing the causative factors in
overuse injuries and by developing those muscles
that have atrophied from lack of use. His system
will realign the posture caused by the effects of
aging and, through realignment of the posture, your
body will begin to transform itself into a new and
shapely figure.
The goal that motivates most women to work out is
to acquire toned muscles. Women who come to Hercy
start off by wanting tone, but as they begin to
notice results, many want to go further and achieve
definition and contour. In the
RxT+ Factor System of Body Design,
getting better muscle definition requires increasing
strength by working the existing muscles while
simultaneously developing the muscles you don't
have, which include interconnecting muscles. Muscles
are what Stephen calls "the landscape of the body."
Working them sets a process in motion: strength
builds, metabolism increases and remains at a higher
level over time, causing the body to burn fat and
shed excess weight. Weight training according to
Hercy's prescription will produce a more balanced
feminine physique as the muscles become toned,
supple and gain both definition and contour.
Woman unfamiliar with weight
training may have avoided it for fear of bulking up,
or acquiring large muscles. Medically speaking this
is not a concern, since women do not have enough of
the male hormone testosterone to create the kind of
muscular bulk associated with weight lifters.
However, a woman working on her own or with a
personal trainer will develop an unbalanced physique
if the workout is based on targeting specific areas.
Training muscle-to-muscle does not take into account
the overall design; only the existing muscles, and
not interconnecting muscles, are developed.
WEIGHT-BEARING EXERCISE VERSUS AEROBIC EXERCISE
AND STRETCHING. Let's take the
example of women who have been actively doing
aerobic exercise for a long time, yet feel
frustrated because they do not get the kind of
results they expect for the amount of time and
energy expended. Stephen has observed that these
women have great legs but do not know how to take
care of them. The hours they spend hours doing
aerobics develop the lower body while the upper body
remains essentially unchanged. The net result is
that the body lacks uniformity:the lower body is
that of an athlete and the upper body is that of an
ordinary person.
A personal interview with Stephen provides the
opportunity for you to hear and become sensitive to
the fact that the process of achieving the
definition that will reshape your body requires an
architect's eye and intimate knowledge of structural
design. By following Stephen's blueprint that is
unique to your body, weight lifting will produce the
elegance of physique so earnestly desired.
One of the most stunning results of the
RxT+ Factor System of Body
Design comes through strengthening the
upper body. As strength increases, muscles forced to
lift more resistance than before will adapt to a
higher level of demand by becoming stronger and more
defined. The working of specific muscles according
to the unique formula of the
Hercy RxT+ Factor System actually
moves tissue under the scapula, which allows the
back to flare out and create a waistline on a woman
who never had one. Through modification of bone and
tissue, upper body musculature develops, posture
improves, shoulders widen, and the entire body takes
on a more balanced look.
But improved appearance is only one aspect of the
changes that take place with weight-bearing
exercise. Although we all dislike the look of
rounded shoulders, slack underarms and flat, sagging
breasts, weak back muscles and loss of muscle tissue
in the chest and arms can lead to serious medical
problems. When muscles atrophy, organs to which they
are attached can begin to malfunction. Although
aerobic activity enhances the transportation of
oxygen through the body, it does not prevent the
loss of lean muscle tissue in the upper body; in
fact prolonged endurance training actually causes a
decrease in overall muscle tissue. The only way to
get back the lost muscle tissue is by having the
muscles contract more than they are used to by using
more resistance. As the muscle gains strength and
tone, the size of attached tendons, ligaments and
bones increases. So it is not only functional
strength that benefits from weight training, but
also structural strength.
Osteoporosis, which leads to
brittle bones and
misalignment of the vertebral column,
sets us up for injury and disease. Medically
speaking, you should be concerned about maintaining
good health and preventing osteoporosis, realizing
that as one ages, the progression of this condition
can be avoided by following a proper regimen of
weight-bearing exercise. What you need to know,
however, is that walking, swimming, running, and
even yoga and the Pilates system, have no properties
to regenerate new bone density or growth.
The important word here is proper, since all
weight-training
systems are not created equal! You
need the Hercy RXT+ Factor
System, which allows you to get strong
enough to lift adequate
weight to develop the muscles you don't have so
that key muscles and muscle groups are challenged to
contract more than they are used to contracting.
Stephen compares working with low weights to
developing a business with no capital to run it
properly! You need to
get strong muscles by lifting heavy weights, but you
need the Hercy RxT+ Factor completely integrated
System of Body Design to reach that goal safely and
comfortably!
You may say that this is all well
and good, but the bottom line is that you hate
working out. Stephen’s answer to this complaint is
truly insightful since it is derived from the
teachings of Dr. Carl Jung: when a woman says she is
not motivated, it means that her body has
deteriorated to the point where emotional issues
overpower her and sap physical strength. The first
time one of Stephen’s students does her program, she
will immediately experience an
increase in her physical
strength, which will make her feel
successful. The positive feelings produced by this
success will override the emotional inertia and
reawaken archetypal images of strength that lie
dormant in the unconsciousmind. Increased physical
strength will lead to motivation that results from
the reawakening of self-esteem.
HOW THE RXT+ FACTOR SYSTEM OF BODY DESIGN DIFFERS
FROM WHAT PERSONAL TRAINERS DO
Hercy's prescription for positive transformation
involves taking an overview of the whole body, quite
like the perspective of a yoga master. In the
RxT+
Factor System,
your body is not seen as separate pieces to be
targeted for weight training, but rather as the
reflection of the person you are.
While in the gym, Stephen has observed women with
trainers straining to lift weights much lower than
they are capable of lifting. Their contorted faces
show how obviously uncomfortable and out of control
they feel as they strive to complete the number of
repetitions the trainer has prescribed. The trainer
is applying what he or she has been taught about
weights, which involves training muscle to muscle.
Theoretically an exercise could be textbook correct;
in reality the body is a unique and integrated
assembly of muscles, nerves, tissue and bone. So the
perfect textbook exercise for developing a given
muscle could be totally irrelevant to you, either
because of previous injury or some subtle aspect of
your physique which your trainer has overlooked.
The trainer will give you this
exercise even though it has nothing to do with you,
and though you may feel uncomfortable doing it, you
will be encouraged to keep at it.
THE RXT+ FACTOR SYSTEM OF BODY
DESIGN SYSTEM AND PERSONAL EMPOWERMENT
For Stephen Hercy, body design means taking
care of the details. Through his expertise and
thorough knowledge of physiology, Stephen enables
his students to tune into their feelings and get
comfortable with weight training. Performing an
exercise with a particular machine should be like
stepping into a comfortable pair of shoes that fit
your foot exactly as they should. Like shoes that
don’t fit--that pinch, slip and slide--, machines
can be uncomfortable because they are not the right
size. Adjustments may need to be made. For example,
special pads or particular ways of holding and
moving the weighted parts of the machine need to be
specified so that the machine fits your body. When a
machine is adjusted to your body, exercise can be
properly executed so that your body feels exalted,
not stressed.
In the
RxT+ Factor System of Body Design,
you will never stay on any one machine so long that
the synergistic muscles do not work. It is the
synergistic muscles that cause back pain that
eventually leads to back problems. You will not be
able to correct these problems unless you use free
weights in conjunction with machines in your
workout. It is the synergistic muscles that have to
keep balance in the body. By working them properly,
you can eliminate problems that otherwise would have
to be corrected by a chiropractor.
As you comfortably move through the
exercise sequence of machines and free weights that
Stephen designs for you, working out will create
passionate and intimate feelings in your body.
Feeling motivated, you will discover what only the
Hercy RxT+ Factor
Completely Integrated System of Body Design
can teach you:
process of performance.
PERFORMANCE VERSUS PROCESS OF
PERFORMANCE Performance is
what trainers teach us to do: to try to do more than
we can comfortably do by going for the pain.
Performance oriented exercise is what women do when
they work out on their own. By carrying over their
masculine side from work to play, they remain in
their head, not in their feelings. What a woman
needs is just the opposite of this: to get out of
her head and into her body, where she can feel
comfortable, where she knows what she’s doing, and
feels in control . When a woman accesses her feeling
side, she becomes balanced. She doesn’t have to be
pushed to do anything; she will automatically do it
because it feels comfortable. Only the
Hercy RxT+ Factor
Completely Integrated System of Body Design can
bring about the positive change in physical balance
that will lead to this balance.
How the RXT+
Factor System helps women to gain control through
positive transformation. The four
basic fears that hold us back in life are rejection,
abandonment, noise and failure. Since a woman's
emotions are subject to the body's estrogen levels,
we are more sensitive and afraid if we feel out of
control. According to Hercy, exercise positions and
movements can provoke these fears, especially if a
woman is working with a trainer and feels impelled
to perform. For example, if the trainer asks a woman
to do a flat bench press, she lies on her back and
feels vulnerable. Next she is told to do pec-decks,
which produce a squeezing together and compression
inside the body as the shoulders round to lift the
weight over the chest. When Stephen prescribes
dumbbells, he uses exercise movements that move
energy outward, allowing for stretching and
breathing. These movements produce active
stretching, which strengthens the muscles by bending
and flexing them.
This type of exercise is not done by personal
trainers; it is what makes the
Hercy RxT+ Factor System of
Body Design unique and unprecedented
in its ability to design the body. Active
stretching, hidden or enfolded in the performance of
each exercise, enhances yoga (passive stretching) by
building strength. The end result is that the muscle
becomes both stronger and more flexible, making the
student better at performing yoga than if he or she
did only passive stretching.
The psychological effect of feeling in control is
the most subtle but also most dramatic change
students who work with
RxT+ Factor System of Body
Design
experience. Women who have grown up
believing that they are victims of everything from
their mothers to the foods they consume begin to
feel powerful, competent and capable of taking
charge of their bodies. As they learn their program,
they understand what they are supposed to do in the
gym and, over time, what they want to do with their
lives. They neither need nor want a personal trainer
telling them what to do, because they know what
feels right to them. The
RxT+ Factor System of Body Design teaches women
independence.
If you are caught in the trap of impulsiveness,
talk to Stephen about yourself. He'll help you to
understand that you have the power to design your
future and vanquish addiction. Self-discipline is
the key to your future, and weight training with
Hercy RxT+ Factor System
of Body Design can get you exactly
where you need to be...
FASTER!
