Gymphobics founder Donna Hubbard shares her secrets on how to change your body for the better in the third of a new series of health and fitness columns for Xtra.

In previous columns I explained that you would need to perform many hours of jogging, cycling, swimming, walking or other forms of cardio activity each week to lose weight. I know how surprised many people are when told that to lose even one pound of weight by jogging, they would need to jog for four to five hours! Other forms of cardio would take even longer!

That is not to say that other forms of exercise won’t help you to lose weight and this week I want to explain why Isometric exercise will not only help you to slim down but can ensure that you lose inches in all the right places. When combined with more conventional Resistance training the effect can be incredible.

After the birth of my second child I carried on gaining weight instead of losing it. Nothing helped until I began a regime of muscle toning exercises. A mixture of resistance training and Isometrics. By combining just twenty minutes of exercise with a healthy diet, I managed to lose over four stones in weight very easily and regain the figure I had as a competitive swimmer! I have kept that figure for the best part of twenty five years and using the same methods, I have been able to help more than 100,000 women of all ages to slim down and shape up in my Gyms.

As I explained previously, I call my programme Resisted Tension which integrates resistance training with Isometrics. If you are doing this at home you will need to focus on Isometrics and omit the resistance exercise. You can still expect great results.

Isometrics involves contracting and squeezing muscles in turn for seven seconds before relaxing and repeating this up to twelve times with a short rest between each repetition.

Why does this simple method work so well? It is because our muscles burn most of the calories that we spend so anything that would make our muscles burn more calories twenty four seven would be highly beneficial to a slimmer. And that is exactly what Isometric exercise does.

Our muscles are made up of a large number of fibres and these are either ’switched on’ or ‘switched off’ at any one time. Some fibres are switched on permanently even while we are asleep. Others are only switched on when we need to use that muscle to perform a task. Isometric muscle squeezing exercise will (if performed regularly) gradually ‘switch on’ more fibres permanently. The muscle is now stronger and more toned. You look better and you are burning more calories. A competitive body builder with lots more muscle than any one else, can burn up more than seven thousand calories every day without performing any cardio activity at all and their body fat can be as low as 4% of their total weight. That compares very favourably with most slimmers who often have a body fat percentage in excess of 30%.

So there it is. Isometric and resistance exercise will tighten, tone and strengthen your muscles in all the right places, helping you to lose inches and look lean and mean!

Each week I will be giving you an Isometric exercise for a different body part. Within a few weeks you will be tightening and toning the whole body. Later, if you want even faster inch loss you will need to add some Resistance exercise to your programme, but let’s take one thing at a time shall we?

This week’s Isometric exercise is for that annoying problem that so many women complain of at the back of the upper arms. Some people unkindly refer to them as ‘bingo wings’. If you have this problem you will know what I mean. Even if your arms are not heading south it is still worth doing this exercise to keep your arms in great shape.

TRICEP DIPS Stand with your back to the seat of a solid chair (one that won’t tip over) and touch your thumbs together behind your Back. Now bend your knees to allow you to place both thumbs on the edge of the seat keeping your arms straight.

Now slowly lower your bottom towards the floor by bending your arms at the elbow keeping both feet firmly in place. Once your thighs are horizontal, stop and hold the position for seven seconds. Then straighten your arms to return to the start position, pause for a few seconds and repeat twelve times. You will soon feel this exercise at the back of your upper arms (the Triceps muscles) and not only will this tighten and tone your upper arms but it will strengthen them too.

Perform Tricep Dips each day along with the Tummy Tucks and Gluteal Squeeze exercises which I gave you in previous weeks and you are well on the way to a better figure. We will be adding other Isometric exercises as we go along but these three alone will make a significant difference.

DIET TIP If you have been cutting down your portion sizes and cutting out Bread you will probably have already seen a weight loss without feeling as if you are dieting. This week I want you to continue with the first two tips and increase your intake of water. It has been shown that feelings of hunger are often caused by dehydration (not hunger) so this week let’s find out shall we? I want you to drink a minimum of eight glasses of water each day. Pop some ice in the glass and a slice of lemon and convince yourself that you are drinking a refreshing vodka and tonic (or your favourite tipple)!

Whenever you feel hungry and twenty minutes before each meal drink at least one glass of vodka & tonic……. sorry, I meant water!

Thanks to all those of you who have been emailing me to tell me how well you are doing. It is good to hear from you.

Donna Hubbard