It’s coming out, finally, teasing us from behind the shifting clouds of April. It’s turning up the heat, ushering away those cold winter days. Yes, just one month ago we could hide safely behind layer upon layer of warm weather clothing, but now the sun is out and it’s almost here to stay. Ladies, are your legs ready for shorts and skimpy evening wear? Men, are your arms ready for those short tight T-shirt sleeves?

I just love those perfectly balanced forces that tend to govern our universe. Summer and winter, hot and cold, female and male, upper body and lower body, push and pull. Wait a minute, push and pull? What has that got to do with anything? Well, quite a lot actually. For in this simple balanced equation of opposing forces there a secret is revealed: the secret about how you should be exercising your body for full exposure this summer. Female or male, upper or lower body, arms or legs, push and pull does it all in two simple steps.

OK, so ladies first. I’ve seen countless women join gyms everywhere in pursuit of firmer backsides, skimpier hips and tightly toned legs. The reality is, and the statistics back this up, that more than half of people who join gyms fail to even last out the duration of their membership, let alone achieve the goals they had set out at the start. Something’s amiss, and in this world of complexity we seem to be missing the mark, misfiring, failing to hit the target, not being efficient enough.

If you want to tighten and tone your lower body, there’s really only two exercises you’re going to need; the full-body push and the full-body pull, or, in simpler and more widely recognised terms, the squat and the deadlift. Now before you imagine big weights, big muscles and grotesquely massive thighs, hold on just a moment, it really doesn’t have to be that way.

The squat is a full-body push, with a bar rested across your shoulders behind your head. Keeping your feet flat on the floor and weight predominantly acting over your heels, you bend at the hips and knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor and stand back up again. It’s simple, it’s functional, it’s quite possibly the most effective exercise you will ever perform.

The deadlift too is simple and functional. Hold the bar to your front hanging from your arms at about mid-thigh level. Bend over, keeping your feet flat and your back straight until the bar reaches about mid-shin level, and stand back up.

If you want to tighten and tone your lower body, there’s really only two exercises you’re going to need; the full-body push and the full-body pull

Now if you think these exercises are going to give you a horribly huge butt and set of thighs, think again. Fat makes your butt and thighs big, not muscle, unless you’re going to gorge on drugs that supercharge your testosterone and muscle-building capabilities to well beyond normal and natural levels.

Think lifting and shaping, that’s it. Here’s the good news, if you want to burn fat, you don’t have to change all that much either.

Simply perform more repetitions and organise the two moves so you’re working through them back to back with no rest, switching from one to the other.

Try 20 repetitions of each with a light weight, a total of three times. So that’s 20 squats, 20 deadlifts, 20 squats, 20 deadlifts, 20 squats and 20 deadlifts, with little to no rest in between. Let’s call this the push/pull burn.

Try this little routine out for size: run on the treadmill or walk uphill for five minutes, push/pull burn, step for five minutes, push/pull burn, row for five minutes, push/pull burn and finish off with some easy cycling as a cool-down. Do this three times a week, increasing the speed on each of the machines and the weight you lift in the push/pull burn every week, and I dare you not to make the transformation of a lifetime and lose frightening amounts of body fat over the next three months. It’s tough, but it’s simple and brutally effective.

Men, your rules are exactly the same. Forget about pumping out those biceps curls all day, because true physique prowess comes from upper body pushing and pulling combined.

If you’re pushing hard on some kind of pushing move like the bench presses, or parallel bar dips, and balancing it out with just as much effort in the pulling equivalent, like bent over rows or pull-ups, then you’re guaranteed visible results. If these key moves are not in your routine, you can curl away until the cows come home and your arms will be no closer towards filling out those T-shirt sleeves.

If you’re in the gym, try super-setting, but allow some rest between sets as you’ll have to move some moderately heavy iron to stimulate muscular growth. This might look a little like this: a set of eight to 12 on the free-weights bench press, followed by half a minute of rest and the same number of reps on the bent-over barbell row. Rest for a minute or two, and repeat the sequence three times.

If you’re training outdoors, try alternating pull-ups to a bar, with parallel bar dips or close-hands push-ups. Three times a week from these sun-teasing times and rest assured you’ll be armed for summer.

matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt