*ALWAYS check with a medical professional before starting a new fitness program or making major changes to an existing one, especially if you have any risk factors for heart disease. *
Many of our website hits are from people looking for how to get Sarah Connor’s muscle, so I have decided that a series of fitness pieces would be welcome here. For the record, I am a personal fitness trainer, but do keep in mind that the following is never a substitute for consulting with a real-life trainer, which is never a bad idea even if it’s for short term evaluation and program updating. As noted above, it is also your responsibility to make sure you are healthy enough to start an exercise program, if you are currently un- or de-conditioned especially.
So to the title…..the truth is that no, I’m not going to be able to offer you some super-secret-no-sweat-no-work short-cut to looking just like Sarah. I can’t even offer you a super-hard-lots-of-sweat workout to look like her. It’s not going to happen for a number of reasons. The first is that you’re not Linda Hamilton (unless you are, then I would swoon if I found out you were reading this), nor her identical twin, Leslie, nor a clone of either. The only way to look just like that is to have identical genes. Or be a T1000, I suppose.
All those sites that promise you’ll look like *CELEBRITYX* with their offered work out are scamming you, for that simple reason. We all look different, we all muscle up different, none of us in the SCCS look just like Sarah; in fact, I’d say we represent a very wide variety from very muscular, possibly bigger than her, to very skinny but with definition to quite plump but with lots of muscle to something sort of in betweenish. What you need to look for is your own optimum strength and conditioning, while being inspired by what Sarah did in going from Waitress to Warrior. But it will look different. No routine is going to magically change your genetic code. Sorry.
inspired by but do not look like “Sarah Connor” but instead themselves, just
stronger.
Likewise, this means that I can’t give you a “one program fits all” program. Just like you will look different from anyone else, your body will respond differently not only from others but from itself as time goes on. There are basics that will create the strength, endurance and flexibility that you should be striving for, but your exact program is going to be different from that of others and be ever changing, to create muscle confusion. The ever changing part is often the most difficult and I’m likely to dedicate an article just on that.
And it does take work, it really does. There are no short cuts. That being said, it actually doesn’t take the “hours and hours every day” in the gym that some out there claim, for long term fitness (Hamilton did work longer hours, but she had a short term goal…she also could get away with it because she has good muscle genetics, for most of us her schedule would likely have led to overtraining and injury, for some it would work but lead to burn out). That is, of course, if you are otherwise physically active, this will be our discussion in the next segment. It also takes progression and, eventually, muscle confusion (that is, the exercises need to change), the “just do these easy exercise” part in those “look like *CELEBRITYX*” offers may well be a good start, but in a short time, you’ll need to make some changes. If you’re already working out, these workouts may well be giving you less than you’re doing now and might even qualify as “active rest.”[i] So if you’re looking for an easy fix, give it up one way or the other, that is, either decide now if you are willing to work and prove your SCCS material or move on to someone who tells you want you want to hear even if it won’t actually help you. If your mind is going immediately to all the excuses for why you can’t do it “too busy, too poor, too whatever” then go here to be reminded what conditions Sarah Connor had to endure to remain fighting fit. *Of course, if you have actual health issues that counter indicate strenuous exercise that’s a reason not an excuse. Remember you are responsible to making sure you are healthy enough to start a fitness plan, and to get the help you need to develop a safe program if you have health issues.*
What I can do, over the next several weeks, is give you some tools and some path pointers to develop the programs you need to develop serious and functional strength and health.
See also:
SCCS Fitness Training Part 1: The Activity Triad
SCCS Fitness Training Part 2: Flexibility
SCCS Fitness Training Part 3: Cardiovascular/Endurance/Aerobics
SCCS Fitness Training Part 4: Strength Training