No more excuses. Mardi Gras is over, and spring break is only a month away.

Every year I hear complaints that people want to start looking good a week before hitting the beach. Real results do not happen in a week.

If you are planning to look good by spring break and look phenomenal before the end of the semester, start now.

For the rest of the semester, I will answer questions about fitness. Don’t worry, your name will be left anonymous.

Here’s the first question: “I have been doing cardio for a while but feel like I need to start tightening up the loose flab, what can I do?”

By definition, cardio is only triggering your cardiovascular system heating up your body temperature to literally burn calories. Now it is time to meet everything in the middle from the inside.

With any type of weight lifting routine, your variables should be light-weight, about two to three sets of high repetitions to mirror a cardio work out.

The final, essential key is slow movement in the contraction, and even the extension phase. This allows for hypertrophy, or more blood in the muscle to fill up. High reps and low weight will burn the fat on top of the muscle.

The next question is, “I slouch too much, what can I do to fix my posture?”

That is a very simple fix. Assess your posture: chin up, shoulders back, chest out, suck in your stomach and butt out.

The cable column in the machine weight room has a rowing handle. Get a wide handle attachment and keep the movement lateral above your chest.

That area will force you to flex a little harder right below your neck muscles and right above your shoulder blades to strengthen and pull the shoulders back and inherently develop the muscles to fix the problem.

The last question is, “I have a flat butt, what can I do to perk something up?”

Squat, not just any squat though. Place your feet close together about one inch apart, and squat low with as heavy a weight you can carry without lifting your heels. From that, immediately drop the weight and do as many squat jumps as you can do with your feet as wide as possible with your toes turned out.

If you see me on campus or the gym, please ask me questions or email me at [email protected].

Don’t forget, pain is weakness leaving the body.