Hot points - Brief Article

American Fitness, Nov-Dec, 2002

Steve Zim was having a hard time understanding why people who regularly worked out weren't achieving the results they wanted. "I felt there must be some scientific explanation, so I decided to use the most advanced MRI technology to examine established weight-training exercises," states Zim. The MRI made it possible for Zim to see the muscles in shades of red and blue--red representing the hot areas, blue the cold.

"I discovered that the exercises we use only affect the top third of the muscle--the part closest to the skin. That means two-thirds of the exercise does little or nothing for us," he explains. "People weren't seeing results because they weren't affecting the entire muscle. By altering some exercises or creating completely new [ones], I [could] involve the entire muscle so that it was worked to the deepest point. When we went back to the MRI machine after these exercises, the whole muscle appeared to be on fire."

Zim, the owner of A Tighter U, has developed a system of weightlifting he claims uses 100 percent of the targeted muscle. In his book, Hot Point Fitness (Perseus Publishing; $16.00), Zim explains his regimen of weight training, aerobic exercise and nutritional guidelines he says will "completely redesign the way your body looks and the way you feel."