These three items all produce an effect that weight lifting should not produce for women who want to tone up — fatigue in the muscle and muscle growth. I would be surprised if you have not been told to lift light weights and to do a lot of reps. And forget lifting a little heavier weight with less reps because that builds muscle mass.
This is known as sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. The pump feels good. You feel like you are getting toned. You are forcing fluid into the muscle … growing the size of the muscle. The best way way to build muscle mass for women or men is to lift a high volume of sets and reps. Great for building muscle. Not great for toning up. When doing sets of reps you may have to really push yourself or your personal trainer may be pushing you to get in those last reps.
This is the opposite of what you should do. Do fewer reps and focus on strength training workouts. Not really. When I am training to get toned I will increase the weight and lift fewer reps — strength training.
Doing this makes your muscles more dense. It does not make them any larger — which I think is a good thing for a woman. This basically means that you are increasing the thickness of the actual muscle fibers. You are not increasing the amount of fluid that is in them. The common bad set and rep scheme given to women lifting weights is 3 sets of 10 reps to tone up.
Okay, you know that now. This prevents muscle fatigue and therefore growth in the muscle size. You should pick two exercises that you like for each muscle group and you should do 4 sets of 5 reps for each exercise and rest a full minutes between each set. If you do 3 reps and then barely get the 4th one up stop there. Lighten the weight a bit for your next set. Another great addition to the program is cardio. If you want to slim down then I strongly suggest adding in cardio after each workout on days 1, 2, 4 and 5.
I put day 3 in as an optional day to work abs and legs. If you do decide to work your legs then you should not do cardio after that workout. Rusty Moore, another fitness expert, goes into great detail on how weight lifting for women.
Featured , Gain Muscle , Workout Routines. Ahmed-LivingNotSurviving June 22, pm. Great article and great methodology for female workouts. I agree that most of the advice out there for fitness and health of women is lacking research and results. Kevin February 15, am. Thanks Ahmed! Yeah, it can get discouraging when you read advice on how to create a certain look and you end up getting the opposite results.
It seems to me that most women are not after the buff look, but rather a slim and feminine look. Jennifer March 21, am. Kevin you rock, seriously. You just saved me a lot of frustration in the gym, and you are correct, most trainers are pushing the reps. Great info!! I have been doing Led Mills Pump 3 days a week and feel as though I have received the opposite effect of what I was striving to achieve.
Its a full body workout light weight with reps. How do I reverse the effect. Help there is such bad info out there. Any advice for quick fix? I am not doing a lot of cardio. I do play tennis three times a week and do 9mile bike ride weekly and walk 3 miles at least one day a week sometimes more. Tatianna September 5, am. I would have to say I am lean and toned. I do a lot of plyometrics with medicine ball, I also use 10 lb dumbbells for extra resistance once in a while, and bodyweight exercises such as push-ups and pull-ups.
Push ups and pull ups are awesome exercises and I use them very regularly. Lorenzo Gonzales January 23, am. This really is an area on which women but more importantly trainers, know very little. There are tremendous benefits to be had from a well designed and executed program. A phenomenally designed and very informative book that successfully debunks the myths trainers and woman have with regards to weight lifting.
I oversaw the implementation of it by my mom and was able to see her transform her level of physical conditioning. As the article stated, there are a great many trainers who are pitifully limited in their knowledge of proper female training techniques, and with training you must always be on the watch for quality of knowledge so that you, the client, are receiving full value for your hard earned money.
Hi Lorenzo, thanks for the feedback. Jenn February 19, am. Kevin February 20, am. Michael somebodylied. I totally agree that men should look like men and women should look like women. One thing that turns me off about women who are into fitness is those who do it in excess. Literally, where I work, there is this lady who stays in there for about 3 hours every day.
Mind you one of those hours is spent chatting up my colleague but even still that is excess. If I were to prescribe training for a woman, I would have a similar set up, probably strength training sessions per week and cardio to burn calories.
Kevin March 16, pm. Hey Michael, I agree, the overdone look is too much. I see men and women in the gym wasting half of their training time chatting. Brad March 17, am. As a certified trainer, I always get my female clients off the cardio machines and on to the gym floor lifting heavier weights. I tell them to give the program 6 weeks and then see how they feel. The results? Kevin March 17, am. Yeah, lifting weights the right way is a great way to create a toned and even slim look … I guess it depends on your goals as to whether you do cardio or not.
Robert King March 19, pm. I think Brad nails it with this quote. I really think the number 1 fear most women have when it comes to using heavy weights as a form of getting a more feminine physique is that they believe it will lead to a more masculine, bulky look.
While I think cardio can be useful for slimming down, at some point, it becomes necessary to do some weight lifting or bodyweight exercises to get a really toned, slim looking body. Kevin June 4, pm. I agree that weight lifting definitely helps ad a nice shape to the body … it helps to be fit once you shed your excess fat. Kristjan March 17, am. Fitness and body building is a really big thing in my country these years, and at the gym where I train the ladies have gotten quite muscular.
I think a little bit of muscle on a woman is attractive as long as it looks natural, such as on the crossfit chicks. Yeah, some women can pull off a more muscular look than others. Vaclav Gregor March 18, am. On one hand they want a sexy and feminine body, but on the other they are lifting three pound dumbbells. I just hope more women will learn that strength training will never make them look buff, at least when done properly and actually they have to do strength training to get fit and attractive.
Kevin March 18, pm. The old-school mentality is thankfully dissipating! Keera April 22, pm. I am a beginner and trying to stick with it. One major issue I have is a pinched nerve on the lower right side of my neck where it meets the shoulder. Any suggestions?
Also, how do I squeeze in leg excercises with the schedule you suggested? Kevin June 6, am. Does it get aggrevated no matter what exercises you do? Having said that, you can choose to work them on Wednesdays or whatever day 3 falls on for you. Amy April 25, pm. Is there a lower body workout that goes along with the upper body one u listed for the week.
I need a full body weight training workout. I have used powerlifting and HIT training but I would like something to burn off the maximum amount of cal. Amy, I just edited the article to show that there is an optional day that you can workout just legs.
See my comment above to Keera for my reasoning on this. I hope that helps! Kristene May 19, pm. It takes a tremendous more amount of work for women.
We naturally have more fat and less testosterone. Men have the advantage, with more muscle mass and obviously more testosterone. Also, women are not going to look manly or build up too much muscle very easily. This truly has to be a goal, for a woman to reach that.
Kevin June 1, am. Kristene May 31, pm. How can you possibly agree with this? It takes a whole lot more work for women to reach their peack than men. Men naturally have more testosterone and less body fat than women, which helps them reach their peak much faster and efficiently. This would truly have to be a goal and most women take supplements if they are trying to reach that kind of physique.
It does not come naturally. The only buff or ripped looking women I have seen are on muscular magazines…. Women can try what they want and hopefully find what works for them.
Also, thanks again for deleting my last comment. Just shows to me, that you are not an author that takes constructive critism very well. Happy working out. Anyway, let me clarify. I do NOT agree with what Michael said about it being easier for women to get in shape than men. I was agreeing with his comment in regards to the amount of time that people can waste while at the gym … my comment:. This, in turn, produces a bloated and full looking muscle … probably not what most women want or even many men … in my opinion.
Strength training produces a smaller but more defined muscle. Avoiding failure and refraining from creating a burn also prevents the muscle from breaking down as much and creates a smaller but more dense muscle. Lily September 27, pm. I read a lot of your stuff regarding weight lifting and losing weight for a more feminine look. I noticed that the schedule you have for women on weight lifting is Chest and Back on Days 1 and 4 and then Shoulders and Arms on Days 2 and 5. You said that we should pick 2 exercises that we like for each muscle group and do them in 4 sets of 5 reps.
So that on Days 1,2, 4, and 5, we do a total of 4 exercises? Or do you mean particular muscle groups in each category of chest and back or shoulders and arms in which case we would end up with more than just 4 exercises each day??
Like for arms, we would have to do two exercises for the triceps, two for biceps, etc. If you meant the latter, do you mind sharing what the muscle groups are for each category?
And if possible, do you have any specific recommendations on what sort of exercises we could do for each muscle groups? Kevin October 12, pm. Lily, chest is one muscle group, back is one, etc. Arms could be separated out into biceps and triceps but if you are short on time for one of the days just do one bicep and one tricep exercise. Lil October 12, am. Thank you for your post. My problem is this. I have that latina pear body type.
My upper body has basically no fat, very tiny waist, nice abs, thin but toned arms, but my lower body and backside are big. I like my curves, i just want to slim down and lean my thighs more. Its like having 2 different bodies in one. To buy clothes, i need Small or extra small blouses and medium skirts.
All dresses have to be taken in at the waist and back. When i do slim down a lot, to get my legs where i want them, my upper body and face gets so thin i look sick!! So, a friend recommended me to train heavier on upper body to create the V illusion and match my hips.
But that didnt work well, since my upper body fat is so low and im so tiny on top, my shoulders got very big and muscular right away, my upper body responds to weights extremely quicky and even in pictures, i didnt look good. So i laid off the upper body weights and now I am only doing very few head presses and push ups after my runs, not to fatigue, and still my arms muscles are showing, but now i dont have that round PUMP over my lat shoulders, they look ok now.
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