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Fitness Goals for Women

Fitness Goals for Women Who Want Results

Why fitness goals for women? Well, it’s so easy to forget that like anything else worth achieving in life, great fitness results need a plan. Random workouts or fitness classes just won’t cut it, if you’re chasing significant improvement.

Exercise helps to deal with hormonal mood swings, improves sleep, it's vital for brain health & memory, and keeps your weight in check. It also helps to prevent osteoporosis and bone loss in older women, so the range of benefits only increases as you age.

When setting your fitness goals, you should be completely honest with yourself. It's essential to set fitness goals you can follow through. You don't have to embark on an overly intense fitness plan; a much less complicated plan with achievable goals will make a significant difference.

It’s important to know that it doesn’t matter where you are on your fitness journey, whether you’re a mum whose never trained before, or a highly trained athlete, all of us need to have a sold plan, if we are going to continue to achieve more.

Body goals motivate us to perform at our absolute best in every workout!

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Having fitness goals is the starting point to really commit to how you are going to take action to achieve your personal vision of whatever fitness goals means for you.

If you don’t have a plan, with properly structured goals, I’m sure that you will find your fitness stagnating, if not going backwards.

We don’t want that!

How to Set Fitness Goals as a Woman

Your goals should be long terms goals, for example, setting your fitness goals for the year 2020 or 2021. Your plan should go down to daily goals. Taking a step at a time is a sure way of achieving your objectives.

Before you go to sleep, you must be aware of what you shall be doing the next day. When this becomes a routine, it gives your day a structure and helps to increase happiness and keep you motivated as you achieve your micro goals every day.

It's also vital to avoid comparing yourself with others when setting your fitness goals. Remember, you're setting these goals for yourself and not for others. It also helps to keep track of your progress.

You'll agree with me you can feel extremely discouraged when you see your friends or family making remarkable achievements in their fitness journey, but take it at your pace. Slow progress is still progress, and you can keep improving each day and ultimately achieve your objectives. This happens when physical exercise and a healthy diet becomes a daily routine.

When embarking on a fitness journey, you can set your goals using either the SMART or the SCAMPI program. The SMART programs help you to set specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant and time-bound goals. Let's get a more in-depth look at the SCAMPI program since it's not as common as the former. SCAMPI stands for:

S: Specific

You must set specific goals if you want to realize meaningful achievements. For example, you can say, I want to lose 20kgs in three months to look great on my wedding dress. Looking at this goal, you know what you want and why.

C: Challenging

The goals should be not only specific but also challenging. If it isn't, then it's not worth pursuing. For example, why set a goal of losing 20kgs in three months, yet you can lose 30kgs in the same period with more effort?

A: Approach

When setting your fitness goals, your approach/mindset/attitude should be correct. For example, you should lose weight because you want to avoid chronic illness or to please your spouse, but not because you hate how you look.

M: Measurable

You should be able to monitor your progress in your fitness journey. For example, if you want to lose 30kgs in three months, you need to track your weight loss per week and month. This will help you in determining your progress.

P: Proximal

This means you need to break your big tasks/goals into smaller and more manageable targets. Accomplishing small goals works wonders in achieving your ultimate goals. Your fitness journey should be a daily routine. Again, when you achieve small goals, you're motivated to go for the entire program.

I: Inspirational

Finally, these goals should be in line with your ambitions and ideals; remember you're doing this for yourself.

Below is an example of some possible smart fitness goals for 2020

1. Working out for 30 minutes five time each week

In a bid to achieve this goal, I make sure I wake up 30 minutes earlier each day for workouts. Before going to bed, I set my alarm to awake at 5.00 am. My first task after waking up is exercise before settling for my daily devotion and meditation, which also takes another 30 minutes. Afterward, I take my shower, dress up, take my breakfast, and proceed with my daily work.

2. Doing yoga once a week

Each Saturday after work, I engage in yoga for at least 30 minutes. This helps to keep my spine, muscles, and joints flexible and open, besides preventing injuries. Additionally, it helps to release the stress and tension I have built up over the week leading to a more balanced mind and body.

3. A three-minutes plank each day

In my daily workouts, I have made it a routine to include a three-minute plank. This is next to impossible for most of us, but it's achievable. Initially, I started with a 20 second plank, but in six weeks, I will be able to hold a three minute plank.

4. Building strength

Surprisingly you don't have to visit the gym for strength training; I do it at home. I have several weights that I use for these exercises. If you don't have funds to purchase weights, you can improvise by making weights out of every day objects.

Common Fitness Goals for women

The following are some of the most common fitness goals for ladies.

Losing fat: If you want to lose fat, you must implement the right practices to achieve the goal. For example, you'll need to cut down on lousy carbs, build your muscle tissue, and eat better to stabilize blood sugar levels besides reducing your caloric intake.

Building muscles and getting stronger: Hard and progressive resistance training is one of the best ways of achieving this goal. You must also eat properly to provide your body with the right nutrients required for strength and growth.

Improving endurance: A daily 20-30 minutes of high-level progressive training using a stepper, rower, or similar devices will help to improve your endurance. Body-weight circuits and boot camp workouts will achieve the same results. Ensure the exercise you choose gets your heart rate up. Initially, you'll experience some discomfort.

Improving athletic skills: If you want to be a better sportsperson, say a tennis player, basketballer, or footballer, it's vital to improve your athletic abilities. This will come via consistent practice. Actively practicing a specific skill helps to improve it.

Increasing flexibility: Genetic endowments affect your joints flexibility. Your skeletal structure controls movements in your bones. Active stretches and static stretches help increase your flexibility

Sculpt, tone and firming up: Toning is about building muscles and losing fat. Firmness is related to toning since you can only "firm" muscles by losing fat and strength training.

Genetics determine muscle belly size. For example, some individuals have long muscle bellies while others have short muscle bellies. Strength training helps in sculpting muscles. Ladies can rely on squatting, cardio machines, and dead-lifting heavyweights to tone up and fix any soft spots.

Some Realistic Fitness Goals

I’m always stressing the need for having fitness goals. But the most important thing isn't to just have goals but to set realistic fitness goals.

The first question your fitness trainer will ask you is what you want to achieve in your fitness journey. The answer helps them to develop a clear path that will take you to your destination.

If you're able to measure your progress, and the goals are realistic, the following are some of the realistic fitness goals that women can make.

Fitness as a Routine

If you aspire to keep fit, you must make fitness a routine. Although there's nothing wrong with shaping up for a specific event such as a wedding, bikini season, or a reunion, if you want to the best from your fitness journey, you should make it a routine.

A long-term approach should be your primary aim. It's possible to keep your gym goals, wake up in the morning for your workouts or schedule them in the evenings after work, and adhere to your calendar. Finding a workout partner is one of the best ways of making fitness a routine.

You must also be deliberate about your training and investing in a few workout devices besides a gym subscription. Your aim should be to establish your fitness goals and work each day towards them. By the time you're achieving them, you'll be completely hooked to them that you'll not consider abandoning them.

Master a skill

It's possible to master any skill provided you set realistic goals. For example, you can choose to learn to lift weights, Pilates, or boxing. In this case, you need to set specific goals, including a daily routine that will take you to the destination.

Writing down the goal helps to give the skill the much-needed boost. It's vital to set deadlines and milestones from your journey. If you've never been motivated about fitness, choose a specific skill, and direct your energies to master it.

It's possible to master any fitness skills as long as you're ready to pay the right price. Alternatively, you can work with an accountability partner; say your trainer or spouse, to motivate you in achieving your set fitness goals.

Lowering Body Fat

You'll hear most ladies saying they want to "lean out." This simply means they want to lose body fat. Your goal should be to lose body fat and gain muscle mass. Fat takes more space in your body compared to muscle fibers.

Talk to your trainer about how much fat you want to lose. You can determine your body fat composition via simple methods such as using a body-comp scale, or a skin-fold caliper. These methods will only give an estimate, which varies in accuracy depending how experienced you are at taking these measurements; accurate results come via lab tests, although they are more expensive.

Once you get your results, your gym trainer will help you in choosing the best workouts to help you achieve your goal. The main objectives are to shift your body composition by shedding extra fat and gaining muscle mass.

Getting stronger

As a woman, you may never bulk up if you don't consider getting stronger. It's easier to quantify getting more energetic compared to toning up. When ladies want to build muscles, they refer to this as "toning up." You can measure strength by the number of push-ups you can do, the number of reps or the weight you can lift. A good starting point that will help you with this is our one rep max calculator.

Building strength should be the goal of any woman. How easy you lift that grocery bag, your suitcases, or buckets at home indicate your level of power. You can also check on your muscle definition in your mirror. Interestingly you can be strong but skinny.

Train for an event

Under some circumstances, you can shape up with a deadline, like when training for a fitness event. Some individuals are deadline-oriented; thus, a specific target may motivate them to work effortlessly and keep up with the training.

For example, you can sign up for a marathon and train to be the winner. Once the workout becomes a habit; chances are you'll continue exercising even after the event is over.

The role of diet in keeping fit

A healthy diet should be one of your main focuses in keeping fit. Eating right helps your body to access the right nutrients required to build muscles, lose fat, and reduce the risk of illness. Healthy eating is part of smart fitness goals. Healthy eating is an essential part of a good fitness program.

Eating right isn't choosing fruits over doughnuts; it means taking the right foods and at the right time. You must learn the importance of a healthy breakfast, meal plans, and workout snacks, if you have an issue with proper nutrition for fitness, you can seek the help of a nutritionist.

Although dietary intake for each individual differs, your meals should typically include fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, adequate proteins, nuts and legumes, and sufficient water intake. For example, fruits and vegetables provide vitamins, minerals, natural fiber, and other compounds required for a healthy body.

You should aim for the "super foods" or the nutrient-dense foods that are rich sources of mineral, vitamins, and antioxidants. Some super foods contain substances that aid in burning body fat. For example, red peppers contain capsaicin, compounds that are efficient in burning fat.

This article on healthline has some good pointers on a healthy balanced diet.

You can learn more about healthy eating, and creating the perfect diet for you, in the following posts;

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Over to you!

Keeping fit should be the goal of each woman. Your daily choices determine your health. Although you may not have everything under your control, some habits and approaches you take will make a significant difference in your fitness.

Personally, I get loads of satisfaction from being able to recognize that I’m achieving my fitness goals consistently, no matter what else is going on in my life.

Exercise and diet remain the two primary attributes that contribute to your fitness. Since you have control over these two, make the best use of them when setting your fitness goals.

The following will help you get these right;

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in Fitness Training by Ana Maria

Home Workout Plan For Women

Home workout plan for women

You might think that following a home workout plan for women won't achieve as good a body as you would build if your workouts were gym based exercises. You'd be wrong!

A workout plan which allows you to create a variety of workouts will keep your body challenged, so whether you want to build muscle, increase strength, create weight loss or practically any other training goal a home workout plan is easily adaptable, and will keep you on track to get your fitness goals.

On the other hand, when you are training in the gym environment it is really easy to get stuck in the rut of doing the same thing over and over, and after a while your fitness gains will get smaller and harder to achieve.

COVID 19 has shown us all that you can't always rely on having a centre to train in, but hey we're all strong adaptable women, so we're not letting that hold us back.

Why you should create a home workout plan

Can you do workouts at home?

Hell yes you can!

Don't let anyone make you think that you need a gym to build muscle and workout like a champion.

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Once you've got some basic equipment, it's free to train at home, and you'll also save time because you get to train at a time that suites you without needing any travel. The upside is great, so don't let anything hold you back.

But just training free style, without having any type of planned program will make it hard to ensure you are doing the right type of progressive exercises, getting enough rest and staying motivated.

The biggest benefit you will find from taking the time to plan properly before you start is that you are far more likely to see significant results.

How to create an effective home workout plan

What is the best home workout routine?

That is a pretty common question, so surely someone has already answered it for you. I've just googled it, and received about 195,000,000 answers. I've looked through the first five pages, and everyone has a different suggestion. My head's spinning, it's so confusing;

28 best home workouts...

10 of the best...

workouts without equipment...

exercise with equipment...

etc, etc, etc.

With that many choices and different variables, where everyone seems to have a different opinion it can make it really hard to decide on a fitness plan which is right for you. It's easy to waste lots of time and energy trying to workout without being able to get the results you desire.

I'm not making negative comment about any of these programs, just pointing out that you will be far better off if you learn how to create your own, the right way.

It's far better to take some time and decide on some fitness goals you want to achieve, then you will be able to narrow the choices down to target the right workout which you can get done at home to produce the most effective results.

First step;

You need to work out your fitness goals.

Each goal should be smart;

S = specific

M = measurable

A = achievable

R = Realistic

T = Timely

So, one example goal could be; My workout will need to burn at least 600 calories and will take me no longer than one hour.

Another example goal could be; my current body weight is 70kg's and by week 10 of my workout program my body weight should be 65kg.

You should work out smart goals for each aspect of your workout program which is important to you including things like;

body weight goals

body fat % goals

strength goals

required training time

rest periods both while training and for recovery

cardiovascular fitness

Remember to make your goals focus on things that are achievable for you, as every time you reach your goal, it will help to motivate you to set new goals and continue progressing every day.

Second step;

How to record your workout and progress.

Given each of your goals above will be measurable it's important to be able to record the results of each workout.

That will enable you to track your progress to ensure you achieve the set goal. It's particularly important to record what weight you are using in each workout together with the number of reps completed, so that you ensure the program is creating a progressive overload. You can read more about that, and why it's important here.

You will find a good selection of fitness tracking apps here I suggest that you look to use different options that are free to start with, until you have a better feel for what type of functionality and features are the right one for you.

A program like my fitness pal is a popular one which will allow you to track your nutrition as well which is something that you really will need to do to reach your body goals.

Third step;

Choose which exercises to include in your program, to produce results you'll love.

You will need to assess what exercise equipment and resources are available to use, including things like;

a dumbbell set;
bands;
medicine ball;
kettle bells;
barbell with weights;
bike either stationary or mobile;
any other portable gym gear.

Once you have assessed your equipment and resources that will narrow down the range of exercises to include in your workouts.

Remember that it's important to choose activities which you will enjoy doing, so that you actually feel like doing them regularly as part of your workout.

Obviously you will be tracking the calories burned during each different workout, and so will be able to refine your program as you need to, but to get started you can use reference sources to estimate how many calories each workout will burn.

This handy calculator will give you a starting guide;

Calories Burned Calculator

Example six week workout plan for women

Can you get in shape in six weeks?

Well, that depends on your starting point, and what you actually consider "in shape" means.

If you are already a reasonably fit and healthy women and you commit to follow your program consistently then it's probably possible for you to achieve a body image which would generally be considered to be in shape.

The following is an example six week program of workouts using bodyweight, dumbbells, kettlebells and a skipping rope. The program is completed as a circuit moving from one exercise to the next, and back to the beginning to run through all exercises again until the required number of sets is completed.

It will be a good workout program to increase strength, lose some weight and if you keep the pace up get some cardiovascular benefits as well.

We're going to do a set workout three times per week, with a day in between each. You can also add in some extra cardio on alternate days in between, by going for a run or biking. You will be exercising between five and six days in each cycle depending on your starting level of fitness and how much rest your body needs to recover.

You will find images of each workout exercise following right below the program

Weeks one and two training program

session 1

3 minutes skipping x 2 sets
body weight squats 10 reps x 3 sets
stiff leg deadlift with kettle bell 10 reps x 3 sets
Wall sit 30 seconds x 3 sets
Dumbbell lunges 10 reps each leg x 3 sets
Plank for 30 seconds (make sure you keep a straight back)
Push ups 10 reps x 3 sets

session 2

3 minutes skipping x 2 sets
Bicep curls 10 reps x 3 sets
Triceps curls 10 reps x 3 sets
kettlebell swings 10 reps x 3 sets
push ups 10 reps x 3 sets
Plank for 30 seconds (make sure you keep a straight back)
leg raises 10 reps x 3 sets

Session 3

3 minutes skipping x 2 sets
push ups 10 reps x 3 sets
burpees 10 reps x 3 sets
Chin ups 5 reps x 3 sets
Plank for 30 seconds (make sure you keep a straight back)
Sit ups 10 reps x 3 sets
Star jumps 10 reps x 3 sets

Weeks three and four training program

session 1

3 minutes skipping x 3 sets
Flying lunges 10 reps x 3 sets
Single leg squat (pistol squat) 5 reps each leg x 3 sets
Donkey kicks 10 both legs x 3 sets
Dumbbell lunges 10 reps each leg x 3 sets
Plank for 60 seconds (make sure you keep a straight back)
Push ups 12 reps x 3 sets

session 2

3 minutes skipping x 3 sets
Bicep curls 12 reps x 3 sets
Triceps curls 12 reps x 3 sets
kettlebell swings 12 reps x 3 sets
push ups 12 reps x 3 sets
Plank for 60 seconds (make sure you keep a straight back)
leg raises 15 reps x 3 sets

Session 3

3 minutes skipping x 3 sets
push ups 12 reps x 3 sets
burpees 15 reps x 3 sets
Chin ups 7 reps x 3 sets
Plank for 60 seconds (make sure you keep a straight back)
Sit ups 15 reps x 3 sets
Star jumps 15 reps x 3 sets

Weeks five and six training program

session 1

3 minutes skipping x 4 sets
body weight squats 10 reps x 4 sets
stiff leg deadlift with kettle bell 10 reps x 4 sets
Wall sit 30 seconds x 4 sets
Dumbbell lunges 10 reps each leg x 4 sets
Plank for 90 seconds (make sure you keep a straight back)
Push ups 10 reps x 4 sets

session 2

3 minutes skipping x 4 sets
Bicep curls 10 reps x 4 sets
Triceps curls 10 reps x 4 sets
kettlebell swings 10 reps x 4 sets
push ups 10 reps x 4 sets
Plank for 90 seconds (make sure you keep a straight back)
leg raises 10 reps x 4 sets

Session 3

3 minutes skipping x 4 sets
push ups 10 reps x 4 sets
burpees 10 reps x 4 sets
Chin ups 5 reps x 4 sets
Plank for 90 seconds (make sure you keep a straight back)
Sit ups 10 reps x 4 sets
Star jumps 10 reps x 4 sets

Skipping

Body weight squat

Stiff legged deadlift upright

Stiff legged deadlift - forward

Wall sit

Dumbbell lunges upright

Dumbell lunges forward

Plank

Push ups

Bicep curls

Tricep curls

Kettlebell swings

leg raises

Burpees

Chin ups

Sit ups

Star jumps

Flying lunges

Pistol squat

Donkey kick

Conclusion

You are now armed with the knowledge to design your own optimum workout, which can be done at home with minimal equipment.

Remember to always allow your body to recover between workouts, as it is important to have sufficient rest so that you recover and can power back and perform well in your next workout.

All women who workout and build increased strength, also build increased confidence.

Strong really is the new black!

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Most Frequently asked Questions

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Can you get in shape in 30 days?

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Losing Weight Without Cardio

Losing weight without cardio, because you should enjoy your weight loss journey

If the thought of the hours you might need to spend running, biking, or puffing your way through endless sessions on the elliptical machine to lose weight are enough to put you off even getting started, then don’t despair, because losing weight without cardio is totally doable.

There is a stereotype that you need to make laps in the park as often as possible or to spend hours on a treadmill in the nearest fitness center to lose weight. But here's the thing: running is not a $100 bill, so not everyone likes this activity, or any other long boring cardio for that matter.

If you never used to run or you don't love that type of training, that’s not really a problem when it comes to losing weight, as there has always been plenty of debate about the pros and cons of both cardio and strength training, when it comes to losing weight.

Worried if you can still do strength training, or is running your only option without access to the gym? I know that all of us around the world have been affected by the gym closures caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus.

But there are plenty of alternative ways to incorporate strength training at home, in a park or even your own back yard, and I’ll cover some of them here.

Don't let anything hold you back, not even a COVID-19. You've got this!

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It is quite possible to build a beautiful body and lose weight without cardio. How? Let's find out.

Cardio Training

Lets take a look at a few pros and cons.

Pros

Aerobic training has been shown to be good for brain health in some research.
Getting even a small daily dose of aerobic exercise can improve your sleep.
Putting your cardiovascular system under stress through aerobic training will improve it, reducing your risk of heart disease.
You don't need much equipment to do cardio training. A good set of running shoes, and some performance active wear and you're ready.

Cons

When your body is in a calorie deficit state it can burn muscle as a source of energy, causing muscle loss.
The many hours of cardio needed to sustain weight loss can lead to over-training, and injury through repetitive use of the same joints and muscles.
You burn calories while you are training, but that stops as soon as the training does. So it's pretty inefficient compared to strength training.
As your body adapts to the cardio training, you will need to do more and more to increase the intensity to continue producing a progressive overload to sustain weight loss. That can lead to decreased muscle mass, over-training, lower metabolism and fat retention
You can become skinny fat. Because you will be losing muscle mass, your body can become skinny but still be holding onto fat, which will give you the appearance of being skinny fat.
Longer workouts are needed to burn the same amount of calories as strength training. While their can be a good calorie burn from doing HIT cardio, the fact that doing strength training will continue to burn calories after your workout is finished, and increase your metabolism as well makes it much more efficient.

Conclusion:

While there are obviously some benefits to cardio exercise, there can be quite a few cons as well. It really comes down to establishing your fitness goals, and then working out a training program which will help you achieve them over the long term, in the most efficient way possible.

Cardio doesn't mean losing weight

You may have heard about efficient fat burning during cardio training. But the main objective of such training is to strengthen the cardiovascular system while burning excess fat is secondary. Unlike strength training, the effect of running when it comes to burning calories only impacts your body during your activity. And resistance training accelerates metabolism for a long time, even after you’ve finished a workout.

Running does not lead to weight loss on its own, without endurance exercise and a proper diet. Even after running the heroic 10 kilometers (that can kill beginner's knees), not a single ounce of body fat will leave your waist or hips. Physiologically, it is not possible.

During any physical activity, the body feeds on resources that circulate through the bloodstream or those stored in muscle tissue. But when this torture finally stops, you need to replenish that lack of nutrients.

And it rarely comes from your fat reservoirs. If you like to eat a lot, then your fat storage remains untouched. There will be enough proteins, fats, and carbohydrates from the food you’ve just eaten.

But is it possible to lose weight doing cardio?

Debates among trainers and nutritionists about the secret of successful weight loss will last forever. Now, among reputable trainers, there are both ardent defenders of cardio training and those who consider it useless, or even harmful. Let's consider some of the facts and you can conclude if this kind of training is efficient.

Cardio Facts

Without a doubt, moderate cardiac loads have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system and endurance.

1. The principal source of energy is fat.

During cardio training, aerobic energy consumption process starts. It causes the active use of fat inside the muscles. This fact created an opinion that such training is the best way to lose weight. Cardio includes activity like running, cycling, aerobics, dancing, and many people do not like any of those things.

2. However, fat is used only during exercise.

After cardio training, the process of intramuscular fat burning stops. And only if you don’t eat for several hours, the excess fat from your body will move to replenish the muscles.

3. Cardio can make you gain weight.

There is a high likelihood of "Super-compensation" of calories spent by eating after exercise. However, even if you limit your nutrition, the body will seek to stock up at the earliest opportunity.

4. Long-term cardio leads to a decrease in muscle mass.

To start the weight loss process, you need to reduce caloric intake. However, it will also decrease the percentage of muscle tissue. Moreover, it leads to an unaesthetic appearance and possibly bad body image. You will also have to keep a low-calorie diet. The body will go into the energy-saving mode and will spend fewer calories.

As you see, you can chain yourself to a treadmill, but if you consume more calories than your body burns, then you will quite successfully gain weight. The total calorie content controls everything.

So why even consider cardio training?

Cardio is just one of many ways to increase the body’s calorie consumption. And it allows doing it very quickly. It is suitable for those who love running or who are always in a hurry. During a 45-minute run, you can spend the same amount of calories as in 2-3 hours of a pleasant walk in the park. For weight loss, in general, there is no difference. It still comes down to calorie burn versus consumption.

The task is to choose for yourself the type of activity that, on the one hand, you enjoy and will look forward to, and on the other hand, allows you to burn more calories.

It can be Nordic walking, sports dancing, all kinds of group exercises in fitness centers, resistance training with barbells, and aerobic exercises in the backyard. The only essential things are the training intensity and the amount of energy spent. If you don’t find something you enjoy doing, then it’s very unlikely that you will stick to it in the long term, and your weight loss goals will be lost.

How much do you need to exercise per week?

Let's see the generalized recommendations of physiology specialists for adults who do not have noticeable health problems. The frequency of training is 3-5 times a week.

The intensity is in the range of 60-80% of the maximum heart rate (the maximum heart rate can be easily calculated using the '220 - age' formula. For example, if you are 35 years old, then the maximum heart rate will be 220-35 = 185. If you are new to sports, then focus on the lower limit of the recommended range - 60%. In our case, this will be 185x0.60 = 111 beats per minute).

The duration of the training, if we are talking about continuous exercises, like swimming, running, skiing, skating, cycling, and so on, should be from 20 minutes to an hour. The higher the intensity (pulse), the shorter the duration.

By the way, all these types of physical activity do not eliminate the need to walk regularly. Are you sure you want to lose weight?

Then find a pedometer in your smartphone and gradually increase the number of steps every day to 10-12 thousand. Believe me, if you get off the bus three stops before your destination, and leave the car in the farthest corner of the parking lot, then it's not difficult to achieve these numbers.

Benefits of resistance training

Weight training is the most effective and useful exercise, not only for those who want to gain muscle mass but also for losing weight.

Let’s look at some facts in favour of strength training.

1. Strength training helps speed up your metabolism.

The bigger the muscle mass in the body, the metabolism of any person is more active,. Strength training causes micro-traumas of the muscles and thus increases the energy consumption for their recovery, which continues for hours after training. Thus you lose weight (burn more calories) for several more hours after you have finished strength training.

Also, it has been proven that resistance training increases insulin sensitivity, which is often reduced in obese people. Of course, it does not mean that you can eat anything after training. Do not forget that for weight loss you need to consume fewer calories than you expend.

2. It helps maintain your muscle mass during a diet.

As I have said above, to get rid of hated fat, you need to create a calorie deficit (spend more energy than you get with food). But in this case, your diet will be catabolic, and not only fat can burn, but also muscles.

Your body decides that it is easier to reduce muscle mass, which is one of the principal consumers of energy than to burn fat. And the main way to maintain muscle mass is strength training. It sends a signal to your body that muscles are a priority for you because you use them actively and regularly.

The body knows that it needs to maintain a certain amount of muscle mass to get you through your day’s usual activity, which is why using progressive overload in strength training will cause the greatest muscle gain. You can read more about that here.

3. The more muscle in the body, the more you can eat.

Muscles need a lot of energy for normal work. That is why the more muscle you have, the more you can eat, without the risk of gaining weight. Muscle cells spend more energy than fat cells, increasing your daily normative value (usage) of calories.

Also, the good sensitivity to insulin that strength training provides allows gaining less fat in case of overeating. Excess carbohydrates will move not to the fat reservoirs, but the muscles.

Not to mention that developed muscles makes your body beautiful and healthy. Strong really is the new sexy!

What strength exercises should I choose?

Barbell, Body-weight and Dumbbell Exercises

The barbell does not sound feminine and can be frightening, but doing exercises with good form and with a weight that you feel comfortable with until you are strong enough and confident handling heavier weights, you will achieve good results with either barbells or dumbbells.

With really very little equipment you can design a strength training workout plan that you can do anywhere. During this COVID-19 coronavirus period, I've re-purposed part of the garage at home to still get a good workout done.

During this period it's so good for your mental health as well as your physical conditioning.

You can try doing relatively simple exercises like the following:

Dumbbell lunges. Choose the suitable weight for you and hold a dumbbell in each hand. As you inhale, take a step forward and keep your back straight;

Dumbbell overhead press. Hold the dumbbells at your shoulders height, with hands at a comfortable 90 degrees, then press up till your arms are extended.

Bicep curl. Hold the bar (either a straight barbell or an easy-curl bar) with your knuckles facing your thighs, then curl upwards bending at the elbow while keeping your upper arm still and close against your body.

Tricep curl. Hold the bar (either a straight barbell or an easy-curl bar) with your knuckles facing away from your thighs, then curl upwards bending at the elbow while keeping your upper arm still and close to your body.

It’s good to do tricep curls after bicep curls, as it helps to prevent shortening of the bicep muscles, along with the fact that your tricep is actually a larger muscle.

Pull-ups

If you can’t do any to start with, then start by doing negatives. Start in the up position with your chin above your hands, and then lower yourself as slowly as you can. That’s one rep, then repeat for as many reps as you have scheduled for the set.

Pull-ups are a compound exercise and are considered one of the more difficult strength training exercises as it requires quite strong muscles and endurance. But this exercise is highly efficient. You can improve your back muscles and arms at the same time.

I always find my abs are feeling nice and tight after pull-ups as well. You can make your abs work harder by lifting your feet up in front of you, with your legs kept straight while completing the pull-ups.

Don’t be discouraged if you’re just starting out, and find doing many pull-ups hard. Just do as many as you can, and keep adding one more rep each time. You’ll be doing sets of 10 in no time, followed by sets of 20, and then you’ll feel like superwoman.

Dumbbell Squats

Squats are known as one of the most effective exercises for muscle gain, and are a compound exercise that works many of the major muscle groups. While body weight squats are great, adding some weight like dumbbells to them, will make them a much better exercise for weight loss.

Try holding a pair of dumbbells at shoulder height, squat down, and then stand up straight and do a shoulder press by straightening your arms overhead.

Push Ups

Its great thing about push-ups is that you really can do them pretty much anytime, anywhere. And remembering the principles of progressive overload you can focus on adding an extra rep every day that you do push-ups.

What should I remember during resistance training?

Breathe right

Doing strength exercises, never hold your breath! It leads to increased blood pressure, dizziness, and even loss of consciousness in extreme cases. Don’t believe me? Then check out these classic fails;

Choose the weight according to your abilities

Properly selected weight for strength training is the key to the proper development of muscles and weight loss. Along with incorporating progressive overload (link above) into your training, you need to calculate your starting strength, and then continue to measure it to ensure progression. The best way to do this is by establishing your one rep maximum. Find out more including a one rep max calculator here.

Recovery

This point is no less important than the training itself. Lack of rest after exercise slows down muscle development and can lead to overtraining syndrome.

Therefore, after strength training, be sure to stretch, relax, and get enough sleep. Losing weight is impossible without a full recovery. This process of recovery occurs at night during sleep, when the most essential vital hormones, are produced.

Eat right

A woman engaged in strength training should remember that without proper nutrition, she will not be able to achieve the goal and lose weight. Try to follow the basic rules of a good sports diet. Know what your macro-nutrient intake should be, and stick to it. I’ve written a post about the importance of knowing your macros where you can find out more here, and about sports nutrition here.

For maximum benefits to the body, the last meal before exercise should contain proteins and carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are sources of energy, that increase the efficiency of the workout. And proteins strengthen muscles.

After training, you need to eat something rich in proteins and fast carbohydrates, for example, cottage cheese and a slice of a banana, or an apple. For convenience, use whey or casein-based protein shakes.

Proteins play an important role in bodybuilding. It is the principal building material for our muscles. In general, you need to eat a higher protein diet and limit the intake of simple carbohydrates and fats.

What to include in my diet for weight loss

Animal products such as white (chicken or turkey breast) and red meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products are rich in protein and contain essential amino acids. You can also add beans to this list, as they are a vegetable source of protein. An added benefit of beans is that some recent studies have shown that people who eat a diet high in beans tend to live longer. I’m not advocating swapping meat for beans, as animal protein is important in a good balanced diet, just try adding beans into your diet.

Of the carbohydrates, the most useful are complex ones. They are excellent sources of energy. It can be various cereals (buckwheat, oatmeal).

Example workout for losing weight without cardio

Warm up by skipping - 3 x 2 min rounds with 30 seconds rest between each round.

Dumbbell lunges - 10 lunges with each leg alternating x 3 sets with 30 seconds rest between each set.

Dumbbell overhead press - 12 reps x 3 sets with 30 seconds rest between each set.

Bicep curls - 12 reps x 3 sets with 30 seconds rest between each set.

Tricep curls - 12 reps x 3 sets with 30 seconds rest between each set.

Push ups - 10 reps x 3 sets with 30 seconds rest between each set.

You should be able to get through this workout in about 25 to 30 minutes. It's designed without a lot of rest between sets to keep your heart rate up so you get a good workout.

You could also do this as a circuit workout, where you do one set of each exercise rotating through them all till you've done three sets of each.

If you are at a more advanced level of fitness, and don't find this challenging enough, or you just know you need to burn more calories, feel free to add in more exercises like chin ups dumbbell squats.

You could also add on another set to each exercise, doing 4 sets instead of 3.

Conclusion

As you may see, losing weight without cardio is not so hard. Moreover, cardio training is not aimed at weight loss. Its primary goal is improving your cardiovascular system, so you do not have to run on a treadmill for hours to lose weight.

And if you want to lose weight, you need to control your nutrition and do some form of resistance training regularly. Your principal goal should be creating a calorie deficit. So you need to burn more energy than you get from the food you are eating.

Do this in a sensible planned manner, without trying to produce fast dramatic weight loss. If you are losing about 500g to 1kg per week then you are doing just fine, and more than this may actually be unhealthy, depending on your starting body mass and fitness level.

Also, plan your training menu, as eating healthy food combined with strength exercises speeds-up metabolism. And do not forget to rest and sleep. Continuous training without proper relaxation can exhaust you.

A handy resource to find out the calories in your food is here.

And a reference to how many calories you actually need, if you couldn’t be bothered to work it out more accurately is here.

There are lots of common questions that people have about losing weight without cardio, and I've answered some of them below, which I hope helps clear up a few for you.

Your questions about losing weight without cardio answered;

Is lifting or cardio better for losing weight?

Depending on the intensity of a cardio workout or a strength training workout one may burn more calories than the other however, your metabolism will stay elevated for longer after strength training than from cardio, and weight lifting is better for building muscle. Therefore, a good lifting program is likely to be better for losing weight than cardio.

How many times a week should I do cardio to lose belly fat?

If you want to include cardio, then thirty minutes of moderate intensity exercise on most days. Combine this with strength training to build muscle mass.

How long do you have to do cardio to burn fat?

The general guidelines suggest anywhere from twenty to sixty minutes of cardio to be healthy, but there are many variables including your current weight, level of fitness and the intensity level of the cardio which you are doing. It is also relative to your diet, and how many calories you have consumed, and therefore need to burn, before you will start burning fat.

Can you lose weight by not eating?

Skipping meals is potentially a good way to fire up your metabolism and start to lose weight. Intermittent fasting has been gaining in popularity, and many people find success with this method of spacing out meals. You should always make sensible decisions about your diet, and don’t simply try to “starve” yourself to weight loss, or your body will just start fighting back against you. You need to have the proper nutrition to fuel your training, and ensure your body is functioning properly and healthy.

Can you lose weight by walking?

Yes, walking is a moderate intensity exercise and provided you get enough steps in each day, combined with the right diet, you can lose weight.

How many calories does 30 minutes of cardio burn?

That will depend on what type of cardio you are doing, and the level of intensity with which you are doing it. Harvard medical school provides this useful list of calories burned by different activities for different people in a thirty minute session. Here

How often should you workout to lose weight?

You should aim to do at least three workout sessions per week, combined with the right meal plan to lose weight.

Is cardio good for fat loss?

As I hope I’ve made clear above, you don’t need to do cardio for fat loss. But you can if you wish to, and again it’s really down to calories in versus calories expended, so make sure you pair whatever cardio you choose to do with the right diet.

How does fat leave your body when you lose weight?

Through a series of metabolic processes, put simply though we could say, you pee it out, your breath it out and you sweat it out. In my opinion the important thing is that, it’s going out!

What exercise burns the most belly fat?

You really can’t spot target fat on your body with exercise. Our bodies lose fat all over, so the best thing to focus on is which exercise burns the most fat. That comes down to intensity, duration and therefore calorie expenditure. Some of the best would be heavy deadlifts and squats.

Is 30 minutes of cardio enough?

It depends on the intensity of the cardio which you are doing, and how regularly you are doing it. For example, if you are doing an intensive HIT cardio for thirty minutes three times per week, combined with the right diet, then this would be enough to cause some weight loss.

What is the best cardio for fat loss?

HIT cardio, which stands for high intensity training, where you have periods of high intensity effort followed by short active recovery periods has been proven to be effective for weight loss, when considering different cardio options.

Why do I weigh more after cardio?

You will have an additional water intake when you are doing cardio, which will add some weight. Also, your body will be converting glycogen (sugar) to energy for your muscles, and they glycogen binds together with water in that process, which adds some weight as well.

Is running good for belly fat?

As you can’t spot target fat in only one area of your body, you really need to just think about whether an exercise will be good for losing body fat, not specifically belly fat. While running can be good for losing body fat, when combined with the correct diet so that you are creating a calorie deficit, it should be combined with other types of exercise such as strength training to maintain or increase muscle mass as well.

How much weight will I lose if I stop eating for 2 weeks?

You will probably have quite a bit of weight loss, but I certainly don’t recommend that you try this. The weight loss will be temporary, with a lot of it being water weight, and muscle loss, and once you start eating again, your body will try to hang onto any fat as a defense mechanism because it thinks you might be starving again soon. It is far better to follow a healthy diet and exercise plan, to lose weight in a way that can be maintained over the long term.

How much weight can you lose by drinking water for 3 days?

I presume that when asking this question people mean that they will stop eating for three days. Again that is not a good idea, as while you will drop some weight in the short term, it will just come back again once you start eating. The only reason that someone might really need to do something like this is if they are a professional athlete such as a boxer, who needs to reach a certain weight limit for an event, but even then, needing to do something drastic like this would mean that they probably didn’t have the right meal plan during their preparation to lose the weight progressively, and doing this will make them weak for their competition.

Can you lose weight by not eating and just drinking water?

As I’ve discussed in the last two questions, this is a bad way to try to lose weight. If you do this for a few days it probably won’t do you too much harm, but it won’t produce a lasting benefit for you either. You should focus on a diet and training plan which you can maintain over the long term, to meet your weight loss goals.

How can I slim my waist fast?

Eat a healthy diet containing proteins with the right mix of carbohydrates, and monitor your calorie intake versus calorie expenditure to make sure you have a reasonable deficit of about 500 calories per day. Following a good exercise plan will help increase your calorie expenditure to meet this goal. Doing some ab exercises can strengthen your ab and core muscles to help “hold your belly in” as well, while your fat loss continues.

Does walking reduce thigh size?

Yes, if you do enough walking regularly, combined with a sensible diet it will help to reduce your thigh size. You should target doing more than 10,000 steps per day, which you can easily track with an app on your smart phone, or a fitness watch with a pedometer.

How can I drop 20 pounds fast?

Monitor your calorie intake versus calorie expenditure, while eating a high protein diet and following a good exercise plan including strength training and HIT exercise. Also make sure to drink plenty of water, have a high fiber intake and get plenty of sleep.

How can I burn 1000 calories?

There are multiple ways which you could do this through exercise, depending upon the intensity with which you are training. HIT or high intensity training along with strength training would be two good options. This calculator by Harvard medical will help you to find different activities and the corresponding calorie burn

Can too much cardio cause weight gain?

Yes, doing too much cardio can cause you to overcompensate by eating too much so that you are not left feeling overly tired. It can also cause muscle break down which will lower your metabolism and make it harder for you to maintain a healthy weight.

What exercise burn the most calories?

Strength training causes your body to continue to burn calories while the muscles start recovery, and this effect can last for several hours after a strength training workout. Therefore doing compound exercises such as deadlifts and squats would be likely to burn the most calories, though this would be subject to the duration and intensity of any exercise.

How can I lose a lb a day?

Losing water weight will give you a temporary weight loss, so often athletes who need to “make weight” will use steam rooms or sweat suites to lose water weight. 3,500 calories equates to about 1 pound of fat, so to lose 1 pound of fat you should create a calorie deficit of between 500 to 1,000 calories per day over a period of time to target weight loss of between one to two pounds a week.

How can I lose face fat?

You lose fat from your entire body, so to lose face fat you should follow a good diet and training plan, which creates a sensible calorie deficit that you can maintain over the long term to create sustained fat loss from your body. As your body loses fat, your face will appear thinner as well.

Is exercising everyday bad?

Exercising every day can be very healthy, though you should take one day off for rest every week to allow your body to fully recover. Also try to mix up the type of exercise you are doing as your body can become tired from overuse if you do the same things too repetitively. Changing what you are doing will also have a greater impact on improving your strength and fitness, causing greater fat loss as well.

Does sweating burn fat?

Sweating itself does not burn fat. If you are doing some form of activity which is causing you to sweat, then the calories expended in doing the activity can burn fat.

How can I lose 10 kgs in a month?

Depending on your starting weight, losing 10kgs in a month might be an overly ambitious goal, but presuming that you may be very overweight, you should plan a good diet and training program so that you create a calorie deficit. You should also keep your water intake high, make sure you are eating plenty of protein, take some extra fiber and get plenty of sleep.

Do fat people burn more calories?

Larger people need more calories throughout the normal course of their day, so yes they can burn more calories, but more calories than who? What is the comparison? Someone who has more muscle at the same body weight will burn more calories than a fat person for example.

Do you poop out fat when losing weight?

Most of the fat lost from your body is breathed out, with the balance turning to water which is excreted as sweat, urine, feces or pretty much any other moisture leaving the body. This was the findings of a recent study the results of which you can find here

You should note from this research article as well, how a relatively small amount of excess food can have a large impact on someone’s weight gain. So think twice before you eat that muffin!

Do you poop out fat when losing weight?

You should note from this research article as well, how a relatively small amount of excess food can have a large impact on someone’s weight gain. So think twice before you eat that muffin!

Do you poop out fat when losing weight?

You should note from this research article as well, how a relatively small amount of excess food can have a large impact on someone’s weight gain. So think twice before you eat that muffin!

in Sport by Ana Maria

6 Worst Glute Training Mistakes Exposed

Glute training mistakes result in disappointing flat bums!

Why should something like what are the worst glute exercises be on your mind?

Well, if there’s one body part that women are dying to improve these days, it’s the butt!

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Sexy, curvy behinds are in, no-one wants a boring flat bum anymore, and the internet is packed with exercises supposedly to help you get those gorgeous glutes.

However, not all of these exercises are as great as they may seem.

Some glute training mistakes can actually derail your attempts to get a sexy backside, no matter how often you do them.

So perhaps it’s best to start your journey to sexy glutes, by working out what not to waste your time on.

And hey, I know some of these are going to be controversial, because I’m including some of the kings of compound exercises that strength gurus hail as positive for literally everything. I love them too, I just believe there are more effective ways to target the glutes, and so including them in “glute workouts” is just lazy programming.

Let’s take a look at some of the worst glute exercises.

Quick Navigation

Glute training mistakes 1 - Squats

Glute training mistakes 2 - Lunges

Glute training mistakes 3 - Abductor Raises

Glute training mistakes 4 - Donkey Kicks

Glute training mistakes 5 - Step Ups

Glute training mistakes 6 - Deadlifts

What glute training exercises to do instead?

So what does the gluteus really do anyway?

Lifestyle factors

Benefits of strong glutes

Conclusion

Glute training mistakes 1 - Squats

This first item on the list may be surprising to many. Squats are often lorded as the exercise for people looking for a well-built booty.

Unfortunately, squats are not as good as they seem.

The main problem with using squats to target the glutes is that squats are a compound movement. They target a variety of muscles including the glutes, lower back, hamstrings, and quads. Compound strength-training exercises are great for losing weight, strengthening the legs, or getting ready for a more serious lifting regimen.

However, if you’re focusing primarily on building your glutes, squats aren’t going to give you the results that you’re hoping for.

There are a few ways to make squats more effective for glute activation: you can squeeze the glutes as you move and try to get yourself deeper into the squat to put more focus on your backside. However, you will still be working a multitude of muscles as well as putting your knees at risk if you aren’t careful.

Squats are still one of my favourite exercises, and I would include them in most people’s training programs, but;

If growing your glutes is the goal, you may want to skip the squats for the workouts where you are targeting glute development. Therefore, while we love squat day, they deserve a spot in the list of glute training mistakes.

Glute training mistakes 2 - Lunges

Lunges are another great example of glute exercises that everyone adds to their workout. Unfortunately, lunges are also a compound exercise that will often do little for activating the glutes.

When done properly, lunges activate the glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, and abs. While that all sounds great for someone trying to build a more general fitness routine or super strong legs, it isn’t going to do much for anyone trying to isolate their glutes.

In fact, most people do lunges using a form that may not activate the glutes at all.

The biggest mistake when performing lunges is taking too large of a step and leaning forward so that your knee bends out past your toes.

This form does not force you to use your glutes at all. Instead, you’ll be putting all of the tension into your legs, forcing them to work while your glutes remain idle. Glutes only work when you make them, and lunges just don’t do it.

Lunges will be more beneficial for the glutes if you use the proper form: take a small step forward and sink your back knee towards the ground instead of propelling your body forward. However, this move is still a compound exercise. If you really want to blast your glutes, you need to focus on exercises that specifically isolate that muscle.

Glute training mistakes 3 - Abductor Raises

Abductor raises were a staple in the iconic buns of steel workout, but recently, fitness gurus have been suggesting that they aren’t all their cracked up to be.

They can actually be one of the worst glute training mistakes.

There are some benefits to abductor raises. They are great for increasing the range of motion in your hips and, unlike squats and lunges, actually do serve to isolate the glutes and force them to do the work instead of your legs or core.

However, the main problem with abductor raises is that the only resistance that you can use is your own body weight. To really get fit, toned glutes, you need to incorporate isolation exercises with a significant amount of resistance.

That is the only way that you’ll be able to effectively build more muscle.

There are some ways to make abductor raises work for you.

One solution is to use a resistance band or ankle weights to increases the resistance that your glutes will be fighting against to complete the movement.

However, an even better option is to use a hip abductor machine. This will allow you to pile on the resistance to really work those glutes, but I realise that not everyone will have access to one of these machines.

Glute training mistakes 4 - Donkey Kicks

Donkey kicks, also known as glute kickbacks, are another of the glute exercises that have a misleading reputation.

There are actually several problems with this common workout move.

One common problem is that the donkey kick is a compound exercise, While the glutes do work the hardest in this move, the back and hamstrings are also activated white performing this exercise.

In addition, donkey kicks offer little in the way of resistance.

As with abductor raises, the only real resistance that you get with a donkey kick is your own body weight. You can try adding a resistance band or using a glute kickback machine, but you’re still unlikely to get the results that you’re looking for if the glutes are your main focus.

It is also difficult to get the form just right in a donkey kick, further decreasing the odds of hitting the glutes hard,

Glute training mistakes 5 - Step Ups

Step ups, while again in theory engaging the glutes, in reality it’s very rarely the case.

It’s way too easy to cheat, by pushing off the ground with the other foot, and thereby making it easy on the glute.

Another common mistake is to lean forward too much when stepping up, which again will ease the strain on the glute.

It’s natural for people to find the “easiest” way to do an exercise, rather than keeping strict form, just as people do with most things in life.

Expecting anyone for whom you’ve set a program to keep strict form while completing their sets of step ups is just not going to work in reality.

Glute training mistakes 6 - Deadlifts

Deadlifts are great for the back muscles, but many also use them for glute exercises. Unfortunately, deadlifts are not the ideal move for targeting the backside.

Deadlifts are also a compound exercise, targeting the glutes, hamstrings and the back. In fact, when doing a proper deadlift, your back and hamstrings will be much more activated than your glutes.

There is really no way to perform a traditional deadlift in a way that puts more tension into the glute muscles.

Just like squats, Deadlifts are one of my personal favourite exercises, and would usually be included in any general strength program, however they simply are not the best for targeted glute exercises.

What glute training exercises to do instead?

The bottom line is that if you want to make real progress on your backside, you have to choose exercises that specifically isolate the glute muscles and offer a high level of resistance.

Good options include barbell hip thrusts, barbell glute bridges, retro step ups, single leg dead lifts and single leg foot elevated hip thrusts. If you isolate the muscles and pile on the resistance, soon your booty will be looking fine!

Single leg exercises are great to really focus on the glutes, while also requiring balance, which recruits the smaller stabilizer muscles. Try some, and you’ll find that they are harder to complete than you first think.

So what does the gluteus really do anyway?

I mean, apart from looking spectacular in the right pair of tights! Is there really more to it?

The gluteus is made up of three main groups, the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus, which all function essentially to move the hip joint.

The gluteus maximus is the most superficial but also the largest of the glute muscles, and therefore is what most people are thinking about when they refer to, the glutes. Being the largest, it is also what is going to have the most impact on the shape of your hips.

You’ve probably heard of these, but you might not have heard of the panniculus adiposus of the buttocks, which is the muscle which actually gives the butt it’s rounded shape, and therefore is a major contributor to a sexy bum. The amount of fat stored generally in your body will impact the shape of the panniculus adiposus greatly.

One of the main functions of the glutes, is in making it possible for you to stand upright, as apposed to other primates whose hips tend to be much flatter, and are unable to remain erect on two legs.

So, if what the glutes are really doing is, moving the hip joint, to work them affectively we should be focussed on, any exercise which moves the hip joint, and doesn’t entail major engagement of other major muscle groups.

Lifestyle factors

Your general lifestyle can have a big impact on the shape of your butt as well.

Obviously your level of activity will impact on overall fat levels, which will influence how defined your body is in any area including the glutes.

But think about the amount of time that an average office worker spends sitting on their butt, and the corresponding amount of flat bums that can be seen in any inner city lunch break period.

So, the amount of time sitting that your job entails can have a massif impact on your glutes. If that’s you, then you will really benefit from including some targeted glute exercises in your training program.

There is a tendency for lower back pain to originate from having weak glutes as well. If your glutes aren’t strong you will tend to overcompensate by using the lower back more when lifting, which can result in injury.

Also given the glutes play a major role in just standing erect, having weak glutes means that there is extra strain placed on your lower back just remaining upright throughout the day, which can cause injury over time.

Given that it’s obvious you need to maintain a level of general health, your diet will impact this as well. I’ve got some great suggestions here, for clean eating recipe’s that will help both fuel your workouts, and keep your body fat levels down.

Eating the wrong foods can cause inflammation in the body as well, which can slow any progress in a training program, so you need to stay on top of a healthy clean eating diet.

Benefits of strong glutes

Ok, we all know that they help us to look great, but what else?

Better posture;

Ever seen a sprinter, with their glorious glutes, and watched how they stand and move generally. Given we’ve discussed how the glutes are important in helping us to stand upright, it’s easy to see how strong glutes will give you generally better posture and movement.

Pain reduction and prevention of injury;

Even if you’ve already got a painful lower back, you will generally find improvement once you’ve strengthened the glutes.

And a strong set of glutes will definitely help defend against back injuries and pain.

Fat loss;

Given that increased muscle mass will lead to increased calorie burn throughout the day, working your glutes should be a priority for anyone wanting fat loss, or maintenance. The glutes are one of the largest muscles in the body, so working them will generate muscle growth and calorie burn, that leads to fat loss.

Athletic performance;

The gluteus is responsible for generating a massive amount of power through the lower body, and thereby contributes to athletic performance.

You won’t see top level sprinters or strength athletes with flat bums.

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To measure this for yourself, just try completing a focused glute workout twice a week for a period of four weeks, and measure your vertical jump at the start of the four week period, and at its conclusion, and see how much more lift you’ve developed.

Conclusion

So, I hope you can see, that it’s not all just about appearances, but having a great butt can bring a range of health benefits that make it generally easier to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Whatever your reason for wanting to enhance the derriere, staying clear of these glute training mistakes is going to be positive for your training!

in Sport by Ana Maria

Postpartum Fitness: What You Should Know

Pregnancy can be a wonderful or wretched time for different women.

Likewise, postpartum fitness can be easier for some than it is for others.

Before you begin your postpartum workout regimen, there are some important things you should know. We will cover these, as well as the differences between exercising before and after baby, and bust some myths about postpartum fitness.

What you Should Know About Postpartum Fitness

Doctor's Approval

You will typically visit your doctor six-weeks postpartum. He or she will examine how well you are healing and can give you the go-ahead to begin working out. It is important to wait until after this visit to avoid complications that can develop like postpartum hemorrhage.

Every woman recovers from pregnancy at a different rate. The way you delivered your baby whether it was natural, with an epidural, or by C-section can have a large influence on this.

Waiting six weeks will also give you time to adjust to the new demands of parenting such as lack of sleep. If you're anything like me, you're still adjusting to not sleeping seven years postpartum.

Relaxin

One of the most important things you should know is that relaxin stays in your body for up to one year postpartum, or for as long as you are breastfeeding.

Relaxin is the hormone made by your body to help loosen ligaments and joints making childbirth easier on the body. This means that you may feel less stable, and you can feel achy in areas you never did before.

You may also be more prone to injuries like sprains. It is very important to listen to your body. If something hurts or simply doesn't feel right, it probably isn't.

Kegel Exercises

Kegel exercises are the contracting and releasing of the pelvic muscles. These can be done almost immediately following childbirth if you're so inclined.

Kegel's can help to strengthen the now stretched out pelvic muscles, along with helping to prevent incontinence that sometimes follows childbirth. You can find more in-depth information on Kegel exercises and their benefits here.

Postpartum Depression

Exercising and setting goals for yourself after delivery can help prevent or alleviate symptoms of postpartum depression. About one in seven women will experience postpartum depression as their hormone levels begin to return to normal.

The catch is that if you are already suffering from postpartum depression, it can be hard to motivate yourself to workout. To learn more about postpartum depression and how to get help click here.

The Differences in Exercising Before and After Pregnancy

Baby

There are some major differences between working out before and after having a baby. Most notable is the fact that you now have an extra person to consider.

If you are planning on using a gym, finding one that has childcare is a bonus.

There are many activities such as jogging with a jogging stroller, mommy-and-me groups, and hiking or walking with a hiking backpack. However, your baby usually needs to be at least six months old before you can utilize these devices with them.

Not only will you need to consider packing your own hydration and snacks, but its essential to bring sustenance along for baby, too.

Energy

In order to workout, you need energy, and these days it seems to be in short supply. There are so many reasons for this and the biggest one is that you just spent the past nine months making and then delivering a tiny human.

The simple adjustment to having a new baby and tending to its needs is another reason for lack of energy. Your baby wakes up two or three times in the middle of the night to feed, so you do, too.

Long gone are the days of luxuriating in bed for hours on end. The thing about beginning your postpartum exercise regimen is that not only do you need the energy that sleep provides, you also require more sleep to recover from your workouts. It certainly can feel like working out is working against you.

Ways to maintain your energy postpartum is to eat properly, continue taking your prenatal vitamins, maintain fluid intake, and sleep when you can. Eating a proper diet with a balance of macronutrients can help keep you going.

You can find some great recipes for balanced meals here. Keeping yourself hydrated with water and electrolyte infused drinks low in calories is also a good idea. Sleeping when the baby sleeps can sometimes be difficult, especially if you have work or other chores to do, but it will help to enhance your overall energy in the long run.

Seriously, vacuuming can wait.

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Body Changes

Another major difference between working out before and after baby has to do with the changes your body has undergone.

As previously mentioned, having your six week postpartum check-up with your doctor is a must. For example, if you've had a C-section, you may have to restrict certain workouts.

Excess weight gain during pregnancy is another bodily change that can affect working out postpartum. There is also a slight chance of postpartum hemorrhage simply because of all your body went through down there.

Postpartum Fitness Workout Regimen Myths

Getting Your Body Back

Wait, where did it go? That's right, no where.

While it's totally okay to feel however you do about your postpartum fitness body, it never really left you. You have undergone significant changes that brought you a miracle. Let's face it, most of us do not have the resources (i.e. in-home nanny, personal trainers, money) that most celebrities do. They seem to just "bounce back" immediately after baby, and we are left to think that we should be able to as well.

Getting your body back will take time and dedication to a fitness regime that works for you. It can be done, but maybe not as quickly as we are lead to believe.

Breastfeeding Drops the Pounds

Unless you are like the millions of other women who did not reap the benefit of weight loss by breastfeeding, this myth is just silly, but it seems to persist.

Every single one of us is completely different and though some may lose weight from breastfeeding, it isn't a guarantee for all

Crunches Alone will get rid of the Baby Belly

It sort of makes sense why women believe this, but it is not true.

Crunches are more of a "surface" exercise that target abdominal muscles. However, they do very little to enhance the deep core muscles that are most affected by pregnancy.

Consider doing planks alongside crunches or checking out a pilates class designed to specifically target core muscle groups.

For the Quickest Results, Cardio is Key

Cardio is important for a workout regimen but should not be considered the only way to workout.

Cardio alone will burn calories, but you can actually burn more calories for longer periods of time by incorporating resistance training into your routine.

Utilizing cardio along with resistance training will raise your resting metabolic rate, allowing you to burn more calories while at rest.

You Must Work Out for Hours for the Best Results

While it is true in theory that the longer you workout the more calories you will burn, marathon postpartum fitness sessions are simply unnecessary.

Additionally, with a baby, they can be downright impossible.

Try instead to break up your workouts into short segments. You could take the baby on a walk in its stroller for 15 minutes, and later, squeeze in a quick HIIT workout while baby is napping.

HIIT workouts are great because they are quick and can be tailored to fit into any schedule. These small burst of elevated heart rates all count toward your daily exercise goal.

You Can Do It

If you are ready to begin your postpartum exercise regimen, there is no better time to start than now.

You can find some excellent guidelines and workouts here. Always listen to your doctor and your body and aim for overall good health over weight loss.

You will want to stick to a nutritious healthy diet to keep your energy levels up, and these 31 clean eating recipes will help you with that.

You've got this!

in Recipes & Food by Ana Maria

What do You Really Know About Fitness and Nutrition?

Fitness and nutrition are topics that create so many myths and misinformation.

Everyone seems to have an idea that is the latest and greatest way to lose weight, build muscle and generally turn yourself into an amazonian woman.

But do you really even have a basic knowledge of fitness and nutrition?

Take this quick ten question quiz and find out how your knowledge rates.

You might be surprised!

If you passed this test, you should find out what your food personality is as well.

Click the image below and learn what it is;

Once you're finished here check out these super easy clean eating recipes, that you can mix and match to serve your food personality.

in Motivation by Ana Maria

Best Fitness Motivation Online

Finding fitness motivation is a very important part of how a woman takes care of her body, and a lot of us feel the need to find places that will help us get on a diet, change out overall lifestyle, and improve how we look.

There are a lot of people who are writing and posting about fitness online, so you can get lost trawling through it all, and still not find anything of real value.

There are some blogs below that I like, that will help women get on a plan and stay on that plan.

They are all a little bit different, but they all have something to offer you some new ideas to keep you motivated and on track.

Fitness Motivation with Carrots and Cake;

Carrots and Cake by Tina, who wants people to have their cake and eat it too. She's a married mum, so she knows the challenges that so many women face balancing everything life throws your way.

Apart from having the most wonderful friendly smile, Tina will help make you feel better about including healthy cheat treats into your diet.

Her blog was created to help women find a diet plan that would allow them to get their diet on track, learn how to exercise, and learn how to cook.

Learn how to cheat on your diet in a good way, and you can see some comic relief on the site that makes it a much better place to be.

Tina is also responsive to any questions left on her site, so I suggest you reach out to her for any personal tips that you might want.

Fitness Motivation with Fit Bottomed Girls;

fit bottomed girls

Fit Bottomed Girls is a blog that is dedicated to making women fit and strong, without any fad diets.

Follow this site to see your curves change, and you will start to feel like what you are doing will work.

There are many women who I think come to this site because they want to look their best. They can learn how to diet, and they can learn a lot of things about how they can lift and get strong.

Plus, the name of the sit is a good play on a Queen title, and that's pretty cool in itself:).

Fit Bottomed Girls is a place where women can come to learn something that they did not know about their bodies, and feel encouraged by seeing other regular women who are following a healthy lifestyle, without becoming obsessed with the latest fitness fad.

Fitness Motivation with Blogilates;

blogilates

Blogilates is the new yoga.

Created by Cassey Ho, this site will introduce you to her own style of fitness blended with fun.

Pilates is just one thing that you can do to get fit, but you will find that coming to this site will help you learn how the Pilates program will change your life, and you will feel like you can get the best tips for this.

You have to do something that you can feel comfortable with, and you could learn some tips not just about the mat workouts but about the machines.

The machines in Pilates could be very motivating, and you will find that you can use the blog as a way to pick up tips on the Pilates workout plan.

Pilates can change a woman's whole life because it makes her feel young and look younger.

Fitness Motivation with Workout Mommy

workoutmommy

Workout Mommy has created a beautiful blog that chronicles all her adventures with food and dieting with children.

As a single mum with four children, Lisa knows just how hard it can be, and her site is dedicated to helping you stay motivated and on task.

She is working hard on the diet that she has formulated, and she often explains how a woman could make her own food, change the way that they are managing their food, and help these women look amazing because they are also working out as part of their program.

Workout Mommy explains the workouts that she does, and she has a lot of motivational tips on the site that are useful to ladies when they need a little bit more help changing their lifestyle or their diet.

Fitness Motivation with Nerd Fitness;

nerdfitness

Nerd Fitness is a place for people to go when they do not feel like they could actually start working out.

Steve Kamb and his team at Nerd Fitness want to share their message, that fitness is for everyone.

I think that's a great mindset!

The women who come to this blog are probably working in sciences, office jobs or other areas that have never given them a chance to learn how to work out or get in shape, and they need assistance learning how to get started.

These women need a boost of confidence in their workout plans because they do not know if they can do it. They go to nerd fitness because it talks to them in their language.

You can have a chance to feel completely different about your body, and they will have many options for changing your workouts or overhauling your lifestyle.

Anyone who is afraid of starting out should remember that they can check our and join the Nerd Fitness team.

Fitness Motivation with Breaking Muscle;

Breaking Muscle has done a great job of helping women understand that they can build muscle into their bodies just like anyone else.

The site has a collection of contributed articles by expert fitness trainers and nutritionists, that cover a really broad range of topics, so there is likely to be something new to learn for any of us.

A woman who wants to get strong without being too muscular could use the site as a way to learn how you can be lean and trim.

These women will start to feel like they have brand new bodies, and they can come back to the site for more tips and tricks.

You will find that you can ask questions in the articles if you want to get more information about working out and changing your body.

Fitness Motivation with Fitness on Toast;

Fitness on Toast

Fitness On Toast was created by Faya Nilsson and shares her love of nutrition, fitness and fashion with you.

The site has a really interesting list of categories that will keep you browsing for hours.

Some of my favorites were the Fit Tech, where Faya shares details of all kinds of great new fitness gadgets to help keep you on track, and the Why To category, that has an interesting collection of articles on why to do things like, cook with spices, or drink coffee.

The mixture of fashion with fitness and healthy lifestyle that Faya has created here, really aligns with my own heart, and it is one of my favorite sites to go to in search of new fitness motivation.

Perhaps it will become one of your favorites too.

Fitness Motivation with Hungry Runner Girl;

Hungry Runner Girl

Hungry Runner Girl is created by Janae who runs often and competitively. She is working very hard to get her body into shape with a run every day, and she has built up a diet around her runs and her lifestyle choices.

Having three children and a husband to care for as well, it's really motivational that she fits in so much training, and has achieved a sub 3hr marathon time to go with it.

You will find a really useful collection of running workouts and diet tips, so for those who are attracted to running for fitness, this site rocks!

Fitness motivation comes in all styles, and this style appeals to my own heart:).

Fitness Motivation for You;

If you really just need a quick hit of fitness motivation then check out this list of 101 motivational quotes, that's sure to have something that will give you a lift.

The women who come to these websites are looking for the best motivation that they can find, searching for something that speaks to them personally, to find the extra motivation that keeps them going to reach their next goal.

I hope that you will all find something on these sites that motivates you, as I have.

I find them all to be really genuine and gimmick free, which is a great starting point for me:)

If you've found another motivational site that has helped you with your fitness or healthy eating, please share it with us in the comments below, as I always love reading new content by people with a passion for health and fitness.

Beginner Yoga for Weight Loss

Yoga for weight loss really works!

Yoga for weight loss might not seem like the in thing to do, with all the new fancy fitness classes around now, but it is.

Even if you are more the type who enjoys lifting weights and intense cardio sessions, you can gain a lot from incorporating yoga for weight loss into your training.

Yoga offers so many great benefits and yoga for weight loss is also a thing.

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It turns out that yoga is actually a very effective way to torch calories and to help you to reach your weight loss goals without really feeling like you are trying super hard.

Yoga is quite enjoyable and also helps to stretch and lengthen your body.

It is also a great way to relax and unwind after a long and stressful day or to start a busy and hectic day.

Either way, it is a great way to give your mind and body an emotional and physical lift.

Yoga helps to reduce cortisol levels which are associated with stress and stress can lead to "bad" actions such as overeating and thus, weight gain. By simply lowering your cortisol levels you will be able to lose weight naturally.

Try a nice deep stretch to relax and unwind, with a pose like the extended side angle pose demonstrated in this video;

Just like with anything that you apply yourself to, the more that you put into it, the more that you will get out of it.

Yoga is all about challenging yourself and trying new things. Even if you do not consider yourself to be extremely fit or flexible, you can work your way to new levels of flexibility and strength as you work on yourself each time you do yoga.

Many people think that they have to be moving at a fast pace and sweating all over the place in order to get a good workout and to lose weight but this a myth.

Yoga for weight loss is a very efficient and effective way to shed access pounds, and it keeps your metabolism revving throughout the day, even after your yoga session.

There are many different asanas or "poses" that you can try. "Asana" actually means "to be in a comfortable seated position."

This type of yoga comes from Ashtanga yoga and refers to the physical exertion as well as the relaxation of your mental state. By practicing asanas, you will enjoy the great benefits of internal and external awareness.

Most of the poses in yoga are repeated, and you will work the muscles on one side of the body at a time instead.

Yoga Poses

One good asana to start your routine with is the wide-legged forward bend, also known as the Prasarita Padottanasana.

For this pose, you will place your hands so that they are touching the floor before you. You can also stretch out your shoulders for an extra stretch. You will spread your feet about 3-4 feet apart and then bend forward at the hips.

You want to keep your back nice and straight. You should feel your hamstrings stretch. Hold this position for about five breaths and then clasp your hands right behind your back before bringing them back up towards the ceiling.

Another asana is the lunge where you stretch out your hips. If you sit for a long period so time this is a good way to stretch out those tight hips.

This pose will also help you to become more flexible. You can choose where you want your arms to be, but you will actually be stretching your muscles in the location that your hands are.

For example, if you position your hands on your knee directly in front of you, you will not be stretching your hips as deep as if you were to place them up and tilted backward.

No matter where you decide to put your hands you want to keep your knee at a steady 90-degree angle. Hold your pose for 30 seconds and repeat on your other side.

There are many different asana poses that you can try and you'll want to try as many as you can so that you'll give your body different things to try and to challenge yourself to stretch a little further and to work out different muscle groups.

It will also give you the opportunity to see how flexible you are and what poses are your very favorite.

Some other asana poses to try to include the following;

Yoga for weight loss, poses;

Standing Forward Bend;

Plank Pose;

Tree Pose;

Four Limbed Staff;

Warrior I;

Warrior II;

Cow Pose;

Warrior III pose; and,

shoulder stand.

If you've done aerobic or other types of workout routines or followed along to a workout tape, you may find that some of these moves are incorporated into the workout routines so you'll already know some of these fat-blasting yoga moves.

To do the Shoulder stand, you will actually hold your body upside down. It is considered to be an inversion, and you will lie on your back to begin. Then you will bend your knees slightly as you press your feet into the air.

Put your hands on the ground and use them to slowly roll yourself backward and on your upper back slowly. You will want to bring your hands to the lower part of your back as you do this right above your hips in order to keep yourself upright and balanced. Extend your legs towards the sky and hold for about six breaths, Your goal will be to hold for 30 seconds, but it can take some practice to work up to that.

The Child's Pose is a common stretch that is often done after a workout to help stretch out the muscles that have been worked.

It is very simple yet very effective. For this pose, you simply have to bend your knees and sit with your derriere resting on your heels.

You should bend your knees quite wide and rest your head on the mat in front of you. You can rest your arms behind or in front of you.

This pose is also an effective relaxation pose so you should not be tense or strained in any way. You need to simply breathe in and out for six breaths or for as long as you feel you need to.

The Chair Pose is another common type of squat that you may have done in your legs of iron workout video.

It seems simple enough but will make your legs and arms burn in no time.

All you do is squat but hold that position with arms raised. It is an effective weight loss move, and you will feel it in your muscles for sure.

You'll also want to keep your feet together and squat as low as you can go. You should be able to see your feet before your knees but if you can't you're not doing it right, and your knees are bent forward too much.

Your yoga for weight loss practice

Yoga is not a new fad or a trend that is going to go away anytime soon. It has been shown to offer great benefits to the body as well as the mind and is all about balance.

Yoga is all about the balance of mind and body and is a quiet way to energize your whole being so that you can face the many challenges that life throws your way.

It is something that you can do anywhere and in a very small space. You do not need to buy any fancy equipment or even go to a gym class to do it.

All you need is a mat, for extra comfort, and yourself. You don't even need to splurge on fancy training shoes. You don't even need socks. Yet it is very effective in helping you to reach your goals in life and to find the balance that you are seeking.

Different yoga poses will offer different benefits to different parts of your body. Some poses will help to stretch out your muscles, some will help to elongate your entire body. Some will help to support the skeletal structure of your body, and still, others will help improve your circulation.

You will also find that you can challenge yourself and as you get more familiar with the moves, you can even bind your poses to give yourself a deeper stretch.

When you bind in yoga, you are basically linking your hands in order to rotate your torso as well as your shoulders.

They are more challenging, so you may not be able to do it right away, but as you increase your flexibility, it is a great way to really up your yoga session and really give your body a good stretch.

Binding requires a considerable amount of strength as well, and you will need to be able to touch your hands together. This is easier said than done but you can always work your way up to it.

It also requires mental balance and concentration.

No matter what your fitness level is or how much or how little you know about yoga, you have to start somewhere.

The important thing is to stick to it. It's like anything, you need to build on what you already know and what you have already done so just spend some time on yourself every day Even if you can only squeeze in a couple of yoga moves into your busy schedule, it is better than nothing.

You need to take time to breathe and to give something back to yourself.

There is no excuse to skip out on your time or to neglect yourself.

You need to be revived from time to time so that you can complete the tasks that you need to complete or to be able to give your family the happy self that you can truly be.

In other words, you need a break, and you need to take it. Do something good for your body and your mind, and you'll be more productive as well.

in Recipes & Food by Ana Maria

What are Macro Nutrients and Why You Should Care!

What are macro nutrients?

You might think that the question, what are macro nutrients is pretty boring, but you'd be wrong. You really should care!

Quick Navigation

What are macro nutrients; the different types

What are macro nutrients - calculating macros in your diet;

What are macro nutrients - Protein calculation

What are macro nutrients - Fat calculation

What are macro nutrients - Carbohydrate calculation

What mix of macro nutrients is right for you?

So many people think they are eating healthy, but because they miss understand, or don't even think about macro nutrients, their body is actually becoming really unhealthy.

Those who have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later have to find time for illness. - Edward Stanley

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Mostly, the word nutrition is linked with 'whatever we eat' but in the real sense, the word has a wider perspective and implication.

Sports nutrition is a topic that can be sub-categorized under the broader topic of Nutrition.

The feature that sets apart sorts nutrition from its parent category is that it is different, a lot different.

Have you ever compared the physical structure of a 100 m sprinter with that of an average student who doesn't indulge in sports much?

There are distinct differences that exist. The extent to which each person's body can perform varies dramatically.

The sprinter can run a distance of 100 m in around 12 seconds but that isn’t possible for the skinny college student without any experience in sports.

In the same way, the sprinter can accelerate quickly to high speeds; she can use the power of her shoulders and upper torso to thrust her entire body forward. She is able to do so because her body is physiologically much different from the other college student.

The runner has a higher muscle mass, a properly developed lower body which includes powerful quadriceps, gluteus, hamstring and calves. Her upper body complements with whatever her lower body does.

She has a properly toned body with minimal fat percentage so she has to haul a minimum 'extra' weight at a high speed.

This is just the outer physical features we can observe. What about the internal features? Her lung capacity? Her VO2 threshold? Her lactic acid threshold?

This has to be different as well. What about her energy system? Shouldn't that be different as well? Tweaked and mastered to deliver maximum energy? To produce this explosive energy, shouldn't her food intake be different from that of the other college student?

The answer to all these questions is yes.

Her internal and external physical features are much different and her body behaves, anticipates and works in a much different way as compared to any non-athletic person.

This behavior of her body demands different type of nutrition.

This is where sports nutrition sets itself apart from regular nutrition. Regular FDA recommendation may tell you to eat 2200 calories. But 2200 calories doesn't do justice to a weight-lifter who lifts 60 Kg in snatch and clean!

Her requirements, her bodies working capacity is much different from that of the average woman.

The same holds true for people who are active and want to sculpt their body. Their energy demand is much different than that of an average person living a sedentary lifestyle.

Since we're already on the topic of 'energy', this is where we can start our discussion of macro nutrients. Our body needs energy to survive, it is a simple concept. Our bodies have been tuned to extract energy from different resources. These resources include:

The food we eat (macro nutrients)
The fat we store
Our body's lean mass (Muscle and bone)

Our body's prime function is to continue to provide us with energy in order to perform vital bodily tasks.

The energy is mostly extracted from whatever we eat.

This 'food we eat' or better put, 'macro nutrients' are responsible to provide us with basic energy (Hence the name 'Macro'). Macro nutrients come in three broad categories.

They are known as Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats.

Each of these macro nutrients can be subdivided into a hundred different subcategories!

Each macro nutrient has a particular function and purpose in the body.

Broadly speaking, the general purpose is to provide our body with energy. How much energy does each macro nutrient provide? It is quite simple.

This is merely an oversimplification of how our body produces energy from the supplied macro nutrients.

There are hundreds of different variables and considerations that the body silently takes care of and then switches back and forth to different energy systems.

There are countless hormones, chemical reactions involved and the biochemistry can easily overwhelming.

However, I've made an attempt to simplify all the topics that need to be explained for your understanding of 'Nutrition, for body sculpting and recomposition.'

Let's start by taking a brief look on each of these macro nutrients.

What are macro nutrients; the different types

Fats;

No one likes them, everyone avoids them yet they are responsible for many important bodily functions.

One quality of fats that sets them apart from Carbs and proteins is their energy density.

Unlike carbs or proteins, 1 g of fat yields 9 calories of energy.

This may seem spectacular but fats are the hardest to burn for energy.

They are energy-efficient yet slow, meaning that they are an ideal candidate for energy storage. This energy store comes in handy on a rainy day when there aren't enough calories present from carbs and proteins.

Under such circumstances, the body burns fat for energy. Other functions of fats include:

Protects vital organs

Act as a solvent for absorption of many vitamins and minerals

Important for formation of hormones (Testosterone!)

Fats can be subdivided into 4 categories.

These subcategories are made on the basis of the double bond present between carbon atoms.

My apologies for diving deep into the world of biochemistry but this knowledge will come in handy when you are looking for healthy fats to consume during your weight training regimen.

Saturated Fats: These fats are saturated, meaning, they have no double bonds. This tells us that the fat is already fully saturated with Hydrogen atoms.

These kind fats are usually solid at room temperature.

Examples include animal fat, Lard, fat found in cheese. Saturated fats are important as they are a basic building block of a variety of hormones and cell membranes.

The downside is that an excess of these fats can raise blood cholesterol levels.

Monosaturated Fats: These fats only have a single double bond. These fats are usually liquid at room temperature. Examples include olive oil and canola oil.

The specialty of Monosaturated fats is that they help us protect against heart disease and blood cholesterol build up.

Polyunsaturated Fats: Polyunsaturated fats have two or more carbon double bonds.

Polyunsaturated fats are known to reduce the risk of Coronary heart disease. They are liquids at room temperature as well.

Polyunsaturated fats can be subdivided into 2 important subcategories:

Omega 3 Fatty Acids: Have a positive impact on cardiovascular health. Sources include Oily fish (Salmon, Mackerel), Soybean and rapeseed.

Omega 6 Fatty Acids: Have a positive impact on brain function and normal growth. Sources include seeds and nuts (Peanuts, walnuts, Cashews)

We will further explore Omega 3 & 6 essential fatty acids in the section 'Essential fatty acid supplementation.'

Trans Fatty Acids: Trans Fatty acids are chains of unsaturated fats combined together in a Trans configuration.

This is done mainly by hydrogenation of vegetable oil. This is a seriously unhealthy type of fat that must be avoided at all costs.

It is usually found in foods like margarine and baked goods (biscuits, cakes). Trans fat intake elevates the risk of heart disease.

Proteins;

The favorite macronutrient of anyone who weight trains!

Proteins are made up of smaller biological units called amino acids.

Amino acids come together to form polypeptide chains of varying shape, size and compactness.

A typical protein may consist of 20 Amino Acids, other Proteins may contain thousands of these Amino Acids.

Protein is present abundantly in the body. It is present in your hair, tendons, muscles, ligaments and even skin.

Talking about dietary protein; this protein has multiple functions:

Improves Immune system function
Required for growth
Required for tissue repair
Needed for the production of enzymes & hormones
Needed for lean muscle mass

In total there are 20 known Amino Acids.

Out of these 20, the body can synthesize (Make on its own using dietary Protein as a source of Amino Acids) almost 11 of them.

The rest of the 9 Amino Acids cannot be synthesized by the body and as a result, they must be included in the diet.

These Amino Acids are known as essential amino acids. The list of essential Amino Acids includes:

isoleucine
threonine
tryptophan
valine
leucine
methionine
phenylalanine
histidine

We often hear the phrases 'Animal Protein' and 'Plant Protein'.

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between the two?

Animal protein is called a high quality Protein or complete Protein because it contains all essential amino acids.

On the other hand, plant protein doesn't contain the complete profile of essential amino acids. But that doesn't mean animal protein is useless.

Taken with a combination of sources, the amino acid profile can be easily completed.

For example, rice together with lentils contains the complete essential amino acid profile.

Similarly, chickpeas with bread or potatoes with lentils complete the essential amino acid profile in the same way a grilled beef steak does.

Proteins can also be utilized by the body as a source of energy; however, proteins are hard to break down.

The energy required by the body to break down Proteins is relatively high and for this reason, body's preferred source of fuel isn't Protein.

How much Protein does a healthy person require? We'll calculate that in the section 'Determining ratios of macro nutrients for your diet'.

Carbohydrates;

Next up we have the self sacrificing Carbs! To keep things simple, we'll divide the Carbohydrates group into 2 categories:

Simple Carbohydrates: Simple Carbohydrates or mono-saccharides are ready made sugars. These types of carbohydrates cannot be further broken down into simple sugars.

Examples of simple sugars include glucose and fructose.

Complex Carbohydrates: Complex Carbohydrates or poly-saccharides contain strings of simple sugars.

This means that these Carbohydrates need to be broken down in order to get digested or to be used as fuel.

Some examples of complex carbohydrates include lactose, maltodextrins and amylopectin.

The human body is a master of converting carbohydrates into energy.

Carbohydrate is the body's preferred source of fuel. The brain constantly needs glucose, the liver needs and stores glycogen, the muscles store glycogen as well.

This way, carbohydrates are needed by the entire body in one form or the other. Basic functions of Carbohydrates include:

A major energy source for the body

Helps to maintain bodyweight

Prevents Fat accumulation

Helps in digestion and bowel movement

Involved in organ repair

Food for brain

Dietary fiber is another form of Carbohydrates.

Dietary fiber is a form on non-starch Carbs. Dietary Fiber consists of indigestible parts of plant food (Cellulose).

This property of dietary fiber helps us with our gastro intestinal track.

The indigestible fiber ensures a good transit time (Time interval between eating a particular food and excreting it!), avoids problems like constipation and protects us from serious problems like colon cancer.

How much Carbs does a healthy person require? We'll calculate that in the section 'Determining ratios of macro nutrients for your diet'

What are macro nutrients - calculating macros in your diet;

So now you know what are macro nutrients, but we're not finished yet, because you still need to know how to calculate them in your diet.

Depending what you are wanting to achieve from your diet, i.e maintain weight, lose weight, gain weight, and how active you are in daily life and training, you will need a different amount of total calories, because, well, everyone is different!

If you really want to to understand the hows and whys of calculating your total caloric requirements, I suggest you take a look at, how to determine your daily caloric needs, by free dieting.

But, if you'd just like to know the answer, without having to worry about all the scientific stuff, go straight to their free and easy daily caloric needs calculator here.

Daily Caloric Calculator

Once you know your total daily caloric needs, that needs to be broken down into how much of each macro nutrient your body needs.

Determining the right ratio of Carbs, protein and fats from your diet isn't less than a work of art!

A person consuming 2200 calories in a certain ratio could be losing weight but alter the mix while keeping the calories constant, he/she may start to gain weight.

You can never underestimate the effectiveness of the proportions by which you take your macro nutrients.

Another thing to remember is that macro nutrients are sometimes very unforgiving.

An extra 100 calories of fat consumed daily adds up to 36500 calories a year which can be translated into 4.7 Kg of fat!

And who wants that!!

Of course, the body has its own regulatory system which will resist it gaining this exact 4.7 Kgs as fat but a 2 Kg gain resulting from 36500 excess calories annually doesn't seem like a far-fetched assumption. After all, the human body has a limit to its resilience.

To give you a summary of all the steps, this is what we are going to do:

1
Find your recommended protein intake (g/kg) and multiply it by your total weight to get your protein requirement in Calories.
2
Multiply your total caloric intake (Calculated earlier) and multiply it by 0.3 (Range is 0.25 – 0.35) to get your fat requirement. This is based on the assumption that 25 % - 35 % of your calories should come from fat.
3
Total Calorie intake – Value in step 1 – Value in step 2 = Calories from Carbohydrates!

What are macro nutrients - Protein calculation

I usually start off with my favorite macro nutrient (The protein). RDA recommends a meager 0.8 grams per Kg of body weight for an individual.

This usually works fine for a couch potato who doesn't do much throughout the day.

For athletes and people who train/workout daily, this recommended dose of Protein isn't enough.

Let's look at another table that categorizes Protein intake for different people:

Category Type	Activity List	Protein Requirement
Category 1	Sedentary Lifestyle. Sitting, talking. Little /Almost no physical activity throughout the day.	0.8 g/kg
Category 2	Sedentary lifestyle 2. Little walking but no exercise. Some physical activity but nothing that can be labeled as ‘Exercise’.	0.8 – 1.2 g/kg
Category 3	Moderately active. Weight training with light weights for 30 – 45 minutes daily.	1.2 - 1.8 g/kg
Category 4	Active Lifestyle. Hitting the weights hard for 45 – 60 minutes + 20 minutes of Cardio training	1.6 – 2.2 g/kg
Category 5	Intense physical activity. Weight training for 60 and over minutes, hitting the weight really hard. 30 - 45 minutes of Cardio Conditioning.	2.2 - 2.8 g/kg

Pick out a numerical value from column 3 based on the activity list that best describes you and then multiply it with your weight. This will give you the grams of Protein. Multiply this with 4 and you will get calories from Protein. Confused? Here’s an example:

If I weigh 60 Kgs and I’m moderately active, this is what I’ll do to calculate my protein requirement:

Select Category 3 and my magic number becomes around 1.6
Grams from protein: 92 x 1.6 (Weight x Multiplier) = 96 g
Calories from Protein: 147.6 g x 4 (Because 1 gram = 4 calories for Protein) =384

What are macro nutrients - Fat calculation

This one is simple. Whatever your daily caloric intake is (As calculated above), multiply it by 0.3. This will be the number of calories you require from fat.

For example, if 2400 calories is your magic number

Multiplying it by 0.3 gives:

720 Calories.

720 Calories out of 24 00 Calories should come from Fats.

Let’s put it in another way:

720 / 9 = 80 grams

80 grams of fats are allowed ( 1 gram of fat = 9 calories )

What are macro nutrients - Carbohydrate calculation

Whatever number you’re left behind is the amount of calories you need from carbohydrates.

Carbohydrate Requirement =

Total Calorie intake – Protein Calculation – Fat Calculation = Carbs required.

What mix of macro nutrients is right for you?

Again, that's a question that needs a really personalised answer.

It depends on your current conditioning, life style, training, and what your goals are.

Here is another helpful macro nutrient calculator which you can use to help you get your macro mix right. Try this best macro calculator

If losing some weight, and achieving a toned physique sounds like what you are looking for, then I've covered a lot more detail in this blog on sports nutrition for the body you want.

Even once you've worked out what mix of macro nutrients is correct for you, it can still be a hard task to come up with meal plans that keep your diet healthy.

These 31 clean eating recipes will really help out, giving you easy to make choices for healthy lunch or dinner meals.

Choosing the right balance of macro nutrients will keep your body fueled, with good energy levels to perform at its best, and keep your system functioning and healthy.

Selecting foods that are rich in nutrients just makes sense, and can have a huge impact on your health.

So, happy eating, and remember;

Your diet is a bank account. Good food choices are good investments - Bethenny Franke

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in Fitness Training by Ana Maria

Your Fit Body Goals Understood

Body goals are creating your reality

Why are body goals creating your reality?

Whatever goals that you set as a vision for your body, will drive the creation of what it ultimately becomes.

Not having any set body goals, leaves it totally to chance, whereas setting proper body goals gives you direction, and a sense of accomplishment when you've realised your goals.

The tips, resources and advice I'm sharing with you here will help you to cut through all the noise and confusion that's around, and create your own body goals, to ensure that you get the great results, for the body that you want.

Set your own body goals

Just remember, always set your own goals. Don't become obsessed with constantly comparing yourself with others. We are all different, and people are all at different stages of training and development, so often comparing yourself to others is not giving you an accurate comparison.

The images portrayed by many celebrities or fitness models in the main stream media, or on social media, is not the reality of their 24/7 lives, rather it is either an artificially modified image, or a snap shot in a brief period where they have a peak physique, not something they maintain over a long period.

Lots of us measure our level of fitness by bluntly standing on a weighing scale. The rest of the story depends on what the scale tells us. But if we go a little deeper and analyze the correlation between our weight and fitness, we come to realize that there isn’t any.

Consider a 70- kg female boxer in the heavy weight division and contrast her with an average office assistant who weighs only 50 kg. Can you determine who is more physically fit merely by looking at their weight? I don’t think so.

There must be much more to fitness, and setting proper body goals than just analyzing one’s weight.

How about height? Height is a good identifier when it is coupled with weight as it helps to determine how the weight is distributed around the body.

So far we have two fitness identifiers, height and weight, but there is much more to fitness than just height and weight.

I know a college teenager who was 5’ 9” and weighed only 55 kg. By most standards, she was underweight according to her height and weight. The astonishing thing about this girl was that she was actually underweight and fat.

After some initial measurements, the college student underwent a detailed body composition test that discovered she had a fat percentage of over 30%, which technically made her obese even though she was underweight by all other standards.

To analyze your fitness fully, you should undergo proper testing and measurement first, by getting yourself checked by professionals.

This means checking for vitals (BP, rate of respiration, etc.) and going through the basic medical tests.

Body composition test

Second comes a body composition test. This is crucial for your fitness and body goals as it tells you exactly where you stand in terms of fitness and how far you are from your ideal body goals.

A typical body composition test result would look like the table below:

Body Type	Athletic
Gender	Female
Age	30 Years
Height	175 cm
Weight	62.3 kg
BMI	22
BMR	1411 Kcal
Impedance	530 Ohm
Fat%	13.80%
Fat Mass	8.6 kg
FFM	52.7 kg
TBW	40 kg

*Actual Result extracted from Tanita Body Composition Analyzer TBF 410

While Tanita have a range of body composition monitors that are suited to most people as an in home solution, the In Body company provides equipment on a more industrial / fitness center level, to accurately measure body composition.

If there is a fitness center near you that has one of the In Body monitors that you can use, I'd suggest taking a test, as you will get lot's of great data from which to formulate your body goals.

In Body have a great web page on their site, which explains why focusing on body composition is much better than focusing on weight loss or gain alone, along with other great tips on setting body goals that are right for you.

I'd suggest that you check it out via this link.

Cardiovascular fitness

Another good measure of how physically fit you are is to test your cardiovascular fitness.

This is your bodies ability to transport and use oxygen during exercise.

The K. G. Jebsen Center of Exercise in Medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, put together a test to give yourself a measure of this, compared to a world wide average. You can try it by going to their site below;

Your body goals change

What are healthy body goals for you will change, depending on many factors, such as where you are in your training journey, how disciplined you are able to be with your diet, and realistically your basic genetic make up.

As your body ages, what are realistic body goals will change as well.

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It's nice to believe that "age is just a number' and I'm all for pushing yourself as hard as you can no matter what your age, but understanding how you need to adapt to your body's aging process is just a sensible thing to understand.

ERIBA science hall have built a really good resource, that helps explain what aging means for the human body. I suggest no matter what your age, you'll find something of interest that improves your understanding of your body. Check out the site below;

Important terms for body goals

Before going any further, let’s define some of the terms we’ll be discussing, and that you'll come across along with abbreviations used and some exercises referred to, which may be new to you.

Fat Percentage: Percentage of fat in your body by mass.

Fat % = (Fat Mass / Total Mass) x 100

BMI: Body Mass Index indicates the amount of fat in a body by considering height and weight.

BMI = Mass ( kg) / (Height (m)) ²

The result of the BMI can be analyzed to deduce in which category you fall.

BMI < 18.5	Underweight
18.5 < BMI < 25	Normal
25 < BMI < 30	Overweight
BMI > 30	Obese

BMR: Basal Metabolic Rate. This is the number of calories your body burns in a day if you do not move at all. BMR constitutes the calories consumed in bodily processes such as digestion, respiration, maintaining core temperature, etc.

FFM: Fat Free Mass. This is the total weight of your body if we disregard the weight of the fat.

FFM = Total Weight - Weight of Fat

TBW: Total Body Water. This is the weight of water contained in the body.

1RM: This is the maximum amount of weight you can lift if you were to perform a single repetition of a given exercise

Repetitions performed until failure: This means that repetitions are continued until you cannot physically move the weight to complete a further repetition.

I note that this is not just till you feel a bit tired during a set, or it’s getting really hard to move the weight. It means that you physically cannot complete the repetition.

Also, not to confuse the issue, I note that sometimes once completing full repetitions becomes impossible, you may still be able to complete partial repetitions, and this allows you to continue to work the muscles until you cannot move the weight at all.

Training splits: Training splits, or split routines refers to a training methodology wherin workouts are structured so that exercises which work different body parts, or different types of training are programed to occur during different workouts, or on different days.

For example, I might train lower body on one training day, and the next training day train upper body. Or, I might train chest and biceps on one training day, and the next train back and triceps.

Hypertrophy Stimulus: Is a term for activity causing muscle hypertrophy, such as resistance training through such things as body weight exercise or weight lifting.

Muscle Hypertrophy: Is a term for the growth and increase of the size of muscle cells.

Set: A set is the total number of repetitions / lifts that are completed in a row without rest.

For example you might complete three sets, with 20 repetitions in the first 15 repetitions in the second and 5 repetitions in the third, which would commonly be shown as the weight lifted by the number of repetitions in the set. i.e 50 x 20, 80 x 15, 100 x 5. The workout for that exercise would therefore have comprised of three sets.

Super Setting: In a superset, multiple exercises are performed back-to-back without any rest period.

Smith Machine: A piece of equipment commonly used in weight training, comprising a barbell fixed between two steel posts / rails, usually counterbalanced, allowing only vertical movement of the barbell. Commonly used for exercises such as overhead pressing, or some variaitions of squatting.

V02 Max: Is the maximum oxygen uptake or the maximum volume of oxygen that can be utilized in one minute during maximum exercise. It is measured as milliliters of oxygen used in one minute per kilogram of body weight. It is used as one factor to assist in determining an athlete’s capacity to perform sustained exercise, and is linked to aerobic endurance.

Deadlift: An exercise in weightlifting in which the weight, being plates fixed to either end of a barbell is lifted from the floor to the level of the hips and then lowered by controlled effort to the floor.

Squat: An exercise in weightlifting where you squat down as if you were sitting in a squat position with your bum touching your heels, then stand back up, with a weighted barbell across your upper back.

DB Flyes: An exercise in which you lay flat on a bench holding a dumbell in both hands and extend your arms out to the side, then raise them up and continue to raise and lower as if flapping your wings, in a controlled motion.

Stasis dermatitis: is an inflammatory skin condition that develops following fluid build-up, or blood pooling (stasis), just under the skin as a result of problematic circulation.

Body goals and target setting

What are your body goals? What do you want ultimately to achieve?

Realization, and visualisation of your goals is a very important step for the start of your program.

Your goals need to be high enough to make you work hard, but also realistic so that you don’t give up trying.

A sensible goal can make the difference between a well-motivated individual and a dejected person who gives up soon after she starts her quest for the ideal body.

For example, my goal after spending many years behind an office desk was to reduce my body fat percentage from around 26% to 14%, with my weight staying relatively stable at around 62 kg to 65 kg.

This meant that I needed to exchange fat mass for lean body mass. My strength (muscle) content had dropped off over the years and had been replaced by fat, and I needed to reverse that before it got worse in the interest of my health and general performance and enjoyment in all areas of life.

Committing to and achieving measurable body goals like this gives you the confidence to realize that you can continue with the process and achieve further goals.

Achieving your fitness goals will assist you in so many other areas of your life, I assure you.

A further example of a realistic goal, especially for women, is a fat percentage of 16%, with a total body weight remaining unchanged.

To achieve this goal, depending what condition your body is starting in, you may have to gain a considerable amount of lean mass while losing some body fat.

This goal would indicate someone who is likely to be starting at a better general fitness level, based on the lower body fat levels, but the significant gain in muscle mass combined with trimming down body fat levels will produce impressive results both in appearance and athletic performance.

Generally speaking, women have a higher fat percentage than men.

The bar is much stricter for men than it is for women. There are obvious physiological differences between men and women that cannot be overlooked, which is why I am writing this more specifically for women.

Below is a fat percentage chart that will give you an idea where you stand in terms of body fat quantity.

	Women (Fat Percentage)	Men (Fat Percentage)
Essential Fat	10-12%	2-4%
Athletes	14-20%	6-13%
Healthy	21-24%	14-17%
Slightly Overweight	25-31%	18-25%
Obese	Beyond 32%	Beyond 25%

Setting realistic body goals can be broken down into smaller, short-term goals as well.

We are all guilty of setting goals and targets that cannot be tracked. This makes them non-ideal or unrealistic to start with.

Targets and goals like, ‘I want to get into my old dresses,’ or, ‘I want six-pack abs,’ aren’t ideal goals to start with.

A good idea is to translate these goals into something quantitative that can be measured throughout your fitness routine.

A target such as, ‘I want to get into my old dresses,’ may be translated into, ‘I want to decrease my waist from 36’ to 30’ while attaining a BMI of 21’.

This makes it measureable and realistic.

A goal such as, ‘I want six packs’, after a bit of research, can be translated into ‘I want a fat percentage of 14% while keeping my ideal bodyweight of 62 kg.

This will show me my six-packs!’

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Time-Framed

Step 1. Setting up a SMART goal

Everyone has different objectives, and everyone wants something different from their fitness regime.

The examples above show you just a few of the goals for which you can aim.

Just remember to break down your ultimate body goals into smaller milestones to keep you motivated as you go for the ultimate goal.

Another important aspect is that your body goals should be time-framed.

You should set aside a realistic date by which you want to attain your ideal body.

This can be three months from now or three years from now depending on your current physical shape.

The time frame should once again be realistic. If you want to lose 12 kg, you shouldn’t go for a time frame of one month.

To time-frame your results, you need to calculate accurately how long it will take to achieve your fitness goal based on realistic expectations of body re-composition change caused by your planned diet and training regime.

This is where proper programming becomes important, as I explain further here. And in this blog about proper training and the principles of progressive overload;

Progressive overload principles of strength training;

If you understand what effect an increase in strength generated from an increase in lean body mass (muscle) will have when combined with a correctly tailored diet, you can pre-determine what your changes in body composition will be.

When you program your strength gains, you can accurately time-frame your fitness goals.

This is where strength training becomes much more effective than other forms of exercise.

Women, generally, have a tendency to shy away from everything related to weight training, but as you will soon discover, it is a very effective way of sculpting your body.

Many fitness athletes have personalized goals that have nothing to do with their body.

These may be something like, ‘Running 100 meters in 10 seconds,’ or, ‘Swimming a 50m butterfly under xyz seconds’.

Fitness goals like these can also work for you. It is not necessary that your fitness goal is closely related to your body, as long as you have a smart goal, you have a good starting point.

Your dream body—Facing the facts!

If you’re looking for some motivational prep talk, now is the time to look away!

Unlike all posts, books, programs and videos that tell you that body recomposition, weight loss, having legs and abs to die for and being fitness model material is a piece of cake, I’m going to tell you that it is one of the hardest things to do.

Life doesn’t give you shortcuts. Sometimes you do get lucky when you win a lottery or something, but that doesn’t happen in physical training, weight loss and body recomposition.

In my experience involved in many different aspects of sport, I haven’t heard of anyone suddenly attaining the body she dreamed of when she was a kid.

It’s a long, hard path, and each day you have to fight.

You have to fight with yourself, physically and mentally. ’

Every day you have to think, ‘Today I am better than yesterday, and no matter what happens tomorrow, I’ll be better than what I am today.’

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Conviction and commitment are two words that you need to stick by if you want to be physically fit and look good at the same time.

Watching Tia Clair Toomey’s extraordinary performance winning a gold medal in the 2018 Commonwealth Games was the easiest thing I had to do.

I was sitting on my couch with my chocolate and coffee while she did things that common folks would never even try.

I wondered about the effort, thinking, and the grueling hours of training that went into her preparation to complete the Olympic lifts.

What about the proper type of nutrition that she had to consume to maintain strength and agility in her body? Just thinking about it made my head spin.

Fitness, performance, and a great body come at a price.

This price includes proper effort and time, but the rewards are worth it.

Programs that promise six-packs in a week are a waste of time. Any program that offers a great shortcut is a clear scam.

Any advertisement that tells of a wonder pill will either give a bucket full of side effects and/or have no effect on your body.

The current consumer market is full of pills, wonder diets, supplements and equipment that give you false hope.

What they do is manipulate people into buying these useless products.

Supplements that are animal tested, pills that are placebo, equipment that makes no sense at all. the market is flooded with such things to attract the unwary. Not all of them are worthless, but, to keep a long story short, most of them are.

A really good resource that I would suggest, which helps sort the facts from the fiction for you, is the site from Simple Science Fitness below;

Their site has lots of great tools to help you understand the different terms and ways of measuring your fitness. They help you to sort what is scientifically proven from what is just fiction, and how exercise truly benefits your body.

Rather than searching for short cuts, you may want to consider working hard for your dream physique.

This is how athletes do it. Prepare and follow a program with discipline, a program that will ensure constant and measurable results, and your body will reward you.

You must also consider time management.

If you’re committed enough, you will surely find the odd hour to dedicate to your health and fitness out of your daily 24 hours.

Excuses like, ‘I don’t have the time,’ and, ‘I’m too busy,’ mean you will fail.

The art is to find time and make the most of it. If you can’t work out in the evening, start working out first thing in the morning. If you can’t wake up a bit earlier in the morning then you’re probably too soft to follow a program that guarantees you your ideal physique!

There is always time, before going to work, in between your morning and evening lecture, before going to bed, or in your office lunch break.

It is up to you how you find time to complete your physical training, and remember, the rest of your life will be better for it.

The right nutrition for your body goals

All the training in the world won't achieve great results, without the right nutrition plan to support your training and body goals.

People will often debate what percentage of a great body is built in the gym versus the kitchen. Even if it's 50-50, you should feel that's important enough to give it some focus in your goal setting and planning.

This post on sports nutrition will explain in detail what you need to know to work out your own proper nutrition plan to support your body goals.

Share your success

I'd love to hear what body goals you've set for yourself, or even already achieved, so please don't be shy and share with me in the comments below, or send me an e-mail with your before and after selfies, and share your success!

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