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The latest fitness training information to keep your body in top condition

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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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!

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 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!

in Fitness Training by Ana Maria

Abs Challenge – 30 Day Workout Plan to get Abs

Perfect abs in 30 days, if you complete the abs challenge

Abs challenge may seem like an empty promise.

But if you stick with it, and complete these ab workouts, one a day, for the next thirty days, you'll be surprised and pleased with just how much better your abs look and feel.

Well defined abs are recognised as the most desired measure of fitness, but it isn't easy to achieve. This abs challenge is designed to gradually progress in intensity, firming and building strong abs that are functional and sexy.

So get started, stay consistent, and in thirty days, hello abs!

Abs challenge workouts

Day 1 15 second bicycle 10 leg raises with hip thrust 10 second plank	Day 2 20 second bicycle 12 leg raises with hip thrust 15 second plank	Day 3 25 second bicycle 14 leg raises with hip thrust 20 second plank	Day 4 30 second bicycle 16 leg raises with hip thrust 25 second plank	Day 5 35 second bicycle 18 leg raises with hip thrust 30 second plank
Day 6 40 second bicycle 20 leg raises with hip thrust 35 second plank	Day 7 45 second bicycle 22 leg raises with hip thrust 40 second plank	Day 8 50 second bicycle 24 leg raises with hip thrust 40 second plank	Day 9 55 second bicycle 26 leg raises with hip thrust 45 second plank	Day 10 60 second bicycle 28 leg raises with hip thrust 50 second plank
Day 11 65 second bicycle 30 leg raises with hip thrust 55 second plank	Day 12 70 second bicycle 32 leg raises with hip thrust 60 second plank	Day 13 75 second bicycle 34 leg raises with hip thrust 65 second plank	Day 14 80 second bicycle 36 leg raises with hip thrust 70 second plank	Day 15 85 second bicycle 38 leg raises with hip thrust 75 second plank
Day 16 90 second bicycle 40 leg raises with hip thrust 60 second plank	Day 17 95 second bicycle 42 leg raises with hip thrust 65 second plank	Day 18 100 second bicycle 42 leg raises with hip thrust 65 second plank	Day 19 105 second bicycle 44 leg raises with hip thrust 70 second plank	Day 20 110 second bicycle 46 leg raises with hip thrust 75 second plank
Day 21 115 second bicycle 48 leg raises with hip thrust 65 second plank	Day 22 120 second bicycle 50 leg raises with hip thrust 70 second plank	Day 23 125 second bicycle 52 leg raises with hip thrust 75 second plank	Day 24 130 second bicycle 54 leg raises with hip thrust 80 second plank	Day 25 135 second bicycle 56 leg raises with hip thrust 85 second plank
Day 26 140 second bicycle 50 leg raises with hip thrust 70 second plank	Day 27 145 second bicycle 52 leg raises with hip thrust 75 second plank	Day 28 150 second bicycle 54 leg raises with hip thrust 80 second plank	Day 29 155 second bicycle 56 leg raises with hip thrust 85 second plank	Day 30 160 second bicycle 58 leg raises with hip thrust 90 second plank

Exercises explained;

The three exercises included in this 30 day abs challenge are reasonably simple, but with daily repetition and the gradual increase in quantity, they are designed to target and tone your abs.

If you're not familiar with these ab exercises, I've recorded a quick demonstration on each below.

Bicycle

The elbows to knees (otherwise known as the bicycle) works both the upper and lower abdominals.

Lie on the ground / mat, with your hands behind your head supporting the neck.

Pull your stomach muscles in toward the spine and lift your knees to a 90-degree angle.

Twist bringing one elbow to meet the opposite knee as that knee is pulled further toward the chest. The opposite leg will straighten.

From here, twist to the other side pulling the straight leg toward the chest and straightening the already bent leg, essentially making the legs mimic the motion made while riding a bicycle.

It is important to keep your breath at a regular pace and to use your hands to support the head, not pull on it. It is not necessary that the elbows actually touch the knees as long as the twisting motion still occurs.

Leg raises with hip thrust

This exercise targets the lower and middle abdominals.

Begin by lying on the floor with your hands resting along the sides of your body.

Bend your knees and keep your feet raised about two inches off the floor.

Slowly bring your knees up toward your chest, contracting your abdominals while raising the pelvis off the floor.

Hold for a second, and then lower your pelvis and legs back to the starting position.

The movements for this exercise should be done slowly and deliberately.

Plank

The plank is not only a great exercise for your upper, middle and lower abdominals; it is great for the entire body.

Start in the push-up position.

Next bend your elbows and lower down shifting weight from your hands to the forearms.

Pull your stomach into the spine to keep the body in a straight line.

Do not let your hips drop or your rear rise.

Hold for the time noted in each days workout. If this is not possible, hold for as long as possible, then take a five second rest and repeat until the time held in the position reaches a minute, or longer as per that days workout.

The plank is a strength move; the more it is done, the longer it will be possible to hold the position.

Beginners may find it easier to drop the knees to the floor until the muscles have built up enough to hold the plank while resting only on the forearms and toes.

Those more advanced might like to make the plank more challenging by extending an arm and the opposite leg in the air. Hold for a set time, and then change sides.

Eating right for your abs challenge

So now you've got the exercises down and dusted for the 30 day abs challenge, but if you really want people to see those defined abs, you need to get your diet right as well.

You can train as much as you like, but if your diet isn't good, your body will struggle to make any meaningful changes.

A good clean eating diet, with the correct amount of macro nutrients like protein, fats and carbohydrate, worked out to suite your personal body and goals, will ensure great results.

For a full guide on how to calculate your macro nutrients check out this post on sports nutrition.

And for some easy clean eating meal ideas, try these 31 recipes.

Garlic Chicken With Roasted Sweet Potato

Wrapping up your abs challenge

I'm sure you'll enjoy completing this 30 day abs challenge, and I invite you to keep going after you've finished your first thirty days.

Why stop there?

Reset, and start another thirty day challenge. Just select some different ab exercises so that your workouts will have some variety, and your body won't get used to the same training.

Keep at it, and before you know it you'll be sharing #fitspo selfies to be proud of!

in Fitness Training by Ana Maria

13 Greatest Myths About Strength Training

Greatest myths about strength training

Myths about strength training have been around since people started training, there’s nothing new about that.

But it seems to me, that there’s an imbalance, with most of the myths being about women and strength training, often mostly believed by women, who therefore avoid proper strength training.

If you’re a guy, you’re over the age of 18, and you believe more than five of these myths about strength training, well sorry, you’re just a lazy man, and the only part of your body likely to be described as large will be your belly

You really should read on, and start lifting some serious weight.

The status is starting to change, with more women understanding the true benefits of proper strength training, and getting involved.

But the topic of weight training has been blessed with a plethora of myths and misinformation.

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Let’s debunk some of these myths and find the truth behind them.

You can’t lose weight with strength training

‘Don’t bench press with so much weight! You’re already obese, if you lift weights the fat will become more solid and it will become even harder to lose’

‘You can’t lose weight with weight training. No one becomes thin while doing weight training; everyone gains weight.’

These two statements bring back teenage memories when I had illiterate mentors! Now I can probably write a book on this single myth about strength training alone.

The fact of the matter is that strength training is a form of exercise. You lift weights, you move your body and to do this, you need energy which is derived from the food you eat or from the fuel reserves (Fat) you have.

Strength training can help you lose weight in the following ways:

Strength training increases lean mass which needs energy to maintain. As a result you end up using calories just maintaining your muscle mass! This inevitably results in increased metabolic rate.
Calories are burnt during a particular workout.
Calories are burnt during the process of muscle hypertrophy

NEED MOTIVATION TO LOSE WEIGHT?

Just eat in front of the mirror. Naked.

You get really fat once you give up strength training

‘What happens is that once you give up weight training, the muscle mass you gained, starts to store excessive amounts of fat and you start to gain weight’

Repeat this sentence in front of anyone who knows basic human anatomy and they will probably call you an idiot!

Muscle mass needs maintenance.

Once you stop working out your muscles, the body feels no need to maintain the same amount of muscle mass so your body starts to lose excess muscle mass that is not required by your daily routine.

The lean mass drop is very gradual.

This decrease in muscle mass doesn’t mean that fat starts to rush into the so called empty spaces.

Most weight trainers get fat because they give up weight training but they don’t give up their eating patterns which were designed to supplement their training routine.

This becomes simple mathematics, they start to eat more than what they burn and as a result they start to become fat.

You will ruin your spine!

‘If you lift weights daily, you will probably dislocate your spinal discs.’

This would have to be one of the all time biggest myths about strength training.

Really, you may or may not; it all depends on how safe you play.

If you lift with proper form for each exercise and the weight you use is well within your control, chances are that your spine will be alright.

The other thing to remember is that weight training actually strengthens your spine.

I’ve known many people with reported back problems whom I suggested light dead lifts coupled with a few other back exercises and the results were very satisfying. Most of them reported that their pain had improved or disappeared altogether.

When I stopped training for a number of years, and my muscles “relaxed” I developed bad back pain, both from previous sporting injury which became active because of the lack of muscle support and just the fact that I was spending hours sitting at a desk.

I developed bad problems in my lower back, which progressed to my upper back, and then the middle of my back. I was in my late twenties and sometimes felt crippled by the pain. I fixed that by weight training to increase my muscle strength.

I told a champion power lifter, I don’t think I should do dead lifts because of my bad back.

He asked me;

Are you crippled? Do you ever pick up your luggage, or the shopping?

I understood the point.

I refused to accept my fear of doing more injury to my back, which was a natural protective instinct, just the same as when you have bad back pain, you don’t want to brush your teeth or sit in the one spot for too long.

I started dead lifting, and never looked back. (No pun intended) Yes, sometimes I feel some weakness in my lower back. Anyone training seriously with dead lifts usually will. And I listen to my body and adjust my training sets to suite, but I always make sure that I’m working properly.

As a result, after a period of about six months, I didn't have any more back pain. It feels strong and stable, and I have stopped paying the physios and chiropractors for what used to be almost weekly visits.

Yes, you will find lots of advice from physios and chiropractors, that will tell you to stay well away from moves such as the dead lift, and I’m not saying they’re always wrong.

But please use some of your own judgment as well, and even just try some gentler strengthening moves for your back first.

As you feel it improving, your confidence will also improve and you can continue to advance.

As you do that, you will leave the back pain behind. I’m sorry, but your back pain will be replaced by sore leg muscles if you are dead lifting, but I’m sure you’ll find that positively enjoyable, when you start to see the muscle gains that change your body.

In fact, I have known a chiropractor who is a power lifting champion, who has set dead lifting records.

Yes, he handles extreme weight, and so puts his joints out from time to time, but I’m sure that he doesn’t advise people to stay away from weight training to protect their joints.

The secret is that weight training improves muscle mass and bone density. Your spine is supported by multiple muscle groups and these muscle groups improve their muscle fiber density by virtue of strength training.

Stronger and larger the muscle, the safer is your spine!

This article by the Harvard medical school actually says that weight training increases the strength of bones in the hips, spine and wrists, which they also say are the points most likely to suffer fractures.

You will start using steroids

Unless you really want to - there’s no compulsion that you really have to get into steroids while you strength train.

It’s a form of exercise, not a cult!

You are solely responsible for the choices and decisions you make.

Although steroids are strongly associated to body building (the same way rock n roll is associated with drugs.) there are a plenty of body builders, weight trainers, and fitness enthusiast who do it without steroids; some even do it without any supplements; there are a few who even do it without meat (Vegans)!

Keeping this in mind, you will not start using steroids unless you really want to, and I certainly won’t recommend that you do.

Strength training ruins flexibility

There are countless athletes who have a considerable amount of muscle mass but they are equally flexible.

There is no particular relation between lean body mass and flexibility.

Watch a replay of Usane Bolt running the hundred meters, and see flexible muscle mass working like a fine symphony.

Yoga being all about flexibility of the body; there are numerous Yoga instructors that are as flexible as Gumby but as buffed as He-man!

Forgive my analogies but if there’s any relation between strength training and flexibility, it is that strength training actually improves flexibility.

When you train, your joints go through a full range of motion. Your muscles contract & relax and these movements actually improve flexibility.

Just don’t be lazy, and remember to incorporate a good stretching regime into your program.

Strength training is good for building muscle but bad for the heart

This one actually elevates my blood pressure whenever I hear it!

Taking into account, eleven clinical trials that have been conducted on Cholesterol and strength training suggest that strength training helps in reduction of LDL Cholesterol.

This kind of Cholesterol (The unhealthy kind) is responsible for clogging the arteries and increasing the risk of coronary heart disease. This is true for most anaerobic exercises.

This evidence suggests that strength training is actually good for the heart.

On the other hand, if we analyze aerobic exercise, we see that this kind of training additionally helps improve HDL cholesterol (Healthy kind).

This isn’t true for anaerobic exercise. So we may conclude that aerobic exercise is healthier for the heart than its anaerobic counterpart but nevertheless anaerobic exercise like strength training improves the heart’s health.

Another thing to consider is blood flow. Strength training helps reduce blood pressure.

This is true for aerobic exercise as well.

This article from Medical News Today lists some more hearth health benefits of strength training.

Weight training is bad for your joints

‘If you do weight training you will end up with hollow joints!’

I actually got this suggestion from a running coach; maybe he was trying to get me into his running team.

Weight training involves controlled, non-impact movement which improves the health of your joints, ligaments and the muscles surrounding the joint.

So yes, the myth is actually a myth.

Just a note of caution, some Olympic lifts can put incredible strain on your joints, but we aren’t talking about that type of training here.

Unless you are gifted, and training to compete in Olympic lifting competitions, you won’t encounter those problems.

If you are, then you should already be aware of what the future holds for some of you. If you’re not, ask your coach at your next session, and make an informed decision about how much you are prepared to sacrifice.

It’s a similar decision that most professional athletes will have to make in one way or another.

Doing weights will make you bulky

‘I don’t train with weights because I don’t want to get bulky!’

This is one of the biggest myths that prevent women from engaging with proper strength training.

If they’ve got a hang up with this belief, then at most you’ll find them using really light weights for higher reps, in the belief that this will help with “toning” and develop “thin muscles”

Firstly, the way muscles are shaped on your body is largely as a result of your natural anatomy, not the type of weight training you’ve done.

Given two people of equal strength, one short in stature with short limbs, the other tall with long limbs, the shorter one will appear to have larger muscles.

Due to the lack of testosterone, and the presence of estrogen, around 90% of women will never be physiologically able to build the amount of muscle that it takes to look bulky.

So all you are doing by avoiding proper strength straining, is cheating your body out of the results that is could be achieving which would result in a feminine physique with curves in all the right places.

Cardio burns more calories than strength training

Women can often be seen spending hours at the gym running on tread mills, developing scrawny run down systems, sometimes to the extent that they end up suffering from overtraining.

They are likely suffering from this myth.

The truth is that your muscles continue burning calories for longer even after you’ve finished strength training, as apposed to a cardio session.

And someone with a more muscular physique can burn up to an extra 50% more calories than that of a runner, just moving around throughout the day.

That can add up to a lot of extra calories used up, just by living, making strength training a really good option if it’s calorie’s out that you’re worried about

Body weight exercises are as good as weight training

While I love body weight exercises, and it is true that you can build a really wonderful physique full of athletic strength and performance, you cannot achieve the same level of stresses placed on the body as training with heavy weights does.

And it is that additional stress that you are able to apply to the body through proper weight training, that will achieve the great results that I believe we should all aspire to.

I really like incorporating calisthenics into my training routines, and think that disciplines like yoga and pilates have loads of benefits, but nothing can beat the shear bang for your buck that you get from time spent progressing a proper strength training program.

You should be sore after every strength training workout

Lots of people think that they should feel sore after every weights workout, and that if they don’t then it mustn’t have been a good workout.

While beginners will almost always feel soreness because their muscles are not at all used to handling these types of stresses, as your body becomes more adapted, fitter and stronger, it’s recovery will become better as well.

You will likely still feel soreness after you make changes to a workout routine, or add significant volume or intensity, but if your body is sore all the time, then you may need to allow more time for recovery.

It is during recovery that your body strengthens and grows new muscles fibers, so this is a critically important part of the process.

If you are not recovering properly, your progress will suffer.

Instead of using a really bad arbitrary measure like, “how sore do I feel” to gauge how effective your workouts are, you should follow a proper program, and measure your results to ensure that you achieve progressive overload.

Doing this will ensure consistent progress, and avoid improper over training, because you don't want to end up here;

Women and men should train differently

In most commercial gyms anywhere around the world, you will find trainers who are putting their male clients through workouts that include squats, deadlifts, military presses and bench pressing all with reasonably heavy weights. (most should go heavier)

In those same gyms, and often with the same trainers, women are being “worked out” using light dumb bells, weight machines with only a few plates on the peg, and loads more cardio.

This is rubbish.

There is absolutely no reason that women cannot, and should not complete the same type of exercises that men can.

In fact, training that way will give most women the best chance of obtaining the body which they really want.

While a man may train with weights in a certain way, to grow bigger, a woman training in the same way will achieve the tight, toned look that most want.

Strength training is only for young people

That’s almost as bad as saying that sex is only for young people, and we all know that’s just not true, because we’re never intending to stop doing that.

Do we ever really intend to stop doing the things we enjoy?

Well, why would picking an age when it suddenly becomes unsafe to lift weights be any different?

Unless your doctor has advised you, or told you outright to stop strength training, then it’s pretty safe to expect that you will still actually be achieving great benefits from it.

Decreasing the risk of osteoporosis, better balance, weight loss and better mental health are all assisted by strength training, which makes it a great thing for older people to be doing.

This article lists 13 benefits for people over the age of fifty achieved by strength training.

Wrapping up our myths about strength training

You might be able to find more myths about strength training if you go looking and really research it, but if you are motivated enough to do that, then the reality is that your commitment to being lazy and fat is just far too strong.

Better to spend your time researching the benefits, or better yet, just go and start strength training.

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If you are ready to get started, this post on leg workouts or this one about weight training for body sculpting will help.

Weight Training Effectively for Body Sculpting

Weight Training for Women to Sculpt Your Body

Weight training if the truth be told, and you really want to sculpt your body, is really the only way to get the results you need.

The great thing about weight training and muscle mass is that you can tweak individual muscle groups and change the shape of your body, the way you like it.

If you want to, you can work on your Gluteus (The butt as it is commonly known as!) while keeping the rest of your body pretty much the same. If you want to work on your abdominals without changing how your shoulders look; that can be done as well.

It’s similar to working on a specific part of the painting while not touching the rest of the canvas.

This can only be done through weight training and this is one cosmetic, or pure vanity reason why weight training is advantageous over other forms of exercise.

Dave Barry

"Albert Einstein discovered that a tiny amount of mass is equal to a huge amount of energy, which explains why, as Einstein himself so eloquently put it in a famous 1939 speech to the Physics Department at Princeton, 'You have to exercise for a week to work off the thigh fat from a single Snickers.'"

Where do you start with weight training

Moving you onto hardcore strength training, but just a few notes of caution here though.

If you’re a beginner, it’s best to focus on building overall body strength, before shifting any focus onto sculpting individual muscles.

Advanced lifters and body builders will focus on fine tuning specific muscles through isolation movements, but they already have a well developed foundation, which they will continue to maintain, by continuing with their compound lifts, while adding additional isolation moves into their program.

If you maintain your focus on the big compound moves I would recommend to you, you will develop your muscular physique far quicker.

These gains will then allow you to progress onto specific fine tuning once your body has developed to a stage where you will be able to recognize the areas which can benefit from more specific focus, incorporating isolation exercises.

Compound V isolation exercises

Compound exercises

Compound exercises use your entire body (or multiple parts of your body). They span over multiple muscle groups and joints that work together in the given exercise.

You will maximize the gains achieved from weight training, as the multiple major muscle groups engaged in compound exercises can move more weight, thereby having a greater impact on the body.

The amount of stress / impact your body goes through during training, triggers a corresponding recovery process, where the magic happens. Your body adapts and improves itself to allow it to cope with the additional stresses which it is encountering.

It's therefore only logical that. If you don't put your body under much stress while training, it won't need to adapt and improve, and there wont be much change.

A very good example of a compound movement is the Push-up.

When you’re doing push-ups, you’re immediately targeting your Pectoral region. But your shoulders come into play too, you use your core for stabilization, and your triceps get pumped up as well. This is a classic case of a compound movement exercise.

Good examples include:

Push-ups
Squats
Bench press
Bent-over rows
Shoulder press or military press
Pull-ups
Bar dips
Dead lifts

Isolation exercises

Isolation exercises are different in this respect. Isolation exercises put all the stress on a particular muscle.

There is no sharing of load with other muscle groups. Isolation exercises mostly work on muscle groups that are smaller in size E.g. Biceps, Triceps, Calves.

We often talk about ‘definition’ when we talk about isolation exercise.

The truth of the matter is that isolation exercise concentrate on smaller muscle groups. Hence, it is true that isolation exercises help to define your body.

Another factor of isolation moves is that you can’t lift as much weight as you do in compound moves.

For example, you can’t lift 120 Kg on a Barbell Bicep curl but 120 Kg seems plausible when you’re lifting it off the floor while performing the dead lift.

Obviously you are not going to be able to continually progress to heavier weights in the same way that you can with compound exercises which are using multiple major muscle groups, and it's therefore important to continue training your compound lifts, for greater progressive overload.

Good examples of isolation exercises include:

Triceps push down on a pulley
Barbell preacher curl
Front shoulder raises
Leg extension
Dumbbell flies
Calf raises

If you're not sure what compound moves to start with, try these five strength training exercises.

Progress

By that stage, when you're adding isolation exercises into your program, you will find that you already have people in the gym asking you for training tips, because the body you’re developing tells them that you know what you’re doing.

Spend less time in the gym, but spend it wisely doing effective training, which means feeling some pain while you’re training, and you’ll have more time to rest, relax and do other things in life. And your body will thank you for it, by making better gains.

You will also see many women who shape up certain parts of their body but lack in others.

A common example is toning your arms and shoulders but the love handles never seem to go away.

They may give you meaningless reasons like, “I’ve always had love handles and it is a genetic thing!”

The reality is, they are most likely avoiding, or not doing enough of the hard work that needs to be done.

This is where your personal judgment and knowledge, or the advice of an experienced strength coach comes in handy. You can always reconfigure your workout plan according to the situation.

So, quit giving lame excuses for your failure and say hello to your two new friends; hard work and pain!

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Avoid weight training in the mirror

I hope you're aware, about how good the muscles on your back can look, before I mention how good the muscles on your front can look.

There’s method to that. Don’t fall into the habit of only training what you can see in the mirror.

You need to train both the rear chain and the front chain of your body, otherwise, you will almost certainly end up with posture problems through muscle imbalances. This leads to injury, including back and neck pain. You’ll also just end up looking funny.

Remember that other people can see you when you are going as well as when you are coming!

And also, the muscles on your back comprise some big slabs of your lean mass, so work it hard, and you will be rewarded.

Don't waste your time on isolation myths

Don’t think that I am saying that isolating a muscle group will cause you to lose fat on that part of your body first either.

So many “fitness guru” programs that are sold, are marketed in a way that makes you think that you can target fat reduction on a certain part of your body, to melt the fat and see the abs, by some incredible abs magic move, or the like.

There is never, ever, any "magic muscle genie" waiting to transform your body overnight, with little to no effort.

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Don't ever waste your time or money on such false promises.

Your body loses fat in a mostly even pattern, with the reality being that the last fat to be lost from your body will be from your stomach, or sometimes for women your legs and butt.

It's a bit cruel, I know. What you'd probably most like to fix first, will be the last thing to achieve satisfactory results. But lets remember, these areas will continually improve, you just won't be satisfied with them too quickly, in most cases.

Train your body with compound moves, remembering that it’s all about how much weight you’ve moved, because that’s what weight training is all about, and you’ll expend the most energy (calories) to lose the most fat.

Think like a professional and do weight training like one

Let’s be clear on one thing; your ‘gender’ doesn’t define how hard you should work out!

The equation is simple, you need to push, you need to exert yourself and you need to feel like you gave all you had to give, after each workout.

If you don’t out-do yourself in each following workout, you won’t be progressing forward in terms of sculpting your body. It's a really important fundamental of proper weight training.

You can read more about this principle, including how to make sure you are achieving progress, in this blog on progressive overload.

‘Women don’t need to go at it with such intensity’; I’ve heard this phrase from fitness trainers to common folks and it is another misconception that plagues the fitness industry.

The truth is that gender doesn’t define the intensity of your training! Go hard or go home!

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Work out, or train?

Throughout this blog we talk about “training” not “working out”.

There is an important reason for that too.

While many people commonly refer to “working out at the gym” if you spend time around professional athletes from any sport, you will hear them refer to all the work that they do as, “training”.

So do you think that you will get a better result doing things the way that the majority of people “commonly” do, or by doing things the way that athletes do?

I know which group I’ve always been inspired by.

Even if you don’t aspire to become a professional athlete, by adopting similar approaches to training as they do, you will be using your time more effectively, and producing far better results.

The professional athlete will simply spend more time every day training, because it’s their job, and usually their all consuming passion.

So what do we mean when we say “training”?

We mean consistently setting and monitoring “smart” goals, which are achieved because we ensure that our performance and therefore our results are improved upon, each time we train.

This concept is just so critical, if you want to achieve significant improvement. It doesn’t mean that you will never have a bad session where you don’t manage to achieve what you set out to.

Sometimes even the best athletes have off days, but you need to recognize it as such, work out what was wrong (did I not get enough sleep / rest, was my nutrition not good enough, was I not quite over a cold, did my technique let me down today, etc) and fix it for the next session so that you are training effectively.

When you do weight training like this, you will see continual improvement, and this will continue to motivate you, and you will find that it also inspires others around you.

If you would like some inspiration for challenging weight training workouts take a look at these 20 killer leg workouts.

Fuel your body well

If you are training properly, you need to ensure that you are also eating properly. You need to fuel the body properly so it can perform during your training sessions.

It's really a whole other topic to study and perfect, but as a guideline;

You need to be eating a consistent diet with a proper balance of the three main macro nutrients; Protein, Carbohydrates and Fats.
Know what your overall caloric intake should be, to achieve your goals, including consideration of energy expended completing your weight training sessions and any other intense activity, along with regular daily calorie burn.
When you're shopping for food, remember to read the nutrition labels, and wherever possible, buy fresh food; I.e food that's not processed or comes from a tin.
Remember that everything that you put into your body, will have an affect on it. Good food will have a good affect, and bad / junk food will have a negative affect. It's your choice!

A great start is to make sure that you are "eating clean", so for some inspiration check out these 31 easy clean eating recipes.

Almond Crusted Salmon

Once you have been "eating clean" for a while, you will really start to feel the positive affect of good nutrition on your body, and will find that you have less and less desire for bad / junk foods.

Good nutrition has a massive positive affect on your body, and even on your mental health. When your body is healthy and operating well, you'll feel better energy which leads to a happier more positive life.

Rest your body well

Make sure that you are getting plenty of rest and recovery as well. Our body repairs itself while we sleep, so it's just common sense that if you aren't getting enough sleep, then your body is not able to recover properly.

Everyone knows that sleep deprivation is actually used as a form of torture, so don't do it to yourself!

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Wrap up our weight training

If for some crazy nonsensical reason, you still don't think that strength training is for you, then read this research article from The American College of Sports Medicine, who tested 35,754 women and found that strength training reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by 30% and cardiovascular disease by 17%.

I'm sure you'll agree they're good reasons to give it a try.

Author Unknown

"I consider my refusal to go to the gym today as resistance training."

So, get fit, inspire others and help others attain the same fitness level. That has been part of my own journey, and I continue to learn from and be inspired by others!

How do you find inspiration to train?

Let me know in the comments below.

Kettlebell Workout Routine For Women: Kettlebell Exercises

Kettlebell workout routine for a full body blast

Kettlebell workout routine that will give you amazing toning benefits, with kettlebell exercises for the whole body.

Designed to sculpt your body, these awesome kettlebell exercises are also a great way to introduce some fun into your training routine.

Training in the gym all the time can get boring, so take it outside with a kettlebell workout routine!

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Kettlebell Workout Routine

**This is only an example exercise routine, and is not providing any specific advice to any person. As with any new exercise activity, you should check with your own medical and health professionals for advice on your own personal condition prior to commencing any new activity

Exercise	Reps	Rest	Sets
kettlebell swings	20	15 seconds	x 4
double kettlebell bent over row	30	15 seconds	x 4
kettlebell front sqaut	30	15 seconds	x 4
kettlebell double snatch	20	15 seconds	x 4
kettlebell double clean and jerk	20	15 seconds	x 4
kettlebell Turkish get up	10	15 seconds	x 4

*Instructions for each kettlebell exercise follow below.

Quick Jump Menu

Kettlebell swings

Double kettlebell bent over row

Kettlebell front squat

Kettlebell double snatch

Kettlebell double clean and jerk

Kettlebell Turkish get up

Depending on how much training you've done before, and whether you've ever used kettlebells before, you might find this workout to be a bit challenging.

If that's you, then just double the rest between sets to 30 seconds, and cut back on the amount of sets you do to say three instead of four. But try to at least some sets of each exercise, so you get the benefit of a whole body workout.

But it you'be been training for a while and are in good shape, you might want to add some ab exercises in between sets, or following your kettlebell workout routine.

Kettlebells as exercise equipment

I came across this strange looking piece of equipment in 2010. I know, lots of people discovered it before me:)

It appeared very crude to me, and I was reluctant to use it for exercises initially. I started with standard squats and lunges where I was focusing for leg training routines.

Then I moved on to start a few 'swinging' moves for my core synergistic muscle groups and after a little while I became familiar with this brilliant piece of equipment. Ever since, I've been recommending kettlebells for an alternate to traditional strength training workouts.

Firstly, there's the advantage of the handle. Women who are lifting a great deal of weight often come across gripping problems. Whether it’s the barbell or the dumbbell, the firmness of your grip will play an important part in how well you can perform an exercise. In the case of kettlebells, the handle does the magic and you don't face any problems due to grip.

Kettlebells are cheap to buy as well. They don't cost as much as fancy 'Aluminum coated' dumbbells so you can always go ahead and buy new one's when you grow out of your old pair!

If you are interested in more information about the history, terminology and rules of kettlebell lifting, you can find that here, and here.

Kettlebell benefits

Then comes the question of using kettlebells for exercises;

Performing kettlebell workouts can be very beneficial for a large number of muscle groups at a given time.

Kettlebells enable you to improve on your core. The core becomes involved when you complete actions that involve 'swinging' the weight. With dumbbells and barbells, swinging actions are usually negative and should be avoided, but with kettle bells, moves like 'Double windmill' will strengthen your mid section.

Your mid section is a very important part of the body. It serves as a bridge between your lower and upper body.

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Your bodies ability to engage it's true strength can be limited by the strength of your mid section, but this fact is often forgotten in the world of weight training. Stability and swinging moves can be incorporated using kettle bells to strengthen your core, and you will feel the improvement in your traditional lifts in the gym.

Kettlebells engage your forearms a great deal, as compared to the dumbbell or barbell.

For most exercises, the grip is such that your arm is not in its natural straight line. The classic 'briefcase grip' engages the forearm and the stronger grip causes strengthening of your forearms.

The same holds true for functional strength. A Kettlebell workout routine is great to add raw strength to your armory. Since almost all of the moves are compound moves, anything involving the kettle bells will be a complete body workout.

The best thing about kettlebells is the size of the equipment. You can keep it anywhere; Under the bed, in your closet or just by your bedside table. Since it is a single piece of equipment, it doesn't require much space but this brings us to a problem as well.

Since kettlebells are fixed weight equipment, you'll probably have to upgrade to a heavier one every once in a while. If you keep working out with the same resistance level for an extended period of time, chances are that you'll hit a plateau. So, this is a major down side of kettlebells training and body weight training which needs to be kept into mind.

As mentioned in my post on progressive overload, your muscles need to 'overload' in order to hypertrophy. The same level of resistance, over and over again doesn't overload the muscles as the body becomes accustomed to the same resistance level. In order to progress, you'll need to increase the resistance level somehow.

Kettlebell workout routine versus traditional weight training

A good analogy between 'kettlebell workout routine' and a traditional 'weight training session' would be that of a classic muscle car and a new generation sports car! If you need raw strength, grunt and power without worrying too much about external looks, you go with a muscle car. But if you want a car that performs and has a clean look with exquisite styling, you'll be happy with a new BMW rather than going for a Chevy Impaler! Same logic applies to kettle bells training. You may not achieve the very best muscle isolation with kettle bells but it does wonders with functional strength, core stability, muscle endurance and even flexibility.

The workout routine that follows contains some of the best kettlebell exercises you can do.

As you've no doubt heard before, proper form is the key. Sacrificing form for even a single repetition can end up in an injury that can haunt you for months so always be wary of what you're about to do. Belts and gloves are there for a reason, so use them when it makes sense!

Also, it is best to work out with a spotter even when you're working out with body weight or kettlebells. Your partner can help you with your form and can assist you in performing additional repetitions which are crucial for muscle growth.

Kettlebell exercises

Kettlebell swings

Kettlebell swings may look clumsy, but it is one of the most effective total body exercises you can do with the kettlebell.

It gets your shoulders engaged in particular, not to mention the balancing act of your core to oppose the swinging motion of the kettlebell.

This move will strengthen your lower body as most of the stress is endured in your mid-section and your legs during the 'return swing' of the kettlebell.

The proper starting point of this move requires you to squat with your feet shoulder width apart.
The kettlebell is extended downwards and your arm must be placed between your legs. Use the overhand grip for this move.
Your back must be taut, avoid excessive hunching. This is the starting point of this move.
Now, swing the kettlebell under the hips and swing it in the opposite direction while raising the upper body.
Extend the legs and help yourself with the swinging action. The kettlebell should swing back and forth between the distance of your legs and slightly above shoulder height.

The move is similar to Front shoulder raises, but with kettlebells the move is more 'dynamic' and compound engaging your entire body.

Double kettlebell bent over row

This move is similar to the classic single dumb bell row.

The difference is that double kettlebell bent-over rows focuses on both sides (Left and right) simultaneously and the grip is a little different as compared to the conventional dumb bell row.

For the correct starting position stand with your feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent and straight back.
Squat down from this position and grip two kettlebells like briefcases and return to your starting position with the kettlebells hanging freely, vertically downwards.
From here lift the kettlebells by bending your elbows, like you would in the class dumb bell row.
Make sure that you lift both kettlebells simultaneously and bring them towards your ribs.
The only difference in this move is that due to the changed grip, you may not perform much of a 'swing'; rather, it'll be more of a vertical 'lift'.

The benefit is that this move is a better stressor for the lower back as you're lifting more weight and using both sides of the body simultaneously.

This is a great exercise to consider if you're looking for an alternate to classic single dumbbell rows for the back.

Kettlebell front squat

This is a squatting move which can be executed with the help of a kettlebell.

To start off, stand with your feet shoulder width apart (or a bit wider).
Next important thing is how you hold the kettle bells for this particular exercise.
The kettle bells are to be held right in front of the shoulders whereas the arms should be kept really close to the body for the correct execution of the starting point.
From here, you need to bend your knees and squat down (The way you do in the classic squat or weighted squats).
Keep lowering your body, keeping your back straight and bent hips.
Lower yourself until your butt is as low as it can go, in a full squat (ass to grass). Once you hit this point, elevate your body by extending the knees and hips, standing back up straight.

The kettlebell grip is important as well, hold them as you would hold a barbell in a shoulder press.

Kettlebell double snatch

This is similar to the snatch performed in weight lifting.

The idea is to pick the weight up from ground level and raise it above your head in one quick action.

For this two major moves are required; the squat compounded with shoulder raises.

This is a very useful move for building functional strength but without proper form or care, this move is prone to injuries. Here is the proper form:

Straddle two kettlebells (Which are placed on the ground) with both hands (Single KB snatch can also be done) and stand with your feet shoulder width apart;
Squatting down to grasp the kettlebells.
Your back should be straight and your shoulders shoulder be vertically above the kettlebells.
Without jerking, pull the kettlesbells off the floor by extending your knees and hips, to stand up straight.
This initial motion is quickly followed by ballistic upward movement of the shoulder and arms to raise the kettlebells further.
While the kettlebells reach their maximum height, extend your arms straight above your head and aggressively pull your body right beneath the kettlebells to support their weight.
During this 'pulling the body underneath the kettlebells, you should go into a squat to 'catch' the kettle bell without any impact.
Once the kettle bells are stably held over your head, extend hips and knees to come out of the 'cushioning' squat and stand straight holding the kettlebells straight over your head.

This is the first repetition, lower the kettlebells back to the floor by doing a partial shoulder press followed by a smooth dead lift and repeat!

Kettlebell double clean and jerk

This is similar to the clean and jerk performed in weight lifting.

If you've already performed the kettlebell snatch, this will become pretty easy.

The moves are quite similar and the idea is to pick the weight up from ground level and raise it above your head in two quick actions.

For this two major moves are required; the squat compounded with shoulder raises, with a little pause in between (Unlike snatch).

This is a very useful move for building functional strength but without proper form or care, this move is prone to injuries.

Here is the proper form:

Start with 'Clean'. Straddle two kettlebells (Which are placed on the ground with both hands) and stand with your feet shoulder width apart;
Squatting down to grasp the kettlebells.
Your back should be straight and your shoulders shoulder be vertically above the kettlebells.
Without jerking, pull the kettlebell off the floor by extending your knees and hips.
This initial motion is quickly followed by folding of the elbows and brings your arms beneath the kettlebells to support their weight. This is the 'Clean'.
Now rest briefly with your shoulders and arms supporting the weight of the kettlebells.
Continue with the 'Jerk'; continue with a ballistic upward movement driven by the legs and supported by shoulder and arms to raise the kettlebells further.
Extend your arms straight above your head and aggressively pull your body right beneath the kettlebells to support their weight.
Once the kettlebells are stably held over your head, stand straight holding the kettlebells straight over your head.

This is the first repetition, lower the kettlebells back to the floor by doing a partial shoulder press followed by a smooth dead lift and repeat.

Kettlebell Turkish get up

The Turkish get up; they don't make exercises any weirder than this!

Well the goal is to lay down with a raised kettlebell and then lift your whole body into an upright standing stance.

For this, your body transitions into many different postures and for this reason it is a total body workout.

There are many different variations of the kettlebell Turkish get up but with this version, we'll be starting while lying on the ground.

For the starting position, lay down on the floor, fold your right knee and abduct your left leg slightly away from your body.
Hold the KB in your right hand and raise it vertically above your right shoulder.
Your left arm should be placed comfortably on the floor.
From here, while keeping your right arm raised, crunch towards your left elbow, shifting your bodyweight to your left elbow and raising the right side of your body.
Also use your folded right leg to power yourself to the left side.
Now, shift your bodyweight to the left hand, keeping your chest up and out.
From here it's time to get your butt off the floor!
From the hand supportive position, drive your body into a high bridge.
The key to this position is to really squeeze your right side glutes, keep your chest out and position your body in such a way that you turn into a tripod with your bodyweight being supported by your feet an left hand while your right hand is still extended vertically upwards.
Now sweep your left leg and position your left knee on the ground, try to get up into a lunge position with your left knee supporting the weight of your body, right knee folded at 90 degrees, left arm hanging freely and right arm holding the kettlebell.
Now, one simple lunging move and you're standing up straight!

Let's not forget that you've performed only 1 repetition. Let's repeat the whole thing in reverse for more!

Kettlebell workout routine wrap up

I hope that if you haven't tried kettlebell workout routines before, that you will now, as I'm sure you'll find it fun and will feel the benefits.

It will change your training, and reshape your body.

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If you'd like to try more kettlebell routines and learn more about training with them, then I recommend that you check out Greg Brooks site. His Complete Guide to Kettlebell Workouts for Women will give you instructions on a few more different kettlebell exercises and some further examples of kettlebell workout routines that are really good.

And if all this throwing around of kettlebells is just making you hungry, that ok. Good nutrition is a must for anyone who wants to maintain good health and shape up, so I'm with you there.

Try one of these easy clean eating recipes, guaranteed to fix a hungry tummy, with no added fat:)

Garlic chicken roasted sweet potato

I'd love to hear about anyone else's experiences training with kettlebells, because it's always great to get different perspectives and keep learning, so leave a comment bellow, and let me know how you like to use kettlebells in your own workout routines.

in Fitness Training by Ana Maria

Running for Strength Athletes

Running for strength athletes

Running makes most strength athletes cringe.

Perhaps you're the same, and hate anything that even looks like cardio. Often, once the benefits of strength training are experienced, running and cardio training are easily forgotten, and relegated to the scrap heap of, things we shouldn't do.

But; Do you really want to be the person who lives through, "that awkward moment when you're wearing Nikes, and you can't do it"?

The reality is, the right kind of cardio including running when combined with a proper strength program, can help improve performance and results.

It's often like there are two separate worlds, that can't co-exist. "Running world" and "Lifting world". I've observed that people living exclusively in either "world" have sub-optimal health and performance.

Runners who don't lift, are falling apart, even if they're still awesome runners. And lifters who don't run, have little to no endurance and are puffed out even climbing a set of stairs.

The right mix of both training modalities in a smartly constructed program will help either athlete be the healthiest version of themselves, while producing optimum performances for their chosen sport.

And if you're simply training for appearance, the combination of running with strength training will produce the type of body that most desire. Most are not chasing the results achieved at either end of the spectrum of running and lifting, which can be like skelator, or the Hulk.

We just don't want that. So find the right balance and enjoy your training, and the results that come with it.

Obviously, you can run indoors on a tread mill or outside in the fresh air. I find mixing it up works best, so I run indoors when it's cold or rainy outside, but really enjoy outdoor runs when the weather is good.

Running outdoors also has a different feel and impact on the body to tread mill running, so it's good to not let the body settle into a rhythm just doing one. Repetitively training the same way can produce less results over time as the body becomes accustomed to it, and taken to extreme can lead to over training more easily than a varied program.

So mix it up, and enjoy yourself as well.

Spend a few minutes to read this post, and I think you'll see how giving some running and cardio a try as part of your strength program is a good idea.

Integrating running and cardio into your weight training routine;

The list of reasons to integrate cardio into your training program is endless, and so are the advantages of running.

Smart bodybuilders and weight training enthusiasts have been long using running to supplement their workout routine so that they can burn fat more effectively.

The main aim is to increase the daily caloric expenditure, and improve general conditioning.

Endurance type running is typically defined as the 'common jogging'. Your heart rate is in the 50% - 75% of the Max HR, your breathing rate is high but stable, leg muscle contractions are not that intense, range of motion of your muscles is limited as well.

This type of running is aerobic and it is a great tool for burning fat.

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Such endurance type running conditions your heart and increases cell capacity to absorb oxygen (VO2 Max). One problem with endurance running is that some muscle loss along with fat loss is inevitable (Yes, the body has funny ways to get on your nerves!).

Muscle loss becomes a threat especially when you hit a stage where Glycogen reserves are nearing depletion. This is the primary reason why bodybuilders who want to pack on mass try to avoid endurance runs.

In my opinion, avoiding endurance running altogether is not a good idea. It's all about how you 'manage' your workout schedule. One long distance endurance run in the range of an hour isn't going to impact your body in a negative way, given your nutrition is impeccable and your workout schedule is flawless.

Let's not forget that you're pounding iron rest of the week which means that you'll be packing on muscle mass rest of the week.

I'm not recommending marathon or half marathon runs (or God forbid, Ultra marathons)! Endurance running is a perfect example of Low Intensity Training (LIT) for Cardiovascular strength.

No one can say, 'You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The human spirit is indomitable.

Sir Roger Bannister

/ Champion Runner

How one should incorporate LIT Cardio Training in their weight training schedule?

LIT Cardio which lasts about 30 minutes can be performed on weight training days.

A good idea is to separate your weight training session and your LIT cardio by 6 hours. I personally recommend doing Cardio in the morning while hitting the weights in the evening.

Same day LIT Cardio shouldn't exceed the 30 minute mark and make sure you make up for the increased physical exertion via proper nutrition and rest. Same day LIT Cardio can be pursued as a means of rapidly losing weight while staying in control of your muscle mass.

If back to back LIT and weight training session seem unavoidable, try to do your LIT session after your weight training session. You don't want to feel listless once you hit the weights.

Your energy level should be optimal to lift as heavy as you can whereas a low intensity run can be performed even after a hard training session. But again, the best practice is to split them by an interval of 6 hours or you can go for LIT on alternate days if you don't aim for rapid fat loss.

Anaerobic running;

The second form of running is Anaerobic running.

Classic example of Anaerobic running is the 100 m sprint. Physical performance of such order demands a high volume of Oxygen which can't be supplied.

Anaerobic running can be considered as a form of 'Strength training' as the same energy and muscular system comes into play.

Therefore Anaerobic running is another great alternative to LIT.

Anaerobic running and the term HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) are often used interchangeably. A classic example of HIIT would be 'Performing a 100 m sprint, walking balk to the start line and repeating 10 times (100m X 10 sets)'.

This is known as High Intensity Interval training. The quick burst of energy associated with the 100 m sprint is High Intensity, followed by a rest interval.

This is quite similar to what you do in a particular weight training session (Rest followed by each set).

The great thing about HIIT is that it is Anaerobic and keeps your body in the anabolic state.

The risk of losing muscle mass is much less than that of LIT. For this reason, this form of running is favored by most fitness trainers whose aim is to build muscle mass.

Your HIIT can be different. You may go with 200m sprinting followed by 300 m walk or you may go with the 100m spring followed by a rest interval. The choice is yours really. Here are a few examples of HIIT that I usually recommend.

(100m Sprint + 400m Jog) x 10
(100m Sprint + 100m Walk-back) x 15
(200m Sprint + 300m Jog) x 10

There’s no rocket science to designing your very own interval program.

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The only thing you need to remember is that the high intensity interval needs to take your heart rate above 75% of your HR Max and the low intensity interval needs to be such that your heart rate falls back to at least 50% of your Max HR.

Usually, a good idea is to wear a device that can monitor your heart rate and time interval. A heart rate monitor along with a stop watch can do the magic.

You can even do it without these gadgets, all you need is a track (Or a well calibrated pathway) and good pair of running shoes.

The time you spend in a HIIT should be somewhat similar to the time you spend in a normal strength workout. Ideally, a 30 - 45minute HIIT workout (Including warm-up, cool-down and rest intervals) will leave you exhausted.

To sum it up, a few workout schedules have been illustrated following;

Lean Mass Gain

Day	AM	PM
Mon	LIT for 20 - 30 minutes	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Tues	Rest	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Wed	LIT for 20 - 30 minutes	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Thur	Rest	Rest
Fri	LIT for 20 - 30 minutes	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Sat	Rest	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Sun	Rest	Rest

Rapid Fat Loss

Day	AM	PM
Mon	LIT for 30 minutes	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Tues	LIT for 30 minutes	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Wed	LIT for 30 minutes	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Thur	HIIT lasting 20 - 45 minutes	Rest
Fri	LIT for 30 minutes	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Sat	LIT for 30 minutes	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Sun	Rest	Rest

1 muscle group a week split

Day	PM
Mon	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Tues	LIT for (45 - 60) minutes
Wed	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Thur	LIT for (45 - 60) minutes
Fri	Weight Training (60 - 75 minutes)
Sat	HIITfor 30 minutes
Sun	Rest

Working with cardio alternatives

Once again, nothing is set in stone. There are many alterations you can try with your running even.

It is not necessary to stick with HIIT or LIT, be creative, go with variation and variety.

Here are a few recommendations that can ramp-up your running session:

Wear a weight vest to increase intensity of your running. Ankle weights can do the magic as well but vests help improve better weight distribution.
Go with hill running. Running on an incline is the hardest thing you can do to yourself! You may know this already if you're into hiking.
Trail running is another adventurous alternative. If you live in an area with many natural trails and pathways taking you into the wilderness, go with trail running.
Hiking! Yes, it may not sound like something a 'body sculptor' would do but hiking is a great mix of Anaerobic and aerobic cardio training. 30 - 45 minutes of a tough hiking can actually equate to 60 - 90 minutes of jogging. Just make sure you don't book a flight to the Himalayas as that would be a clear misinterpretation of what I'm trying to say!

If you're not a big fan of running (Or its various alternatives) you can always go with alternatives.

I won't go into much details as it is beyond the scope of this post, but you can always go with alternatives such as cycling or even stair walking.

As long as your heart rate is up and the activity itself is a challenge, you're golden. But make sure that it is something that doesn't mess up your weight training schedule.

I wouldn't recommend swimming a day after you've done a killer Chest & Back routine. The same goes for other alternatives such as Yoga.

Try to do your cardio on days where you don't have a leg workout. The 'chicken-leg syndrome' is all too common in a lot of fitness trainers so it is always a good idea to pay attention to your legs as much as your upper body.

Create good working splits between your weight training and cardio days and try to make an intelligent routine.

Remember to always build progressive overload into your program so you will continually achieve gains. Need some tips on how this works, read this post.

Don't go overboard with your creativity. You don't want to design a routine that looks like superman's work chart! Keep it simple, functional and realistic.

If you're so used to casting scornful glances at the girls on the tread mill, that you're still not convinced that this can work for you, but you think there might be something to it, I suggest you read Alex Viada's post on complete human performance, for his experience getting the training mix right. Read it here.

Running and lifting weights are two of my favourite things in the world to do. I'm really happy that I found and enjoy both, as it keeps my body more balanced and healthy, and I believe it stops training becoming a boring chore. There's enough of them in all our lives already!

So I hope that if you haven't been including running in your training, I've helped inspire you to give it a go, and;

Last but not the least, stick to it!

We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.

Jessie Owens

/ Champion Runner

in Fitness Training by Ana Maria

Yoga Poses; How to do Supta Baddha Konasana

Supta Baddha Konasana is a deeply relaxing pose which is great to include in a yoga practice for any level

To relax the mind, body and restore the spirit, regular practice of this pose will have great benefits.

You can try doing a simple Baddha Honasana pose to start with if the reclining pose is stretching too much through the groin.

At the end of a long day, try practicing Supta Baddha Konasana, and feel the lift in your spirits.

Watch the video below as Kerri McCubben shares easy to follow instructions on how to do Supta Baddha Konasana;

Some benefits of Supta Baddha Konasana

Increased energy levels
Decreased heart rate
Reduced fatigue
Relief of panic attacks and anxiety
Reduced tension and stress
Lower blood pressure
Good for conditions like irritable bowel syndrome or PMS
Provides a great stretch of the groin and inner thigh muscles.

Steps

Begin seated in staff pose with your legs extended in front of you.
Bend your knees, pressing the soles of your feet together and draw your heals back towards your pelvis.
Lean backwards and place your elbows on the ground.
Close your eyes and internalise your thoughts.
Breath deeply for five long breaths, feeling your chest and ribs expand and your body relax.
Role to the side and come up into a seated position.

Tips

Relax your belly to allow maximum extension through your spine.
Breath deeply and naturally throughout
Centre your mind and focus on relaxing through your entire body.
Depending on your flexibility, you may find placing a block under each knee helps to keep you relaxed without over stretching the groin.
Place a small pillow behind your neck for extra comfort.

Learning to listen to your body is an invaluable benefit of regular yoga practice, and a relaxing pose like Supta Baddha Konasana can really help with this. Feel the stillness, and focus your thoughts throughout the pose while continuing to breath deeply to expand the chest.

Once you're comfortable try some more of these 50 beginner yoga poses, for a well rounded yoga practice.

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