Through the eyes of a trainer, one of the most commonly heard goals when asking women what they hope to achieve at the gym is to get lean and tone up. Losing weight and gaining lean muscle is a bit more complex than just dropping pounds and lifting tiny weights a hundred times.
The pounds that you do lose, you want to come from body fat percentage, not muscle – because it’s very easy for your body to burn muscle as a source of energy. To prevent burning muscle, make sure you’re eating enough protein, carbs and fats to fuel your body for your workouts.
Second, don’t be afraid to lift heavy some days for eight to ten repetitions, while other days you can lift lighter weights for up to twenty repetitions. Many women fear that lifting too heavy will put on too much muscle and make them look manly, when hormones will actually prevent that from happening.
This is will result in a toned body that burns fat more efficiently. A proper workout program should include both cardio and resistance training. A simple guide to follow is to do your favorite cardio three times a week or more, and full body resistance training two to three times a week.
Allow two to three days in the week to recover, stretch, and maybe throw in some yoga. Cardio doesn’t need to be intense every time you step on the treadmill. In fact, most of the time when you train at intense levels of exertion, you aren’t burning any fat at all.
You might burn more calories per minute, but the calories will come from the food you eat rather than fat cells. Make sure you spend a good deal of time at lower intensities as well.
If going too slow is boring for cardio, you can do intervals between slow speeds and higher speeds to mix things up a bit. Resistance training should start with your core, and you can work your way out into your chest, back, then legs, shoulders, arms and calves.
Pick about six to nine exercises to do three sets of 10-20 repetitions, and even throw in some compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, and a bench press that uses multiple muscle groups to save time.
An example could be to do three sets of chest press, triceps dips, shoulder press then, leg press, bicep curls, and bent over rows for ten to twenty repetitions with a minute of rest between sets. Mix up the exercises every so often for each body part so that your body doesn’t adapt to your workouts and slow down your progress.
