The good news is that because your hormone balance is much different from a man's (i.e. less testosterone, more estrogen), you can easily avoid "bulking up" by exercising the right way. The key is to follow a detailed exercise program created especially for women, and a nutrition plan to compliment your workouts, as well.
Lots of women are suspicious of "resistance training" - that is, lifting "free weights" (barbells & dumbbells) and using weight machines. But once they try it and see how fast their bodies improve, the great results convince them to stick with it.
So let's see how you can get a hot bod, a great booty, and lose weight too!
General Female-Friendly Workout Tips
The first thing you need to keep in mind, is the importance of Balance. To truly look attractive, you need to tone every major muscle group of the body, with resistance training. Yes, you can prioritize certain body regions that are personally important to you. But you must keep your entire body improving, because any body part left behind, will stick out "like a sore thumb".
Secondly, even though resistance training is the fastest, most effective way to improve your look - cardio has its place too. The key is to use the right kinds of cardio, because many forms of cardio can be useless for body improvement - and some can actually be damaging.
Third, you always want to start your workout with a "warm up". This usually involves some stretching, in order to prepare your muscles for the exercise session ahead. From there, you will usually start with light weights, or slow speeds, so as to ease your body into the most challenging portions of your workout.
Finally, just as you eased into the start of your workout with a warm up, you should also ease out of it by ending with a "cool down" period. And yes, both your warm-up and cool-down count as productive exercise time.
Specific Female-Friendly Workout Secrets
The best resistance-training workout routines women can use, relies on two principles to ensure that you get toned, female-looking results:
1) Whereas the typical male will use heavy weights to increase in size and add bulk to his muscles, the successful female will do the opposite. Female workouts use low settings on machine weight-stacks, light free weights, or even bodyweight exercises with no barbells or dumbbells at all.
2) Whereas the typical male will use low repetitions to increase in strength, or medium reps to increase in size, the successful female will do the opposite. Female workouts use high reps to build "definition" in their major muscle groups and thus, a powerful body-toning effect.
Regardless of these light weights and high reps, the resistance should be sufficient that you find it a challenge to finish the exercise. If the exercise is too easy, your body will have no reason to improve itself.
Final Important Secrets
It is very important to execute every exercise with perfect "form" - meaning that you move through the exercise motions in a way that avoids injury or damaging your body. This demands that you use a very detailed exercise program, that usually includes videos or extensive photos showing how each exercise is performed correctly.
Finally, despite all the exercise secrets revealed above, all your work will go to waste if you couple it with poor eating habits. Good nutrition is essential to improving your body shape. This means that whatever exercise program you choose, it must include specific instructions for obtaining high-quality nutrition from your daily meals.
