Secrets of a Great Women's Workout Plan

You dream about getting a toned, slim body, and/or losing all that ugly excess fat. But you're worried that doing the "wrong" types of exercise (like lifting weights) will make you look bulky and man-like. I understand. I've been there.

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.

To see an example of an excellent toning program that includes detailed instructions for both the exercise & nutritional components you need to look great... read more...

Zumba For Beginners

Zumba turns exercising into a dance party - improving your fitness level and cardio health - while burning off the fat! A Zumba fitness session uses Latin dance music and moves, to motivate you to keep burning calories, for anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes.

Scientifically, Zumba uses the top-rated type of exercise for improving your heart health and burning off ugly bodyfat: Interval Training. For those wanting to lose weight, Zumba can help you burn as much as 600 calories per hour!

Fat Burning and Body Toning

The actual classes resemble dance choreography, with a variety of dance pace ranging from slow merengue to fast salsa. During the Zumba session, you will find yourself doing standard dance moves, cardio moves, bodyweight strength-training moves, and maybe even some jumps - all to highly-motivating fun music.

On top of all the benefits for your heart and bodyweight, Zumba also gives you a full-body workout. This means that almost every muscle group winds up getting toned and sleeker. However, since the classes are mostly made up of women, special attention is paid to toning your legs, hips, abs, and butt.

The only problem reported by most people trying Zumba, is that the instructors are trained to explain little (or nothing) but rather, use their body and hand motions to signal the upcoming moves and how to do them. This can be a problem for beginners and even intermediate Zumba followers. The solution is to use a Zumba-equivalent exercise program, where the moves are fully explained with free detailed videos... read more...

Is Zumba an Effective Way to Lose Weight?

You've heard about Zumba - everybody has - it's very popular all over the world.

And you've heard that it makes working out and losing weight, lots of fun! And you've heard that it teaches you a lot of cool dance moves, drawing from Salsa, Cha Cha, Merengue, and other Latin styles.

Plus, one of it's best features is that it's non-judgmental. You can use your own style, following the instructor's moves but with your own, personal flair.

But does it work? Does it improve your fitness level and most importantly, help you to burn fat effectively?

This question was recently answered, during a study done by a team of Exercise Scientists.

The Scientific Results

The study was done with a group of all-female volunteers, (but the results most likely apply to males as well).

First, each participant was scientifically tested to establish her pre-Zumba fitness level.

Then, each participant wore a heart-rate monitor while working out in a standard Zumba session.

Finally, to make the results as truthful as possible, all sessions were taught by the same Zumba-certified instructor, while the session durations were varied in length (from half-hour to an hour).

When the study was over, they found that the average Zumba participant burned 369 calories (or 9.5 calories per minute). This is quite a high fat-burning rate!

Their average heart rate was 154 beats per minute (or about 80% of their maximum heart rate capacity). Recommended fitness guidelines state that you should be working out somewhere between 65% and 90% of your maximum, to burn fat and improve your cardio health level.

The scientists also scrutinized the heart-rate monitor recordings, and found that Zumba sessions resemble the best type of workout profile: the "Interval Training" type of workout. This means that Zumba burns much more bodyfat than steady-rate exercises, (like jogging, running, treadmill, elliptical, bicycle, etc).

In fact, Zumba was found to burn more calories than even step aerobics, power yoga, and kickboxing!

Conclusion

Overall, Zumba feels like a dance party, but your heart and bodyfat think it's a highly effective workout. You burn off a lot more fat than other forms of exercise and cardio classes, even though it's much easier and more enjoyable to do.

The bottom line is that Zumba is one of the best ways to improve your fitness level, get healthier, and burn off ugly fat. The only problem is, the steps can be very difficult to learn, at first. To remove this problem, check out this Zumba-type workout plan, that comes with free video instructions to help you learn the moves quickly and easily... read more...

Weight Loss for Women over 30, over 40, over 50

You're older. You're wiser. You're more motivated to lose weight. But your body isn't responding to diet and exercise as well, as it did 10 years ago.

Every time you gain weight (uh... fat), your body doesn't seem to respond to the old diet tricks you used to use. You suspect something has changed... and you're right! There are several new factors working against you, like less muscle mass and a slowing metabolism.

Good news! All you have to do is learn some new tricks for your age, and you can keep burning off the fat for many years to come. So go ahead and choose your favorites below... and burn that fat!

Follow an Eating Plan

Don't call it a Diet Plan, because if you do it right, you can easily eat enough to never feel hungry. And there are lots of Eating Plans out there, so you can easily find one you will like.

The trick is to follow the plan strictly, once you find one that keeps you feeling full and lets you eat your favorite foods. Amazingly, you can even lose weight eating at McDonald's... if you do it right.

Eat Longer

Most people eat too fast to allow your brain the time necessary, to register what's in your stomach.

So a great trick is to split your meal into 2 parts. Eat part one at normal speed, then take a 20 minute break. If you still feel hungry by then, you're allowed to eat part two.

Eat Protein before Bed

As you already know, your metabolism slows as you age. But there might be a satisfying way to boost it, overnight.

Scientific research has found that having a 30 gram protein snack in the evening, produces a higher resting metabolic rate the following morning. Plus, protein is known to burn more calories (as your body tries to digest it), than fat or carbs.

Exercise More

Yeah, I know. Many of you reading this, didn't want to be told to exercise. But it is one of the best ways to slow (and even reverse) the aging process.

The trick is to find a form of Exercise You Like! And that's not as hard as it sounds.

Running, Zumba, Yoga, any exercise machine, working out with weights, any sport that keeps you moving... even playing with your kids for an extended time... counts as exercise.

Build Muscle before Sleep

Bodybuilders know, that one of the best times to build muscle is when you go to sleep. During the first few hours of sleep, your body releases more human growth hormone than at any other time of day.

So use this bodybuilder trick, to your advantage. How? If you're going to exercise, do muscle-building exercises in the evening, before bed.

Do Cardio after Sleep

Another trick used by athletes, is to do cardio-type exercise (running, zumba, treadmill, bicycle, elliptical, etc) first thing in the morning. You've just fasted (during your sleep), so your stomach is empty and your body is deficient in stored carbs.

This is good, because it means that rather than the usual carb-burning for the first 45 minutes of exercise, your body will have no choice but to burn bodyfat as soon as you start exercising!

Change Your Exercise Plan, Frequently

Your body is made to adapt. So when you start a new exercise plan, the weight comes off fast. But after awhile, your body adapts, and the weight loss slows... or even stops.

The trick to keep losing weight, is to change your choice of exercise every month. Or even shorter than that.

You can't avoid aging. And trying to lose weight the same way that worked 10 years ago, but seeing no results, is a common complaint among mature adults.

So as the years pass, the rules for losing weight change. But you can learn those new rules and so, keep burning off the ugly fat, maintain a great look, and be the envy of all... read more...

Weight Loss Really Is Harder For Women

How A Woman Can Make Weight Loss Much Easier

For a long time, there has been a debate over whether it really is more difficult for women to lose bodyfat, than men. But scientific studies confirmed the answer to this question decades ago: Yes. When men and women follow the same weight loss program, almost all the men lose fat faster than almost all the women.

So why does this happen? It turns out, there are multiple reasons. Some are biological; some are behavioral.

Before we look at the details - and how you can make your own weight loss journey easier - let's be clear. Losing fat is one of the most difficult goals to achieve, regardless of which gender you are.

Here are some great ways that women can "level the playing field" and burn off fat just as fast as the boys.

Biggest Secret to Success

1) The biggest reason men can lose weight faster than women, can be summed up in one word: Muscle.

To begin with, the average man has more body muscle than the average woman. And science has proven, muscle burns more calories than fat.

Even when you're not exercising, it takes more calories to support a pound of muscle in your body, than a pound of body fat. Which leads to the surprising result, that men burn off more fat sitting on the couch watching TV, or even when they're sleeping!

What's a girl to do? Build more muscle, of course!

But women definitely don't want to "bulk up"; they want to get "toned" muscle. So you need to do a workout specifically made for a woman that will make you look toned, slim and sexy.

Which leads to the "flip side" of why men have a "muscle advantage" when it comes to losing fat fast. Because women worry about "bulking up", and because it looks so difficult, most women avoid the best type of workouts to burn fat: lifting weights. They either do cardio (which burns surprisingly little fat), or they use tiny "women's weights".

What's a girl to do? Start lifting, of course!

But you have to make sure you do the right kind of lifting. You have to do workouts that are custom-made specifically for a woman's body. (This could be, for instance, an at home workout for women - if you own the weight equipment.) And you have to do the right exercises, that target fat burning at female priorities.

(Yes, all of us with "thunder thighs" - we're targeting you for fat reduction!)
(Yes, all of us with wiggling loose fat on the back of our arms - we're targeting you for fat reduction!)
(Yes, all of us with "blubber butts" - we're targeting you for fat reduction!)

And you have to do the right number of sets. And the right number of reps. And the right amount of weight. And... it can get really complicated.

The solution? Use a workout program that keeps things simple. A program that gives you clear, video-based, expert instruction, on what to do to target each body zone for fast weight loss.

Other Success Secrets

2) The second reason it's more difficult for women to lose weight: Genetics.

There is an actual scientific term for the female body's tendency to shut down fat loss, when you hit a plateau and stop losing weight: Starvation Response. It happens when you follow a too-strict "low calorie" diet. The female body reacts by "thinking" that you, a cave-woman, are suffering through a period of starvation. And so, to keep you alive (and possibly, the baby developing inside you, as well) - your body goes into an emergency mode, where everything possible shuts down to conserve energy. Meaning, few calories burned; meaning, no fat loss.

To avoid this problem, you need to follow a nutrition plan, that keeps you eating healthy food and enough of it to avoid "starvation", while still losing weight. Meaning, No Fad Diets!

Plus, you need to make sure your body is getting enough protein, to recover and build muscle after your weightlifting workouts. (One easy way to do this, is to use weight loss protein shakes for women.)

3) The third reason women have a tougher battle with weight loss: Emotion.

There is an actual scientific study (2013), that confirms women are more "emotional" eaters than men. This means that women are more tempted by foods that are "bad" for losing weight: high-sugar, high-salt, etc.

And while both men & women occasionally blow their diets by "binge" eating, there's a significant difference in how they handle the guilt, emotionally. Men tend to simply "shrug their shoulders" and get back on track, the next day. And some go a step better - they increase the amount of exercise they do for the rest of that week.

Women, on the other hand, tend to get more upset and guilty about the binge. They react by adopting more extreme, emotion-based "solutions". That is, "solutions" that don't work, like: skipping meals (which triggers the starvation response discussed earlier), cutting daily calories to extreme lows (again, triggering starvation response), or the worst - trying one of the many, fad "cleanses".

So what can you do to avoid all the problems above, and achieve weight loss success? It's really quite simple. Follow a weight loss program that is customized for women, and includes instructions for both an easy exercise plan and a healthy eating plan that will burn fat fast... read more...

The Woman's Guide To Weightlifting Machines

We all know that "resistance training" is one of the best ways to tone up and lose weight. When most women hear "resistance training" however, they think of barbells & dumbbells - which can be very intimidating. But weightlifting machines are much easier to use, much safer to use, and deliver 80%-90% of the results that barbells & dumbbells do.

Even so, these machines can still make you feel intimidated, if only because there are so many of them to choose from. Fortunately, there are a few simple "tricks" that once you learn, you'll wonder why you didn't start using machines sooner.

The following tips will make your weightlifting machine workout, comfortable & easy.

Weightlifting Machine Tips

1) The Best Machines Match Your Goals

One of the first questions a new machine user asks is: "Which machines should I use?". It depends upon your goals.

The truth is, because you are new to weightlifting, you will get fast results no matter which machines you choose. Doing the workouts will burn more calories, so you will reduce bodyfat - as long as you don't increase the amount of food you eat.

Since you want to keep your body appearance "in balance", you should be using machines for each major muscle group in your entire body. This means you need to choose a full body workout for women at the gym. However, you can still "specialize" in the body areas that are most important to you.

For most women, a primary goal is "toning". And when they say "toning", they mean legs (including the butt), arms and abs. So you should concentrate on leg, arm and ab machines - while still doing a bit of exercise for the other major muscle groups (chest, back, shoulders, etc).

Since most weightlifting workout routines found online or in magazines are targeted towards men, it can be very difficult to find a routine that works well for a woman's body. It is especially difficult to find an upper body workout for women with weights, that emphasizes female appearance goals. Here's an example of a workout program that is made specifically to make a woman look great!

2) Form is more important than Progress

When most people start weightlifting, their top priority is to impress others (especially the boys) and impress themselves, with how much weight they can lift. Wrong.

It's not how much you lift; it's whether you're lifting it correctly. And "correctly" means, using the right exercise Form.

This is where using machines really helps. Most machines constrain the path you must take with your exercise motion, in a way that ensures you will not make the most common mistakes. However, if you really try, you can still do an exercise incorrectly, even though the machine is "trying its best" to keep your form correct.

So how do you learn the proper form on every machine? The hard way is to:
-Go online and watch a video of a personal trainer (or other expert) using that particular machine
-The first time you use a new machine, ask a personal trainer in your gym to help you determine the right settings for that particular machine (for instance, the seat setting)
-Do the exercise slowly and under control, so you can concentrate on keeping the form correct (instead of just "cheating" the weight - swinging it around fast, to overcome the weight's resistance)

The easy way, of course, is to follow a workout plan that includes very detailed exercise instructions.

Weightlifting Workout Tips

3) Rest is more important than Progress

Believe it or not, the most common reason for weightlifting workouts to fail to get you results - is overtraining. In fact, it's rare for someone to undertrain, especially newbies who are full of encouragement and motivation.

And the best way to overcome overtraining, is to get enough rest. But there are several types of "rest" here.

Firstly, you need to rest for enough minutes between sets, to be in the right condition to perform the next set. And this rest time varies, depending upon the type of workout you're doing.

For "toning" workouts, you are usually doing lots of reps and lots of sets - with little rest in-between. So in this case, getting enough rest may simply mean taking "water breaks" that are long enough to catch your breath and keep you hydrated.

Secondly, there's the rest you take between exercises. For "toning" workouts, you usually move quickly from machine to machine, because you want to keep your metabolism raised to burn as many calories as possible. So again, short rests, that are enough to catch your breath and stay hydrated.

Thirdly, there's the rest you take between workouts. This really depends upon your age. For the youngest, 48 hours is the rule. That is, your body needs a full day off to recover, before attempting to do that machine again. (However, note that it is possible to workout every day, as long as you alternate which areas of the body are being worked on.)

As you get older, your body needs more time to recover from an exhausting weightlifting workout. If you find that you are "burning out" despite taking a single day off between workouts, you should increase to 2 days off between workouts. And if you are a "senior", you should consider taking as much as 3 days off.

If you are doing the right workout for your goals, even doing only 2 workouts per week will be enough to see results. Which brings us to...

4) Use the Correct Specs

What is the right workout, for your goals? Again, for most women - who are primarily interested in weight loss and "toning" - the right type of workout is a "toning" workout (often called an "endurance" or "definition" workout, by the boys). So you need to find specifically, a workout schedule for women to lose weight and tone.

Toning workouts use high reps, many sets, and therefore light weights. The cardio version usually doesn't use any weights at all - instead, you use "body weight" as your only resistance. Machines are much better in this respect, in that they let you use less weight than your body. This allows you to start at lower weight for more difficult lifts, so you can successfully get stronger and more toned. Whereas starting with full body weight, will burn you out and simply convince you to stop - and fail.

Using the advice above, you can comfortably use weightlifting machines to achieve your weight loss and toning goals! You simply need to use a gym workout plan for weight loss for women, like this excellent example here... read more...