As time progresses, a woman following her routine will begin to lose fat and her muscles will become stronger and more toned. This will help to raise her resting metabolism, resulting in more weight loss and definition of the muscles.
Men following this routine will have similar effects except that the muscle instead of just becoming stronger and toned will dramatically increase in size. The reason for this difference in muscle growth between the genders is simple. Testosterone plays an essential role in muscle building. Estrogen plays an important role in fat storage.
With a woman’s low production of testosterone, and higher production of estrogen, her weight training routine needs to be not one of a mans, but one that is specifically geared towards reducing fat and building lean mass in a female body. Although both sexes will build muscle, the same routine will not yield the same results.
One of the most popular types exercise for toning and strengthening today is Pilates. Although there is some styles of Pilates done with equipment, most is done on floor mats. One of the reasons this program is so popular is the exercises range from relatively easy and low-impact to extremely challenging, allowing for everyone to be able to do at least some of it.
Pilates works by targeting muscles around the spine to build core strength, helping to elongate and give flexibility to all muscle groups, which helps to tone and build muscle while keeping a slender appearance. Certain combination exercises are gaining popularity as well. This is not really a program, but a set of exercises that target multiple muscle groups at the same time.
Doing lunges while doing shoulder presses, or squats that incorporate front curls are both examples of combination toning. Some of these exercises (such as the Pilates) use nothing but your own body for resistance. Others (like many of the combination toning exercises) also use free weights and machines.
The decision for exercise machine or free weights is really one of personal preference, and what you feel the most comfortable with. That being said most experts agree that mild muscle work and toning can be accomplished effectively with machines, but if you want more bang for your buck look to the free weights. These weights also allowing you full range of motion that effectively works your muscles.
Dead lifts, shoulder presses, bench presses and squats work your large muscles that help build your overall strength. When doing weight training, however, it is important to remember that the female body repairs muscle faster than a male. This means that although you never want to overwork your muscles, you will have to pay close attention not to under work them. If you begin feeling like you could do more reps than the amount you are doing, chances are you are not working your muscles to their full potential. Continue slowly adding weight over time, to keep building your strength.
Even though women repair muscle tissue faster than men, you always want to allow time for your muscles to heal between weight training sessions. When starting out you should always have the supervision of a professional to ensure you are using proper lifting techniques.
Doing exercises incorrectly or pushing your body past it’s capabilities can result in traumatic injury. Safety should always be of the utmost importance whenever you train. If you do weight training 4 days a week, try doing some light cardio on the in-between days. This keeps you in the habit of exercising, without pushing your body past it’s limits. Neither your aerobic or weight training sessions should extend past 50 or 60 minutes.
When you finally make the decision that you want to start building your muscles with a weight training program the first step of your new routine should be to slow down and get ready. Many times a mistake many people make when starting a weight training routine is to be over confident and jump right in.
Although it is great to have excitement and determination to begin, your body probably doesn’t share in your mind’s enthusiasm. All to often too much is done in the first few days, leaving muscles damaged and sore. As well as being detrimental to your body, this can be very disappointing to your eager mindset.
Many people who jump right in and over do it, end up just giving up because they feel it is too strenuous dealing with the aching muscles and negative progress. This best way to avoid this scenario is to spend your first month of weight training doing nothing but preparing your body for the new routine.
During this prep time you will want to focus on learning proper technique, what exercises you will be doing, and how often. Enlisting the help of a professional trainer to teach you these things, as well as help you to develop a successful routine is strongly recommended.
You should start out during this time with a full body work out. Be sure when exercising that you take time to stretch before any aerobic or strength training routine. This helps to loosen and prepare your muscles for your exercise, as well as helping to reduce the chances of damage to the muscle tissue. After stretching you can begin your exercise routine by warming up the rest of your body with 5 or 10 minutes of light cardio.
Start out with a program that pushes you a bit, but not tremendously. Pick only one exercise for each part of the body. Do each exercise with a very small amount of weight, and no more than 10 or 15 reps of each. Start with twice a day for one or two days a week, then slowly increase the frequency. Slowly over this month you will also begin to increase the weight.
The ideal amount of weight resistance is achieved when you only have the strength to execute your set number of reps, but not being able to do any further. Eventually as you gain strength you will be able to increase the number of reps you are capable of, as well as the amount of weight.
The most common system for doing this is when you are capable of doing 16 reps at your current weight, you should add 3 to 5 pounds to your upper body weights and 10 pounds to lower body weights. When you add the weight you should drop yourself back down to 10 reps, and begin the process over again. This keeps you at a steady stream of improvement, without any drastic changes that can overwhelm and injure your body.
By the end of your first month, you should have a pretty good idea of what your body feels comfortable with. The key to progressing to your desired goal is to not let yourself slack off. It is important to keep challenging your body. When a certain exercise has become very easy for you, it is probably time to add an exercise for that muscle group, or replace the current exercise with one that is more difficult.
The same goes for your weight and reps. If your body is not feeling challenged or pushed by your current routine, then it is a safe bet that you are in a sort of stasis, maintaining your current muscle mass, but not improving it. Maintaining a slow yet steady progression keeps you mind focused on your goals, and keeps your body moving along the path to achieving them.
