Skinny women can build muscle and tone a great body. Many times, skinny women are hard-gainers and struggle to maintain enough weight. If you are naturally skinny, you are technically an ectomorph.
Ectomorphs are slim or linear in shape. They often lack muscle tone and sometimes have postural problems of the vertebrae (scoliosis is an example). Therefore, weight training is very important just to begin building a muscular frame.
Because of their high metabolisms, ectomorphs often have to eat more just to maintain weight! Many times, a skinny woman can “eat anything she wants” and still have trouble gaining weight (we all should have that problem)! Or, she will eat like a bird and remain skinny. So, proper eating is critical for building muscle if you are skinny.
Remember, you must maintain a caloric surplus (eat more calories than you burn) to gain weight and build muscle. On the days you workout, you have to eat even more food.
Every woman needs to do core exercises like planks, ab ball curl ups, leg raises, back extensions, trunk rotations, medicine ball chops and bridges regardless of body type.
Muscle mass needs to be built on the entire body. A skinny woman has trouble gaining muscle mass. Concentrate on compound exercises like squats, bench press, leg press, deadlift, lunges, step ups, shoulder press and bentover rows to build major muscle groups and add definition to your body. Calf raises, tricep dips, bicep curls and leg curls are also needed.
Jump training (plyometrics) and other high-speed exercises can be incorporated into any workout. Plyometrics and high-speed training will give your body better definition and give you faster results. That is why athletes’ bodies are so well defined. Good jump training exercises are squat jumps, pike jumps, jump rope and box jumps. Also, sprinting is one of the best body sculptor exercises available.
Skinny women may need to lift heavier weights to build muscle (full body lifting, three days a week). Using supersets are effective for skinny women. Bodyweight exercises also work well to build muscle. Lifting with high repetitions and light weights will probably not be enough to fully tone your skinny body. Recovery time, for muscle repair and rebuilding, is also important. Two days rest between heavy weightlifting sessions is needed.
Are you a skinny woman? There's hope for you to build a strong, toned body. Just do the hard work, rest and recover and eat plenty of food!
Mark Dilworth, BA, PES, CPT is a Certified Personal Trainer and former NCAA Division I athlete. Mark’s Fat Blaster Athletic Training System has been proven to give his clients the fit, sculpted and athletic-type bodies they want.
Visit Mark’s sites:
My Fitness Hut http://myfitnesshut.blogspot.com
Her Fitness Hut http://herfitnesshut.com
Sports Fitness Hut http://sportsfitnesshut.blogspot.com