Tone Your Body Without Looking Like a Fitness Model

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You can shape a toned body regardless of your body type. Aspiring to look like a fitness model from your favorite magazine is not a realistic goal for many women. Plus, you don’t need that look to be your goal. You want to look your best based on your particular body type. So don’t worry, just do the hard work based on your body type, follow your meal plan and you will look your best.

Three training mistakes that I see many women make are:

1) Doing the same workout for months or years. This will stall your progress because your body adapts to the same workout.

2) Doing too many long, steady-state cardio sessions. This workout routine will waste away your muscle mass.

3) Not doing enough strength training for fear of getting too bulky. You would have to lift very heavy weights for this to happen.

No two people should train the same way. Two people following the same exercise program can get different results. Don’t underestimate the value of an exercise program set up by a fitness professional. You will get an individualized training program and valuable feedback from a professional.

All women fall into one of four basic body types:

Type 1 – A woman with a thin, linear shape (ectomorph). Muscle mass needs to be built on the entire body. A woman with this body type has trouble gaining muscle mass. Concentrate on compound exercises like squats, bench press, leg press, deadlift, lunges, step ups, shoulder press and bentover row to build major muscle groups and add definition to your body.

If this is your body type, you also need to make sure you eat enough to gain weight and build muscle. Many times, a woman with a thin, linear body type can eat anything she wants and still have trouble gaining weight! Or, she will eat like a bird and remain skinny.

Type 2 - You have thin arms and legs with excess fat in the mid-section of your body. You need to burn abdominal fat and build muscle mass in the other parts of your body. Don’t just focus on your belly fat. Focus on burning total body fat with full body circuit strength training and short, intense cardio sessions.

Good exercises to include for this body type are compound exercises (listed under Type 1) and core exercises like ab ball curl ups, reverse knee ups, hanging leg raises, back extensions, bridges, planks, medicine ball chops and medicine ball trunk rotations.

Type 3 – You are petite in your upper body and heavy in your lower body. Build muscle mass in your upper body and burn fat and tone your hips, thighs and butt. Exercise your body in all three planes of motion to improve the 3-D shape of your body.

For your lower body, do light-weight circuit training with high repetitions (10 to 12) to burn lower body fat (squats, lunges, step ups, leg curls, cable leg abductions/adductions, etc.).

Also, incorporate many one-legged exercises such as step ups, single leg squats, single leg good mornings, single leg medicine ball exercises, etc. These types of exercises are more intense than two-legged exercises. High-speed jump training is also effective for this body type.

Type 4 – You have wide shoulders and a narrow waist. If you have this body type, you tend to gain weight evenly throughout your body. You are probably athletic. Do full body light-weight circuit training with high repetitions (10 to 12) to burn total body fat. High-speed jump training is also effective if this is your body type.
Women with this body type tends to be muscular with large bones and thick joints.

Due to you having more muscle mass, you usually don’t have weight problems unless you overeat and undertrain. You also respond to weight training by building muscle mass much faster than other body types! So, you have to be careful with your weight training or you will become too bulky!

Build your best body and not the body of the fitness model on the magazine cover!

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

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