You can burn more fat by adjusting your workout routine to sculpt your best body. It requires that you lift more frequently and with heavier weights. And, guess what? You still won’t get bulky!
Women traditionally lift lighter weights or no weights at all (i.e., cardio queens). If you will tweak your weight training workouts, you’ll get better fat loss and weight loss results. Your muscle mass will be toned and not ripped and rugged.
First, do three weight training workouts a week. On your Monday and Friday workouts, you should do full body circuit training with light (but challenging) dumbbells or bodyweight exercises. Your repetition range for each exercise should be 8-15. This type of weight training increases growth hormone in your body.
Growth hormone elevations during this type of exercise have been shown to decrease body fat and increase protein synthesis after exercise. Growth hormone helps promote tissue repair and muscle mass growth from lifting weights.
In a study from the European Journal of Applied Physiology, human performance researchers from the University of North Carolina compared the growth hormone response of aerobic exercise and strength training. When compared to a 30-minute cardio session, the strength training workout resulted in significantly more growth hormone release.
Intense exercises such as sprints and squat jumps also increase growth hormone release. These types of exercises would be perfect for your interval cardio workouts on Tuesday and Thursday.
A less common way that women build muscle mass is through heavy weight lifting. “Heavy” is relative to your body weight and strength. According to the research, doing this type of weight lifting will give you exercise-induced testosterone increases. Of course, this will help you build muscle mass.
So, how much weight is heavy enough? Your repetition range for exercises should be between 3-5 (you would have a difficult time lifting these repetitions). You would typically do 4-5 sets of each exercise.
Concentrate on compound (multi-joint) exercises like squats, deadlift, bench press, rows and pull-ups. You want to work major muscle groups to get more muscle build and fat loss results. Do this workout between your Monday and Friday workouts.
Make sure you eat enough calories to spur muscle growth and fat burn. If you exercise intensely and cut caloric intake by more than 15 percent, your body thinks you’re starving and stops testosterone production, explained Thomas Incledon of Human Performance Specialists in Plantation, Florida. “Ironically, this dive in circulating testosterone stops you from burning body fat efficiently, so you're actually thwarting your hard efforts to melt that tire off your gut.”
The take home lesson? Do your weight training workouts to build muscle mass, burn fat, look/feel younger and shape your best body!
Mark Dilworth, BA, PES, CPT is a Certified Personal Trainer and former NCAA Division I athlete. Mark is the owner of My Fitness Hut, Her Fitness Hut, Sports Fitness Hut and My Nutrition Hut. 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 main site:
Your Fitness University http://yourfitnessuniversity.com