Chapter 10 - Structuring Your Workouts
The importance of following a good training regimen that not only boosts your stamina, but also strengthens and tones your body cannot be over emphasized.
Cardio is a great way to burn calories and lose weight.
Millions of women around the world focus ONLY on cardio workouts. This is a mistake because strength training is crucial for weight loss too.
The more lean muscle mass your body has, the more calories it burns while at rest.
That essentially means you’ll be a fat burning machine throughout the day.
The best way to structure your workout will be to have 3 cardio sessions a week and two resistance training sessions.
Cardio is extremely effective when done on an empty stomach.
You may have heard that exercising on an empty stomach is great for weight loss. However, the idea of a strenuous workout so soon after waking doesn’t appeal to most people.
The good news is that it does NOT have to be strenuous.
In fact, it’s best to keep things relatively light.
One of the best ways of losing weight is to go for a brisk walk first thing in the morning. A short 20 to 30 minute walk is ideal.
You should be able to hold a conversation while walking. You shouldn’t be exerting yourself to a point where you’re panting and gasping.
We’re not aiming for high intensity here.
When you wake up in the morning, your body is in a fasted state. Your glycogen levels are low and the food in your body would have been digested.
This means that your body will be forced to burn fat for fuel while you walk. So, during the 20 to 30 minutes that you’re walking, your body is burning its fat stores for fuel.
This is a very powerful method and since it’s not strenuous, you can do it daily.
The morning walk will also boost your metabolic rate and you’ll burn more calories throughout the day.
If you don’t wish to walk, you may swim or use a stationary bike. As long as it’s a cardio activity that’s at a moderate pace, your body will burn fat and your efforts will pay off.
You may wish to engage in strength training or a short high intensity interval training later in the day. That’s perfectly fine because the morning workout is just meant to speed up the fat burning process.
It’s an additional technique to help you reach your weight goals faster. This is such an easy method that anyone can do it.
If all you can manage is a 10-minute walk, then just do 10 minutes. With time, you can slowly progress to 20 or 30 minutes. There’s really no need to go above 30 minutes.
Give this method a try and within a couple of weeks, you will see the difference.
Many women worry about getting bulky and muscular like men if they were to train with weights. This assumption is false.
Even men struggle with gaining muscle. Women who train with weights will look leaner and more defined but they will not become manly.
You can cast aside all worries about looking like a female bodybuilder.
Bodyweight training such as squats, push-ups, lunges, dips and pull ups are great ways to work your muscles and joints.
It’s crucial to work your muscles or they will atrophy with age. Look for exercises that tone your thighs, butt and arms.
These are common problem areas for many women. While cardio will help you shed the fat, strength training will give you the
curves and definition that will make you look fit, healthy and radiant.
A short 10 to 15 minute full body workout done early in the day will work miracles. This type of workout is known as HIIT… High Intensity Interval Training.
Here’s the kicker. You can even do a HIIT workout in one spot and still sweat like crazy.
For example, let’s look at this workout circuit.
Sit Ups – 45 seconds
Burpees – 45 seconds
Jump Squats – 45 seconds
Push Ups – 45 seconds
High Knees – 45 seconds
Jumping Jacks – 45 seconds
Burpees – 45 seconds
Alternating Lung Jumps – 45 seconds
Sit ups – 45 seconds
Push Ups – 45 seconds
Each exercise will have 15 seconds of rest before you move on to the next. You could do this workout in a cubicle. It takes up that little space… BUT… most people will not be able to even make it to the 9th exercise.
Why?
Because of the intensity. You need to go as hard as you can go. There is no taking it easy. If all you have is 10 minutes, then it MUST be a hard 10 minutes.
The good news is that this is just 10 minutes. You’ll be in the ‘hurt box’ during this time but you need to keep telling yourself… “It’s only 10 minutes! I can do this.”
You could complete a workout within a commercial break. It’s that fast. If you do this workout early in the day, your body will be in fat burning mode throughout the day because of the intensity.
It creates a situation in your body known as post-exercise oxygen consumption. That means your body will be burning calories at an accelerated rate for 10 to even 14 hours after your workout is over.
It’s amazing what just 10 minutes can do.
The reason you do it early in the day is because your metabolism drops the moment you go to bed. By completing your training early in the day, you’ll reap maximum rewards.
It’s also worth noting that it’s best that you make these short workouts full body workouts. Do compound movements such as squats, jumps push ups, etc.
By recruiting as many muscles in your body as you can, you’ll be ensuring that your workout is engaging the whole body.
Don’t just try to wing it with simple exercises such as dumbbell curls and call it a day. All you have is 10 minutes. You have to make it count.
Even 3 of these short workouts a week will transform your body within a month. Go ahead and give them a try. You will be amazed.
Do remember to have 2 rest days a week. You can split them up or you can have both days back to back. It’s really up to you.
What matters is that you take a break every week so that your muscles and central nervous system have time to recover. By going too hard without rest, your body will get tired and stressed out.
You may end up hitting a weight loss plateau and once that happens, you won’t lose weight no matter what you do.
You will then need to take a 4 to 5 day break just to recover. This will slow down your progress and you may even gain weight.
Take a 2 day break every week.
Do your research online and find the best resistance training and cardio workouts.
Vary your workouts and challenge your body. You’ll get stronger and leaner in no time at all.