Women should only be lifting light weights for high reps.
Lifting light weights for reps doesn’t “tone” you up. Lifting light weights for reps is a complete waste of time. The only thing you’ll achieve is muscular endurance and unless you’re competing in a sport or event that requires muscle endurance, you’re wasting your time.
Exercise “X” is great for “toning”.
You might have heard from other personal trainers that certain exercises are good for “toning”. I hate to break it to you but they’re filling you with BS. You can’t tone a muscle. Muscle is comprised of fibres and these fibres either get bigger or smaller. The heavier the resistance, the bigger muscle fibres will grow. Resistance can be anything from bodyweight, dumbbells, barbells, or anything else that’s heavy and suitable to use.
Sit ups and ab exercises get rid of belly fat.
I personally hate sit ups. They’re a complete waste of time and frequently lead to back injuries. They’re also rubbish for getting rid of body fat. Performing a few ab exercises at the end of your session, such as a plank variation or ab rollouts, is fine. Specific ab training isn’t optimal for fat loss and getting rid of stomach fat. Ab muscles are small and don’t produce the same energy expenditure and hormone response as legs, back, glutes and chest muscles.
Lifting heavy makes you big.
This one has a grey area. For the majority of women if they lift heavy and eat smart they’ll look awesome. If you lift heavy and eat large amounts of carbohydrates and sugar then yes, you’ll get big because you’ll add muscle and fat at the same time. The problem isn’t the muscle, it’s the fat covering it making you look big. However, it would take a long time and isn’t as easy as it might sound.
If you want to achieve that “toned” look, you need muscle. Muscle is your friend PERIOD! Adding small amounts of muscle and reducing body-fat achieves this “toned” look. The only catch is you have to lift heavy to grow the muscle In the first place, and then to keep it.
The mechanics of lifting for men and women are the same. However a female’s training program should look a little different to a male’s. Men and women should always include a strength element and a muscle building element in their training. 99% of the time, females’ goals will differ to the goals of males. For example most women don’t want huge shoulders, massive arms, a titanic chest or a back the size of an aeroplane. Women generally want lean arms, lean legs and a flat stomach with some definition. Once training, they often develop a hunger for getting stronger too.
To achieve this lean look women need to include plenty of single leg work. Single leg work is great for fat loss and developing legs. Unlike men, women don’t hold large amounts of muscle in their upper body. Most of their muscle is in their legs and bum and that’s why they need to work their legs more than men.
When planning a program I’d start off with a strength exercise such as the squat or deadlift. These two exercises are great strength builders and help you to work at a higher intensity in terms of your lifting numbers. Getting stronger at these two lifts will allow you to kick arse on single leg exercises as well.
All this leg work is great for developing your glutes (bum) too. Nobody wants a saggy bum. If you squat or deadlift every week you’ll never have this problem EVER!
Training the female upper body is also a little different to training a male’s. Personally I find that single arm work is best. Performing some type of compound (double joint movement) exercise such press ups, floor presess or chin ups, followed by single arm work like dumbbell single arm floor presses or one arm rows is ideal. Then include some dedicated arm and shoulder work at the end. This will develop the arms and shoulders nicely and make them look lean and great in short sleeve clothing.
Last is calf raises. A good idea is to pair these up with one of the other exercises, three times a week. If you weren’t blessed with great ankles or legs having a set of calves will take the attention away from them and bring the focus to your calves instead.