Workout Plans For Women
Women and men have very different needs when it comes to working out, this is because men and women have very different bodies. Specifically workout plans for women should be different than a mans. Men are built differently, they carry a lot more muscle mass than women, and women's bodies naturally carry more fat. Things like fat and muscle have to be considered when putting together an exercise routine, no matter what it is that you want from a workout.
Although this is not to say that many things which work for men while working out, will not work for women. The main thing is that women and mens workout goals are generally different and they are usually looking for different results. One issue is that due to pressure from the media and a horrible self image, most women look to lose fat and achieve a stick thin body that is not normal. Women seem to constantly be worried about losing weight and achieving a look that is very unrealistic and impossible. The same applies for men, who will often push the boundaries on things they will try to get bodies like the men on their TV, such as take illegal drugs in an effort to increase their arms and chests.
I am all for getting in to great shape and improving ourselves, I just think we all need to know that having a great looking body doesn't always mean that we a have a healthy body. I think that people incorrectly use the words heath and fitness in the same context. Just because you have such a low body fat level that you can see your abs, does not mean you are healthy. Think about it - if a person were to not eat food for weeks and just live off of cases of diet soft drinks they could lose a lot of weight and body fat. Would you say that was healthy? It definitely is not. You should strive to find a healthy balance in life that is based on eating well and exercising regularly, that does not go to any extreme.
Now for the workout routine.
There are plenty of workout regimes out there, the best workout plans for women will usually have 2 things in common.
#1 - Resistance Training; and
2. Cardio Exercises Done In Intervals
In order to achieve the best results, it is recommended that you train at least three times a week for an hour each session and at the same time reduce your caloric intake to create a deficit.
* Resistance Training Basics
You can do resistance training at home or in a gym, whichever works better for you. There are so many new options available to help you get a good workout at home, so it's really not necessary to go to the gym these days. A lot of people misunderstand what it is like in the gym, they assume it is packed with people in wonderful shape who do extreme exercises showing off their fitness. Once you actually go to a gym you will be surprised to see that most people are your average person who are there for the same reasons you are. There are not going to be too many people, if any, that are ready to start posing for the cover a fitness magazine. If you just try the gym once you may be surprised at the atmosphere, and maybe even meet some new people who become friends.
Dumbbells, workout balls, resistance bands and body weight exercises, which may just be the best, are all involved in strength exercises. With bodyweight exercises you get a great workout and won't even need any equipment. Believe it or not, you can do body weight exercises and train very effectively at home with very little in the way of equipment. If you are thinking that you can't get in to great shape with just bodyweight exercises, I think you will change your mind if you really give them a try. The U.S. military uses bodyweight exercises in training and nobody will say their workouts are not strenuous, and all they involved were bodyweight exercises carried out in the middle of a forest. Believe me, this type of training can be as intense as you want it to be.
You will burn more calories when you increase the amount of lean muscle mass you have. This is how men will often lose fat quicker than women. While this rule isn't always true due to other influences, it has been proven that if a woman that is overweight and a man that has a lot of muscle mass both go on a diet and do the same activities and have the same caloric intake based upon their size, the man will lose much more fat than the woman will in the same amount of time. Resistance training done properly will make you lose fat. You need to have a progressive overload or progressive resistance each time you train. You do not want to keep doing the same exercises with the same amount of weight and same number of repetitions. Your body requires a progression in order to continue making changes, such as shorter rest periods, added weight or added repetitions, so you can achieve your goals. As you do this you will notice your body adapt to the workouts. This will increase your muscle mass, which will require more energy to maintain the new muscle that was built. This is the basic key to increasing your metabolism in order to burn more calories and fat. That is what resistance training can do for you, the next type is interval cardio.
Cardio Training in Intervals
Interval cardio is going to be a little different than what most do and is going to be a lot more effective. Interval cardio doesn't require you to put a lot of time into it, giving you more free time to do other things in your life. You only need to do intervals for about 15 minutes or even shorter.
As an example lets use a workout bike. You can do this type of training on a treadmill or any other type of cardio machine, it is just a little easier to adjust the speeds up and down on a bike. I am going to use a scale of 1-10 with one being very low intensity and ten being that you are pedaling as fast as possible.
+ Spend 2 minutes of so just warming up at around a 3
+ Spend a minute on 4
+ Then for 30 seconds pedal at a 9
+ then spend a minute on 4
+ then another 30 seconds at 9
-Keep alternating between the two until you reach around 12 or 13 minutes
* Then bring it back down to a 4 for a final time and slowly decrease your speed down to a 3 or even less during the final two minutes of your workout as a cool down period.
Do this program three times a week with a goal of working up to about 45 minutes for the entire workout. You should aim to do the cardio for 15 minutes and the strength training for about 30 minutes. Give it a try because this really is one of the best workout plans for women.