5 Top Weight Loss Mistakes Made By Women

Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 5:59 am

As a professional fitness trainer, I see 5 common mistakes that women make when they are trying to change their body’s composition (more muscle mass, less fat mass). You want a healthy, lean and toned body. You need the right fitness strategy for your body.

Let’s get right to the mistakes I see most:

1. Don’t set your body sculpting goals by looking at a woman on a magazine cover!

This can be a major mistake. First, the women you see on a magazine cover are professional fitness models. These fitness models may or may not take supplements and they probably don’t have your body type.

For instance, you may be petite in your upper body and heavy in your lower body. You should build muscle mass in your upper body and burn fat and tone your hips, thighs and butt. Your workout plan should be tailored to your body type. Two women following the same workout routines can get different results.

2. Your meal plan is based on a meal plan you see in a book or magazine.

Each individual has different nutritional needs and preferences. You should base your meal plan on your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and your level of activity (including exercise).

Your BMR is the amount of daily calories your body needs to maintain itself in a resting state. You will use this amount and your daily activity level to set your daily menu. If you use severe calorie restriction (i.e., don’t eat enough), your body will store fat because it will think you are starving. And, you don’t want to lose muscle, you want to lose fat! Even though you must maintain a caloric deficit (burn more calories than you eat) to lose weight, you don’t want the severe calorie restriction required by some diets.

Also, get to know your body. The same food item can affect two people differently. For example, certain carbohydrates can affect your body differently than your friend. Choose foods that you like and you will be more likely to stay in compliance with your meal plan.

3. You try every fad diet that comes out because you are too concerned about weight loss.

You experience rapid weight loss. But, you end up seeing your weight yo-yo back and forth because you can’t maintain that fad diet! Fat loss is more important than weight loss! Work on losing inches and changing your body’s composition. The weight loss will take care of itself in the long-term if you comply with a realistic, healthy meal plan.

4. Your weight loss goals are unrealistic.

Part of the first fitness consultation with a personal trainer will include you identifying WHY your fitness goals have failed in the past. Another part of the consultation is for you to VISUALIZE and set REALISTIC fitness goals.

You have to be honest with yourself to set realistic fitness goals. Sometimes the truth hurts. That’s okay! Many of you have tried over and over to lose fat and weight. Its hard to keep trying. Its easier to quit. Just make the commitment and get the guidance and support you need to reach your goals!

And, achieving fitness goals takes hard, smart work. You might have thought you could reach your goals by only doing cardio exercise (you were afraid that lifting weights would make you too bulky). You might need to change behaviors you have had since childhood. Also, it takes longer to change your body’s composition. But, the results will stand the test of time! Don’t try to take shortcuts!

5. You are trying to lose weight “all by your lonesome.”

Don’t underestimate the value of well-designed fitness program put together by a personal trainer. It makes all the difference because you get direction, feedback and encouragement from a trainer who is fit and knows what it takes to get fit and stay fit.

You also need social support. Research has proven that you are more likely to succeed with your weight loss and fat loss goals if you have a weight loss buddy (social support or accountability partner). Group exercise classes and bootcamps succeed in part because of social support.

Have you made mistakes with your weight loss and fat loss goals and later succeeded? Share your story!

Mark Dilworth, Certified Personal Trainer
Her Fitness Hut http://herfitnesshut.com

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6 Upper Body Exercises That Work Your Abs Better Than Crunches Or Situps

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 9:15 am

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The thought of having to do an additional 20-30 minutes of abdominal work after a regular workout can sometimes be enough for you to skip the ab training altogether. But, with these six upper body exercises, you’ll gain all the benefits and more of a regular ab workout, without the extra time.

This 15-minute upper body workout will not only build your arms, your chest, and your back, but every one of these exercises is also going to work your abdominals.

So this workout will include as I mentioned 6 exercises, but they will be broken down into 3 supersets at 5 minutes each.

So, the first superset will pair chin-ups with spiderman pushups. Now, just because these aren’t specific abdominal exercises don’t think your abs will walk away unscathed. I remember training a client before and a couple of days after doing the chinup exercise she commented how shocked she was that her abs were so sore. So, with proper form, the chin-up exercise can very powerfully target your abs.

For proper form, begin in the dead hang position. Now, keeping your body tight, brace your abs and pull your body up and chin over the bar, then in a controlled fashion, lower your body down. You will noticeably feel this exercise working your lats and your biceps. Perform enough repetitions that take you until one short of failure. For example, if you can do 15 repetitions, then only do 14 and so on.

After the chin-up exercise, you will move into the spiderman pushup. In this exercise, you will get into a regular pushup position, and then as you come down bring your knee up to your elbow and back down. Alternate sides.

As previously noted, each superset pairing will be done in five minute intervals. Once finished with the first superset, move onto the next upper body combination of one-arm standing dumbbell shoulder press and heavy weighted dumbbell rows.

For the one-armed shoulder press exercise, place the DB at shoulder height with your palm facing outward. Next, brace your abs and place your opposite hand on your side to ensure your obliques are working while pressing up with the DB. Do eight repetitions for one side, and then switch to the other side.

Immediately after completing your repetitions for the shoulder press, move to DB rows. This time you will choose a weight you can normally do 10 times, but now try to get 12 repetitions. However, be sure to use only good form.

By keeping your body and back in a straight position, you will end up working your abdominals very hard, especially as you get closer to failure and your obliques work against rotation. If you find that you need to take a 5-10 second rest after ten repetitions in order to use perfect form for the remaining two, then do that.

Again, you will do this superset for five minutes going back and forth between these two exercises.

To finish off the 15-minute workout, you’ll do two arm exercises that simultaneously work your abdominals. The first exercise is the lying dumbbell tricep extension. Now, in order to get a good ab workout from this exercise, when you’re at the bottom position, drop a little more and you stretch your abs. Then, bring the dumbbells back up overhead and repeat.

That little extra stretch at the bottom of the exercise will really work your abdominals to give you that six pack abs look, much like the stability ball rollout when you stretch out at the end of that exercise.

The final exercise is the one-armed standing dumbbell curl. For this exercise you want to begin in a braced position. Since you will be using a heavy weight, your abs will have to work very hard throughout this exercise. To get in proper position, if your right arm is working, then your left leg will be in front. You can do this exercise for 6-8 repetitions per side.

That’s the 15-minute upper body workout that will work your abs just as hard if not harder than any ab crunching workout you could possibly do.

Get more FREE sample fat burning workouts at: http://www.turbulencetrainingforabs.com

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health and Oxygen magazines and will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment.

Discover more ab workouts to help you lose fat, do more pushups, and build ripped six pack abs in less workout time than ever before.

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