Category Archives: Women’s Fitness By Decade

Feb 1 2012

Slim Down Your Tummy for Health and Beauty

One important goal that you should always have is to slim down your tummy. Do it for beauty if you want. I want you to do it because its good for your health.

I know the size and shape of your abdominal area is important to you. Keep thinking that way…..

A fitness assessment is performed by a professional trainer before you start your exercise program. Body fat measurements will let you know where you are and how far you have to go to reach your goals.

You should focus not only on your belly fat…..focus on burning total body fat with full body circuit strength training and short, intense interval cardio sessions.

Your strength training sessions can be about 30-40 minutes (3 times a week) and your cardio sessions about 20 minutes (2-3 times a week). Your strength training workouts will include core exercises like planks, bridges, back extensions and mountain climbers to help burn your belly fat. If you want to do extra “belly fat burning” core exercises on off days, you can.

There is a correlation between chronic diseases, such as cancer, and abdominal fat.

Work to shrink your waist size and abdominal fat. Researchers from the American Cancer Society warns us about the deadly risks of having too much belly fat.

Eric J. Jacobs, PHD, American Cancer Society strategic director, and his colleagues found that people with very large waists (47 inches or larger in men, 42 inches or larger in women) had approximately twice the risk of death compared to those with the smallest waists (35 inches in men, 30 inches in women) during the study period.

It didn’t matter if the person was normal weight, overweight or obese (according to body mass index).

“We found a pattern showing that expanding waist size was linked to a greater risk of dying regardless of body weight,” said Jacobs. “Similarly, people with the smallest waist sizes had the lowest risk. The take home message here is watch your waist size regardless of your weight.”

Burn your post-baby fat as soon as you can. Don’t let post-baby fat follow you to subsequent baby births, if possible. Excess weight/fat gain and failure to lose this weight six months postpartum are predictors of long-term obesity, according to research.

Exercise plays a huge part in the fat-burning process. Many women continue to do strength and cardio training well into the third trimester of their pregnancies. Sometimes medical conditions don’t allow much exercise. After the birth of your baby, resume your regular workouts as soon as you can.

And, get a good fat loss meal plan that you can maintain. It obviously plays a huge part in the success of your fat loss and weight loss efforts.

Start slimming down your tummy region now (summer is coming)!

Be sure and download my FREE 14-Day Accelerated Fat Loss Program and torch body fat now!

“Exercise is not my life…..exercise makes my life better!”

Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Check out my other great blogs:

My Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as a Top Health Blogger! Quite an honor coming from that institution!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named one of the 50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody—including athletes!

Jan 6 2012

Women’s Weight Training and Testosterone–What’s the Connection?

Testosterone is not a bad word for women, especially if you are trying to “lean and tone” your body.

One way to 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. This will help you build muscle mass.

To lift 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.

Rotate heavy lifting days with light lifting days (10-12 reps per exercise, 3-4 sets). Do circuit weight training with the lighter weights (little or no rest between sets). You will need more rest between sets when you lift heavy (1-2 minutes rest between sets).

Women can also burn more fat by increasing exercise-induced growth hormone. Yes, your body can produce more growth hormone without any illegal drugs. Growth hormone is important for building muscle and burning fat.

Intense circuit weight training and interval cardio workouts will increase your body’s growth hormone. Research has also proven that the benefits of anaerobic exercise (like sprint interval cardio) is superior to aerobic exercise for fitness and heart health.

The progression of your cardio exercise should be low-intensity aerobics to moderate/high-intensity aerobics to high-intensity anaerobic exercise. Rest 20 minutes between sessions if you do weight training and cardio during the same workout.

Doing a second workout during the day (even a short one) keeps growth hormone levels high throughout the day. This will give you even more fat burn.

According to research, growth hormone in your adult body works great to produce the fat-burning results you want. If you want to burn even more fat, do more weight training exercises that test your balance, coordination, strength and flexibility.

Try some of these weight training exercises:

1. Incorporate one-legged exercises such as step ups, single leg squats, single leg good mornings, single leg medicine ball exercises, etc. These types of exercises are more intense than two-legged exercises.

2. Include exercises with your eyes closed to improve limb position sense (proprioception).

3. Exercise your body in all 3 planes of motion to improve multi-planar balance. An example would be a grouping of walking lunges, side lunges and transverse lunges.

4. Do combinations of one-arm and one-leg exercises such as single leg squat-to-single arm shoulder press.

Balance training also improves your core strength.

Challenge yourself more with weight training and your body will burn fat and lean out!

Be sure and download your FREE eBook: “10 Must Know Fat Loss Tips,” Free Fat Loss Meals and Free Fat Loss Workouts!

“Exercise is not my life…..exercise makes my life better!”

Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Check out my other great blogs:

My Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as a Top Health Blogger! Quite an honor coming from that institution!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named one of the 50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody—including athletes!

Dec 15 2011

Firm up Breasts and Flabby Arms with Strength Training

Spot strength training to firm up your breasts, arms or any other muscle group will not work. You need a full body strength training program that you do at least 3 days a week. And, proper nutrition cannot be ignored. This will start the fat burning process for your total body.

You can do extra work on problem areas. Below is a discussion on extra work you can do to help firm up your chest area, breasts and flabby arms:

1. Firm up your breasts and give them better shape with the chest press on ball (incline chest press on ball and fly press on ball is also great). Research and my personal experience using this exercise with women clients has proven that there is more muscle activation in the chest area when the chest press is done on a stability ball.

Your breasts are made up of fatty (adipose ) tissue, so their size depends upon how much fat you store there. Genetics, your weight, your health and your age also play a part in breast firmness and size. The muscles directly underneath your breasts are called the pectorals. Your pectoral muscles are partly responsible for the firmness of your breasts.

The only way to significantly improve your breast size is through surgery or weight gain. But, you can make your breasts firmer by working your chest-area muscles and burning fat. To me, this is the better option for now and later on in life (to avoid the sags as much as possible). Include the chest press on ball for your chest, arms and front shoulders.

2. What about flabby arms (grandmother arms)? You can burn the fat on those flabby triceps (back of the upper arm). It just takes some consistent strength training.

If you want to do some extra work to tone your triceps and arms in general, try this strength training circuit:

–Pushups on medicine ball, 10 repetitions

–Standing dumbbell shoulder press, 10 repetitions

–Standing dumbbell hammer curls, 10 repetitions

–Tricep dips on bars, 10 repetitions

–Standing dumbbell overhead tricep extensions, 10 repetitions

–Bentover dumbbell tricep kickbacks, 10 repetions

Repeat this circuit 2 more times.

Burn more body fat during your workouts!

Be sure and download your FREE eBook: “10 Must Know Fat Loss Tips,” Free Fat Loss Meals and Free Fat Loss Workouts!

“Exercise is not my life…..exercise makes my life better!”

Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Check out my other great blogs:

My Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as a Top Health Blogger! Quite an honor coming from that institution!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody—including athletes!