Exercise and fitness will help you to increase the range of movement, increase muscle mass, strengthen bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, improve your ability to do everyday activities, improve health, help prevent accidents, injuries, and sickness, and speed up rehabilitation.

Resistance training helps women tone, shape and strengthen muscle fibers, minimizing the “fatty marbling” within the muscle that results in flabby, weak muscles. In addition, not only will you increase muscle mass and overall body tone, but the benefits of exercise also include increased metabolic rate and increased bone density.

Women who exercise on a regular basis with both resistance training (weight lifting) and cardiovascular exercise are able to perform more work without tiring and are less likely to sustain fractures resulting from osteoporotic conditions.

So, what happens when the body you once knew begins to acquire a different shape and doesn’t respond to activities and physical exertion as it once did when you were 20 years old? Unfortunately, you can’t change the fact that you’ll age, but you can control, to some degree, the rate at which you age.

Many women unwisely decrease their activity level as they grow older, assuming it’s proper to grow old gracefully. Regrettably, they grow old ungracefully, with considerable restrictions on their mobility, self-reliance, and quality of life. From adulthood into middle age, you will lose approximately 6.6 pounds of muscle mass during each decade of life. Numerous studies indicate that muscle mass may decline by 20% to 40% between age 20 and age 65. So, it is critical to continue a regular strength training program throughout your life.

Do you want to know how to lose weight the right way?  Get My Fitness Hut’s 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

“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!

Client Q:  “This is exactly where I am…if I don’t want to join a gym, what is your recommendation for an at home fitness plan? As far as diet, I try to stick to the 10 superfoods these days, but I seem to retain water easily. It’s very frustrating, especially when I’ve never had to worry about weight!”

Mark’s A:  There could be several reasons for your weight gain:

1) You can easily reach your fitness goals working out at home. I train the majority of my clients at their homes or places other than gyms. About all you will need is a stability ball and some dumbbells. The key for you is probably to speed up your metabolism.  Building muscle mass will speed up your metabolism because your body has to work harder to maintain more muscle. 

Muscle mass will also cause you to lose body fat and inches which is more important than losing weight (the weight loss will take care of itself).  This can be done best by lifting weights 3 days a week and doing intense cardio exercise 3-4 days a week. See #2 below.

2) Your body might have reached a plateau. Weight often comes off easily at the beginning of a workout program.  But then your body adapts to your workouts.  When this happens, you need to vary your workout routines and intensity.  Do different lifts for the different body parts, such as substituting bench presses with stability ball dumbbell presses or doing step-ups and lunges instead of leg presses and squats.

A shorter, more intense 30-minute full-body circuit weight workout will work better than a 1 hour weight workout when you are trying to lose body fat and weight. A circuit workout is one in which you do one exercise after the other with little or no rest between exercises. Also, change up your cardio routines such as rotating treadmill, bike, elliptical, stair-stepper and swimming.

3) It is good that you eat the “super foods.”  They are good for you. But you also need to track your daily calorie intake. You will gain weight even on the days you work out really hard if you take in more calories than you burn (i.e., maintain a caloric deficit). You need to know your basal metabolic rate-BMR (how many calories your body would burn each day if you did nothing).  Base your daily caloric intake on your BMR and activity level.

4) Your weight gain could be medically related. Sometimes an improperly functioning thyroid gland causes weight gain. Or, as is the case when we get older, our bodies don’t need as many calories as it did when we were younger.

I hope these tips help. Just follow the three basic principles I just discussed—3-days-a-week strength training, 3-4 days-a-week cardio exercise and maintaining a daily caloric deficit—and you will probably do just fine for yourself!

Do you want to know how to lose weight the right way?  Get My Fitness Hut’s 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

“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!

Here is a good 30 minute circuit workout for you to do:

Do each exercise one after the other with little or no rest between exercises.  Rest 2 minutes between circuits.  Do the circuit 4 times.

1.  Dumbbell squats (1st and 3rd sets), Dumbbell front lunges (2nd and 4th sets) 10 reps, moderate pace

2.  Dumbbell chest press on swiss ball, 10 reps, moderate pace

3.  Dumbbell bentover rows, 10 reps, moderate pace

4.  Dumbbell standing shoulder press, 10 reps, moderate pace

5.  Dumbbell standing bicep curls, 10 reps, moderate pace

6.  Dumbbell standing calf raises, 20 reps, fast pace

You can do this workout anywhere, anytime and you’re finished in 30 minutes!

Do you want to know how to lose weight the right way?  Get My Fitness Hut’s 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

“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!

Michelle King Robson (pronounced Robe-son) is the Founder, Chairperson and CEO of EmpowHer, one of the nation’s leading women’s health and wellness advocates.  EmpowHER is one of the fastest-growing and largest health media companies dedicated exclusively to women’s health and wellness. She started the company in response to dealing with her own personal, debilitating health condition that left her sick, alone, hopeless and on the verge of taking her own life.

She went to numerous doctors, read dozens of books, and searched the Web for countless hours, and still, could not find the answers she was looking for. After reading one last book, being treated by the doctor who wrote it, and taking her health and wellness into her own hands, Michelle finally got well. Then she got angry. The solution for her was so easy, but finding it was so difficult. That is when she became determined to commit the rest of her life to ensure that no other woman would suffer in silence as she had. And that is how EmpowHER was born.

The company’s website, EmpowHER.com, provides women with access to health and wellness information, world-class medical resources, and a dynamic community of experts and advocates committed to their well-being. Launched only 18 months ago, the site is already a top 5,000 Web site on the Internet (source: Compete.com), and a top 5 women’s health and wellness site (source: Quantcast).  In 2009, nearly 3 million women came to EmpowHER to access health and wellness content and to participate in the site’s active community of women where they can ask their health questions and share their personal health stories.

In 2010, an estimated 12 million visitors are expected to EmpowHER.com. The company has been named as a Stevie Award Finalist for New Company of the Year by the American Business Awards, and Michelle is also a Stevie Award finalist for Chairman of the Year. Michelle King Robson and EmpowHER have been featured in the Huffington Post, NBC, ABC and on CNN among others.

Michelle is an active philanthropist and community volunteer whose work on various women’s and children’s causes as well as the arts has earned her numerous awards and citations, including the Fresh Start Women’s Foundation’s Founder’s Award, the National Osteoporosis Foundation’s Health Communications Award, which she received with fellow award-winner actress Sally Field, and the Arizona State University College of Nursing & Health Innovation’s Discover Award, an honor she received among esteemed recipients including Dr. Richard Carmona, former Surgeon General of the United States.

Michelle was Chairman of the governor-appointed Arizona Character Education Blue Ribbon Task Force. She was also appointed to serve on the Governor’s Commission on Women’s and Children’s Health. She has served as the Co-Chairman of St. Joseph’s Hospital/Barrow’s Medical Center’s $31 million Pushing Boundaries Capital Campaign, and was the Vice Chairman for the Tibet Fund Symposium, which raised over $1 million. She is also the only female Board Member of The Biltmore Bank of Arizona and is a past Board Member of the Josephson Institute on Ethics. Michelle resides in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband Ed and daughter Amanda.

Enough said!  Congratulations Michelle!  Now go visit EmpowHer.com and improve your health!

1. Traditional long, slow lower-intensity aerobic exercise on treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, etc. is good for beginners or those who have been inactive.

2. Research has 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.

3. High intensity cardio (HIC) and high intensity interval cardio training(HIIT) will give you faster body fat burn in less time. You only need to do 20 minutes per session, 3 times a week.

4. High intensity cardio (HIC) and high intensity interval cardio training (HIIT) will: a) significantly boost your metabolism–during and after exercise, b) give you less lean body mass loss, c) give you a faster rate of body fat-to-energy conversion and d) significantly increase your VO2 Max capacity.

5. Circuit weight training (including bodyweight circuits) has dual benefits as a strength/cardio workout.

6. If HIC or HIIT is too hard on your body, you might want to try a HIC, HIIT and moderate intensity combination during the week.  Just get to know your body so you know when to back off.

The evidence is clear—-if you want maximum body fat burn in the least amount of time, then HIC and HIIT is the way to go! I personally do 2 days of HIIT, 2 days of HIC and 2 days of circuit weight training per week. I know it works.

Do you want to know how to lose weight the right way?  Get My Fitness Hut’s 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

“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!