For the Girls - Toning, Diet and Excercise a very basic guide - Please read!!

They haven't given us the options yet, although there is also a 7-week placement abroad next Easter and Murcia is one of the options there. I think it says something that now I keep worrying about 'what'll I do about a gym??' when I go.

The Redditch one is...alright. Free weight area could be bigger, they have about 10 billion treadmills for some reason but at least they have a squat rack - I'm the only one who seems to have ever used it.

Anyone tried Tabata training? Got any success stories?

I'm working full time now until I go back to uni, so I don't have a huge amount of time to train, and I was tempted by the shortness of it.

anyone know how many calories you burn per hour whilst swimming? roughly ofc,

anyone know how many calories you burn per hour whilst swimming? roughly ofc,

Hey was just wondering .. if this works..

Run for -20mins and then do HIIT for 10 mins?

P.s I am a beginner .. don;t run much .. so please share all the info you have ..

Edit: .. is't wise to eat break fast before work out or after cheers.

HIIT for 10 mins will be enough, if you want to do steady state running too do it on a different day

have something sugary before and after

Very helpful guide! I'm getting started with my new routine today

I love to skip rope and run but the muscles in my calves tend to get a bit too bulky for my taste. Are there any exercises that I can to do 'elongate' my muscles?

I was told I should have a small snack after going to the gym (bearing in mind that I've only just started using weights and do it really wimpily ) to keep my metabolism up but I'm never really hungry after excersise. Should I force myself to have something small or just trust how I feel and leave it?

Some basic mistakes to your thinking and a guideline to follow

Tone –

This is a horrible fail word. What the ‘toned’ look actually is, is a lower bf level coupled with higher levels of muscle mass creating the taught skin appearance.

I don’t want to get big –

You won’t, if it was that easy every bloke you saw would have swole t-shirt guns and pecs that could crush walnuts. And it is even harder for women so do not be afraid of compound free weights.

If you are already slim –

You are more than likely in the skinny fat zone, you are small and slight as your diet is probably high sugar high fat and little else, this has depleted your muscles and left you with flabby bits as there is no real muscle mass to hold it all taught.

E.g.


If you are overweight –

You are in a better position than above, fat is very easy to loose if you listen to several on here and not to womens’ mags and stupid fad diets.


Diet wise –

Nothing, upon nothing beats a healthy balanced diet with plenty of fruit, veg, whole grains, lean mean and fish. Please do not look for the quick fix, there is not one, it is a lifestyle change (you know this, you have heard it before).

Do not adopt the tiny breakfast, a tiny lunch and a bigger dinner, if anything do it the other way around (although this too is an extreme).

Eat small balanced meals often, if each meal has wholegrain carbs, protein and fats you will feel full for longer, be fuelled up and have a good source of vitamins and fibre, you will feel better.

Don’t count calories as much, they are not all equal and a chocolate bar at lunch does not mean you should eat less of the healthy foods, if anything and you must snack have it ‘as well as’ on the odd occasion.

A few 'myths' busted here



Exercise –

Cardio –

Is most defiantly NOT king when it comes to healthy fat loss. It is boring, time consuming and not particularly beneficial for what you want.

HIIT –
High Intensity Interval Training is ideal for what you want to achieve, two sessions a week will do to start with. This means that after 20mins you should be UNABLE to complete more, this is not a 20min jog, it is a 30 second sprint, 30 seconds at a slow job then back up to sprint level – it is hard, and so will your body be if you take the time to listen.

Here is a pretty good article on HIIT


Resistance training –

Freeweights are king, Squats, Deadlifts, Overhead Pressing, Rowing, Curls and Close Pressing are all you need, this with the above will ‘tone’ your bum, legs, arms (bingo wings) and midsection


This is by no means complete, but get these things into your head and you will be on a much better track than ‘Help me, I want to tone my eyelid’ type comments.

PM or quote any specific questions if you want, I am sure someone on here can answer them’ probably before I read it lol

Additional info - the bodyshape triangle

You will all no doubt be familiar with Trinny and the other one doign their bodyshape things for fashion. This however is not a new thing, its just something many are unaware of. The bodyshape triangle dictates what size you are, shape, ability to loose gain fat/muslce length of limbs etc

Important- You must understand that you fall somewhere within the triangle, you can have traits of one, or two and some people are neutral with mild traits of all three.
This is a limiting factor in what you can achive naturally. For e.g
If you wanted to be a catwalk model and are display no ectomorphic traits - forget it, it is pretty much impossible
Likewise if you aspire to look like a certain celeb, you must understand thier bodytype first, if yours does not match you can not achive it.
Please be realisitic and strive to be the best you can rather than worrying about others!!!

E.g


Definitions:



This is by no means a complete description.

Ideally you should eat after training to replenish your body. If you really can't eat much try just a bananna to start with then have a meal within an hour or so.

While you may be lifting really wimpily as you put it the strain on your cbody could also be massive as you have only just started. If you are lifting all you can then that is intense for you and you must make an effort to eat.

I really don't get the point of this post. Not all girls aspire for the athletic look, I for one don't. I'm slim, I have boobs and an arse, and in now way do I want muscles or anything of the sort. A lot of girls are the same.

So yeah this is a bit pointless isn't it.

I really don't get the point of this post. Not all girls aspire for the athletic look, I for one don't. I'm slim, I have boobs and an arse, and in now way do I want muscles or anything of the sort. A lot of girls are the same.

So yeah this is a bit pointless isn't it.