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

Basically, my question is that I know I should be pairing this with resistance training... however until I find a job, I simply can't afford to join a gym

Ok, first year at university has ruined me a little bit, and I'm aiming to get back the figure I had before going, albeit a little more "toned" (I'm sorry! I know that word is hated here!).

Anyway, I have drastically cut down on the booze, I'm pretty much tee total now and I'm doing about an hours cardio at the gym 5-6 times week.

I do resistance training, about 10-15 fifteen minutes on the weight machines, but I have heard free weights are superior to weights machines. I'm just wondering how much time I should dedicate to free weights and if anyone could give me some example exercises I'm booking a personal trainer session in September as I am away for all of August ( I will still be working out) but I'd like some starting points


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Which machines? How much weight? How many sets/reps? Are you struggling on the last reps or completing them comfortably?

Leg press: 3 sets, I do one at 30 and then 2 at 40 for 25 reps each.
Abductor: 2 sets, for 25 reps at a weight of 20
LAT: 2 sets, for 25 reps at a weight of 20
Chest press: 2 sets for 25 reps at a weight of 10
Shoulder press: same as the chest press.
I do them comfortably in the sense that I can feel the burn but I am not straining anything.

"The burn" means nothing, it's a useless indicator, and illustrates that you're doing too many reps. 25 reps is excessive, and you should not be comfortable doing resistance training; not saying you should be in pain, but it should not be comfortable - it should be highly strenuous. Read the stickies, run a caloric deficit, get yourself on a weightlifting program for a beginner, doing 3 sessions per week, with 3 or more barbell compound movements (bench press, overhead/military press, deadlift, bak squat, chinups/pullups, dips) per session, doing 3 to 5 sets of 5 to 12 repetitions (i.e. 4x12, 3x8, 3x5, 4x8, etc), with a weight that is challenging and so that you cannot complete another rep and that your last rep is very difficult, but not to the point of sacrificing good form, and do cardio as many times a week as you want or your body will allow you to recover from (this won't be as much as you want, if you're lifting sufficiently heavy). If you want to use freeweights, you're going to need to understand the lift you're trying to perform - lifting is not something you unfortunately just do, although a lot of people do. You're really best off educating yourself and spending a decent amount of time researching lifting before doing it, and never stop learning about it.

Resistance training is the best thing a woman can do for their physique IMO.

Your resistance training to cardio ratio is off; 6 hours a week compared to maybe 1 or 2 hours tops of resistance training is a joke.

There's no hard and fast rule on it, but you should aim to get at least two 1 hour sessions in per week, if not 3 i.e. at least 2 hours of resistance training per week. Cardio needn't take hours either, if you started doing HIIT which is far less mentally tiresome, more effective, enjoyable, and generally more awesome.

Resistance training is not something you can tack on to the end of your workout for 15 minutes. Do it properly, or don't do it. For energy and performance's sake, you're best off doing your cardio separate from your resistance training i.e. have separate resistance training sessions.

You get out what you put in - freeweights are harder, but yield better results. Read the stickies, everything you could want to know is in there, specifically Powerlifter's thread on "getting toned" for the ladies. In order to improve muscle definition ("get more toned"), you need to decrease your bodyfat % level, and maintain what muscle mass you currently have, if not slowly aim to increase your lean muscle mass over the next couple of years (a slow and arduous process for women).

On a positive note though, good job on cutting down on the alcohol - that stuff is poison

I think you misunderstood me when I said comfortable, I just meant I am not putting my back out when I am doing them. I can do them and I know the next weight up would simply be too heavy for me.

Thanks for the advice I will probably invest in a personal trainer session in the beneath future then to ensure I am doing them correctly


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I think you misunderstood me when I said comfortable, I just meant I am not putting my back out when I am doing them. I can do them and I know the next weight up would simply be too heavy for me.
Thanks for the advice I will probably invest in a personal trainer session in the beneath future then to ensure I am doing them correctly

Bearing in mind my primary goal at the moment is to lose weight, and thus burn fat and then start building the muscle.

If you're doing 25 reps then it's not heavy enough. You're just doing endurance.

Yeah, you're nowhere close to putting your back out, you're doing 25 reps, it's training for endurance. Pick a weight you can only do 8 reps with. You're not going to die. Be weary, just because someone is a personal trainer doesn't mean they know how to perform exercises correctly.




Dieting without resistance exercise is asking for muscle loss. Resistance exercise is a key part of exercise for all individuals, it's not something you want to neglect if you ever hope of having a decent physique. If you have enough energy to do cardio after resistance exercise, you're not putting enough effort into your resistance exercise. A personal trainer might do you some good though, teach you what it means to push yourself for once.

Working your obliques is likely to make no difference to your shape, losing or gaining fat will.

Sorry I meant combined with fat loss...the end result

Being a girl, you will not get bulky sides, if you are very fit with minimal abdominal fat, you will just get decent definition on the obliques, which will just highlight whatever body shape you have...there is no definitive answer for everyone, if you have a narrow waist, then you will still have a narrow waist. It will be relative to whatever fat loss you achieve. I.e if you have fat hips and lose a lot of weight, and work your obliques, you may appear thin and straight up and down, but your actual oblique size won't have changed significantly. Equally, if you have a wide pelvis, and a fat abdomen, losing the abdominal fat will make you appear curvy

Fair enough, thank you