The jumping squat is my all time favorite exercise for toning the leg and butt muscles. It has been used by footballers, soccer players, martial artists and sprinters for generations in order to build strength in the lower body. The good news is that it is also amazing for burning fat and toning your legs and butt. In this post I am going to show you how to do the perfect jumping squat.

What muscles does the jumping squat target?

The jumping squat targets more muscles than just about any other exercise. It is what is known as a compound exercise because it works more than one muscle group at a time. In particular it will hit:

• the hamstrings
• the glutes (your butt!)
• the calf muscles
• the thighs
• the hip flexors

When you do a jumping squat you are essentially doing a cardio workout and a strength workout all in one handy exercise. Your heart rate will be elevated to a point where you will feel like you have just run a sprint race and your legs will burn like you have just been doing the most difficult squats of your life. If you want to tone your legs and butt and lose that problem fat then this is an exercise you need to make a regular in your fitness plan.

How to do the jumping squat

The photos above show the starting position and then the landing position. You must swap your lead foot in the air.

The jumping squat is easy to do but it will take a lot out of you. Many women cannot do more than five or six on their first go. That is okay. As long as you do more each time you will be making progress. Try to do at least four or five sets with about a minute break in between each set.

1. Starting position
   Crouch down in a squat position with your left foot in front of your right foot and your hands touching the floor for balance.
2. The movement
   Spring up in to the air as high as possible using your quadriceps and butt to make you jump. This is a very dynamic and powerful motion.
3. Whilst in the air
   Whilst in the air change feet position so that you land with your right foot in front.
4. Landing and repeating
   Crouch all the way back down to the ground and repeat as fast as possible with the other foot now in the lead. Don’t stop at the bottom but keep going as fast as you can.

And that’s it! As I said, the technique is easy but exercise is not. You will get a burn in your legs like you have never had before.

I do this exercise at the start of every workout. It takes a lot out of me but I truly believe it is one of the best ways to burn fat and tone your leg muscles.

Good luck!

photo credit: Claudia Castro

The morning walk is one of the most common forms of weight loss exercise. When I sit at my table in the morning and look out the window I see scores of women going for walks with their dogs, husbands or a group of friends. And while we have approached the question of “does walking burn fat” before, in this post I want to give you a few ways to super charge your morning walk so you can burn more fat in less time.

How to burn more fat on your morning walk

While I think walking has its merits (it is relaxing, low impact, etc.) I do think there are a lot better ways to burn fat. High intensity exercise like sprinting, skipping, hill climbs, kick boxing classes and weight training are all far superior in my opinion. But for some women these choices just aren’t options. And sometimes a walk is a nice start to the day – it is definitely a lot better than doing no exercise at all. Here are a few ways to super charge your morning walk.

1. Walk for at least 45 minutes
There have been several studies done on the topic of whether walking actually burns fat. In these studies it was found that you need to walk for at least 25 minutes before you actually start burning fat stores in your body. And while I am not so sure if this science still stands up, the principle remains the same. You need to walk for more than 25 to 30 minutes if you want to burn a good amount of fat.

Why is this so? Well the main theory is that when you walk before breakfast you have no available energy from food and as such you will tap into stored fat reserves. Apparently you need to walk for at least 25 minutes before this process begins to take place. This is not entirely true because glycogen energy remains ready for action for a long time. A more likely reason, in my mind, is that walking is not very likely to lift your heart rate and as such you need longer to get to a point where you are actually doing some damage to the energy stores in your body.

Whatever the reason, make sure you are walking at a good pace for at least 45 minutes in the morning. If you can’t bare to be out for that long at least try to get half an hour.

2. Hit the hills
Walking, as we mentioned, is a very low impact form of exercise that doesn’t do much in the way of pushing your boundaries. For this reason it is a great idea to change the terrain a little bit so that your muscles are doing some work that they might otherwise miss out on. The hills is a great place to start.

Walking hills has been one of the best forms of exercise for a long time. It is an exercise that tones your butt and legs, gets your heart rate up a lot higher and is far more interesting and challenging than just walking on the flats. Now, you don’t have to find some gigantic mountain in order to get a good workout. Most of you don’t live near mountains. But almost all of you will have some form of hill near your house. It might be an actual hill in a park or reserve or it might just be a sloped street that you can walk up and down. Hit it.

At the end of the session you will feel more energetic and vibrant because you would have actually worked out a large part of your body. Hill walks are a really good way to super charge your morning walk and burn more fat.

3. Drink a black coffee before you leave
I can hear all of you breathing a sigh of relief. A fitness website telling us to actually drink coffee! What a great idea. In fact, if you want to burn more fat on your morning walk you should drink a cup of black coffee. Isn’t that great news? The bad news – you aren’t allowed to have any milk or sugar. Just coffee and water. Add anything else and you won’t get the benefit.

photo credit: e.asphyx

So why does coffee help you burn more fat? Well many people believe that it allows you to access fat stores instead of carbs. Others believe that the stimulant aspect of coffee assists in its fat burning. To be honest, however, neither of these things makes much scientific sense. In fact, talking to nutritionists and doctors who have looked at studies around this issue and not many of them agree with the above assertions. So why am I recommending it? Because I have seen results in myself and my workout buddies. A bit of caffeine before a morning workout seems to have a positive effect on our weight loss progress. Bodybuilders have been saying the same thing for years.

One last reason; a morning coffee can help to wake you up and get your head in the right place for a workout. I can’t tell you the number of times I got up for a workout and then went straight back to bed because I couldn’t wake myself up. A coffee can help to prevent that. Give it a go and see how it works for you. If you don’t see any results after a couple of weeks chuck it in.

4. Take some weights
Another great technique to super charge your morning walk to to take along some hand weights to give your arms something to do. While your legs do all the walking it is great to do some work for your upper body. This effectively means you will get a full body workout which will, of course, burn more calories.

So what do you do with the weights? Well, if you are a little self conscious you could just hold them by your sides to provide some resistance for your arms. This is good enough and will give you a little mini bicep workout. But if you want to spice up the walk a bit more and perhaps even do some arm toning then why no do some full on bicep curls or slow punches or overhead presses? That way you can workout your shoulder, biceps and triceps – all on your morning walk!

Give it a try and see how you go. If you feel stupid, embrace it!

5. Wear a backpack with some weight in it
You have to be a little bit careful with this one because it can produce some back and shoulder injuries. This tip is only for super hard women who are not afraid of a little bit of pain. Be warned though, if you don’t take it easy and do this one carefully you are probably going to wind up with some sort of injury.

This idea actually comes from the army. One of the main things you do in the army is walk. In fact, you walk a lot. And I’m not just talking about walking around in the park. No sir. These guys carry massive guns that weigh as much as your upper body, ammunition that would squash your dog and, you guessed it, backpacks full of supplies. And they burn a lot of fat. You will never see a fat person in the army on active duty.

Fill up your backpack with some light weights and go for a walk. If you have any pain you should stop but over time you will find that your legs and butt get a good workout and you have to push yourself extremely hard just to finish the walk. It is an army style workout that also helps you become very tough mentally.

Any more ideas?

We loving hearing your ideas and experiences. Talking on the blog is a great way to meet new people and learn new things. If you know of any other ways to super charge your morning walk please leave a comment and let us know.

photo credit: Carly & Art

In case you haven’t noticed there is a global financial crisis going on. And when money gets tight one of the first things to go is the gym membership. Because we at Free Women’s Fitness understand that not all of us can afford to go to some fancy yoga or pilates class we have decided to start a series on using household items to get a cheap workout at home. This is part one in that series.

Working out at home

Working out at home has many advantages. Firstly, you save a lot of money by not going to the gym. And I am not just talking about gym membership fees. When you go to the gym you usually end up buying a water or a protein shake and you spend money on parking and petrol. Over time these things add up, especially if you go everyday.

Another great thing about working out at home is the level of comfort. You don’t have to worry about other people watching you and you definitely don’t need to worry about being fashionable. At home you can just be yourself and get on with the important stuff.

Household item for cheap fitness: the water bucket

photo credit: jekert gwapo

Water buckets are extremely useful dumbbell replacements. All you need to do is fill them with some water and use them as you would a pair of dumbbells. As you get stronger you can add more water. Some exercises you can do with a pail include:

• Dumbbell curls
• Shoulder presses
• Lateral side raises
• Weighted squats
• Front shoulder raises
• Deadlifts

Another great exercise to do with the water pail is farmers walks. This is basically where you take two buckets or cans, fill them up with water, and carry them for as long as you can. It really works your shoulders, biceps and forearms. You will also find that your heart rate gets elevated extremely quickly and as such it will give you a great cardio workout.

Stay tuned…

Make sure you subscribe to our feed or email subscription service. We will be adding a new household item every day. By the end of the series you will have a full gym of cheap home items! It might seem silly but the next time you can’t get to the gym these items will save your workout.

photo credit: sirmightymac

Every woman wants to look great in a mini skirt. Most of the time we get a little pang of jealousy when we see another girl walking past in one that we wish we could fit in to. But those toned and tight legs and butt are achievable. In this post I am going to give you a few cardio, diet and exercise tips to make it happen.

How to look great in a mini skirt

Looking great in a mini skirt does not just happen over night. It takes weeks and months of hard work and discipline. The reason most women don’t achieve this is because they give up too early. If you can work hard for about two months you will start to see dramatic results.

We need a three pronged approach to get that great body:

• the right cardio;
• the perfect diet; and
• the best resistance exercises

I have divided this post up into those three sections so you can digest the information easily. Remember, it takes hard work and mental discipline. It is not a quick fix. There is no such thing.

The right cardio for toned legs and a round butt

photo credit: C1ssou

So what sort of cardio should we be doing if we want to look good in a mini skirt? The answer is simple: high intensity. High intensity cardio will get you results faster.

Why high intensity?
If you have been reading Free Women’s Fitness for a while now you will know that high intensity cardio burns more calories than low pace running and walking because it continues to burn calories after the session is finished. Your heart rate gets boosted so high you speed up your metabolism for a long time.

What exercises are good?
We want to target the butt, hamstrings, thighs and calf muscles especially and as such we should be doing exercises like sprinting, hill runs, kickboxing and other forms of exercise that target the lower body.

How often?
You should be doing cardio at least four times a week for at least two months. After that you can scale back or move into something less stressful on the body. However, hitting your body with a good dose of high intensity work will do you wonders.

The right diet for that mini skirt goal

photo credit: quinn.anya

The next (and most important) element is the diet. If your diet is lacking in any way you simply will not lose the weight or tone the legs. Why? It is simple: it takes an hour to burn 200 calories on the treadmill but it takes 30 seconds to eat that many calories. So, if your diet is out your exercise will be fighting an uphill battle.

What to eat?
The most important thing you need to know is that an all natural diet is the best. You should try to avoid any food or drink that is man-made or processed. This means avoiding bread, refined sugars, pasta, etc. You want to stick to foods that are natural, organic and good for you. Here are some foods for weight loss.

How often?
As you all know, timing is almost as important as the stuff you eat. If you eat three big meals a day your body is going to get weighed down and your metabolism will slow. However, if you eat a small meal every three hours your digestion will be cranking and helping you to burn energy. Did you know that the very act of digesting food burns calories? Why not keep it digesting small amounts instead of letting it all get converted into fat.

The best exercises for that mini skirt figure

photo credit: Jessa9

There are actually a few things that women seem to ignore when training for that mini skirt figure. One of those things is that heavy weights are actually good for you. They won’t make you bulky but they will burn calories and help you to tone those muscles.

Types of resistance exercises
The best types of exercises you can do if you want to tone your legs and butt are ones that involve many muscles at once. These are called compound exercises and include the jumping squat, the squat, lunges, hill sprints, etc.

How to do them?
All exercises should be done slowly and with perfect technique. Why? Because this way you rely on your muscles to do the work and not your momentum. Momentum is easy. Pushing is hard work. This burns calories. Make sure you learn how to do the exercises really well before you hit the heavy stuff. Injuries last a long time.

How often?
For the first two months you should hit the gym (or living room!) every day that you aren’t doing cardio. This is a perfect routine as it should give you enough recovery time whilst still doing the amount of work that you need to do.

Bonus tip: Work the shoulders
Did you know that the perfect hour glass figure is actually an illusion created by the shape of your upper body as compared to your lower body? If you build up your shoulders more it will make your waist appear thinner and as such your mini skirt much sexier. If you want to look amazing in that short skirt you should work your shoulders with military presses, push ups and so on.

Conclusion

In just two short months you will feel more comfortable in that mini skirt. All you have to do is the right cardio, resistance exercises and food. Please don’t give up before the results start to happen. Push through the mental pain barrier and achieve the body you have always wanted.