If you’ve turned on any chat show in the last two years you would know that women love Michelle Obama’s toned arms. And trainers all over the world have tried to capitalize on this fascination by teaching us how to get arms like the First Lady. But as I read through a whole bunch of articles about her toned arms I noticed a distinct lack of clear instruction. Sure, there are some amazing pieces that give general tips on how to get toned arms but no one really wrote about what you should do in terms of diet, exercise, etc.

In this post I am going to do an in depth look at how to get toned arms like the very beautiful Michelle Obama. I will try to include as much information as possible so you can begin your workout today.

Toned arms in 4 weeks?

The title of this post indicates that you will have nice toned arms in four weeks time. And while that might be possible for some of our readers it won’t be possible for everyone. It is, however, a very good goal to keep in mind.

Why won’t it be possible for everyone? The fact of the matter is, if you want to have a toned body you need to lose body fat. And this is a very long term affair. Some of you might already be at a level where you can just do a few little tweaks and wind up with the definition you want, others will need more time. So while I want everyone to keep the four week goal in mind, don’t be too disappointed if you don’t see final results in that time.

One thing is for sure, if you do four weeks of proper diet and exercise according to this post, you will be well on your way to success. I’m betting you will be well ahead of your friends who are still dabbling around.

Spot reducing fat from your arms

The first thing you need to know is that you cannot spot reduce fat from your arms. A lot of women out there think that if you want to get toned arms you need to do some magical exercise that will burn fat just off of the arms. It doesn’t work like that. If you want to get toned arms you need to lose fat off of your whole body. If you want to get toned abs you need to lose fat off of your whole body. There is no easy way out.

And that leads us to the first and most important part of this post – your diet.

Dieting for toned arms like Michelle Obama

photo credit: garryknight

Without any shred of a doubt the most important part of getting toned arms is your diet. It is what you put in your mouth that determines how toned your arms are, even more so than how much you exercise. If your diet is not on track you will not get the arms that you desire.

The maths of arm toning
In our epic article on how to lose weight for good we talked about the mathematics of weight loss. This is a very important concept that I urge you all to read an understand for it will change the way you think about diet and exercise. I will not explain it all again but here is a quote from the article to give you an idea:

If you have a can of Coke with lunch everyday of the week you are taking in 155 calories x seven days a week. That is 1085 calories a week. Now, there are 3500 calories per pound of body fat. So, if you take in 1085 calories from one can of Coke per day in three weeks you have added a pound of fat. That is 17 pounds per year. Just from your daily Coke.

You can see from this little bit of maths that your diet is going to have a much bigger impact on your weight loss than the exercise that you do. Just one Coke will take you 30 minutes to burn off on the treadmill. So what about all the other excess calories that you eat every day? How long must you need to burn all of them off? It is vital that you get your diet in order if you want to tone up.

What to eat for arm toning
So what exactly should you be eating if you want to get toned arms like Michelle Obama? The most important thing is to stay away from man made processed foods that are full of our three main enemies:

• refined sugar
• salt
• saturated fats

These foods are full of empty calories. An empty calorie is basically energy that comes from food that provide no nutritional benefits. For example, if you have a can of Coke you get 150 calories but no minerals, vitamins or nutrients. On the other hand, if you have a salad you get the same amount of calories but a nice amount of protein, fiber, minerals, etc. You need to be avoiding the man made foods that are just full of empty calories. These are a disaster for any woman who wants to lose weight.

A long term approach to short term gains
The main point here is that you don’t want to go on another diet. You aren’t trying to lose weight by eating just lemons. What you want is a lifelong change in your eating habits that will allow you to lose weight, get toned and then stay toned as the years go by. Most women revert back to their old shape and weight. We don’t want that to happen.

Some of the foods you want to be eating on a daily basis include:

• green leafy vegetables
• milk and small amounts of cheese
• unsalted nuts and some seeds
• free range eggs
• lots of fresh fruits, the more colorful the better

I’m not a big advocate of meat but a lot of trainers and dietitians will tell you to take in lean proteins from animals. My personal experience has been that I have lost weight faster eating a vegetarian diet. I also feel better. A lot better. Meat tends to weigh me down and make me feel depressed. It is also a thoroughly unethical industry that I don’t really want to be supporting. But that is another story.

Green tea as a bonus food
Green tea is something that I often talk about on this website as something that all women should be drinking. It is amazing for your health and studies have shown that people who drink green tea daily have a smaller chance of getting caner and heart disease. There is also some evidence to suggest that it can help you burn fat at a faster rate. I strongly recommend that everyone who reads this take up drinking a nice pot of green tea every day and see how it makes you feel.

Exercises to get toned arms like Michelle Obama

photo credit: lululemon athletica

Now that we have covered some of the important dietary points we can move on to a bunch of exercises and workouts that will help us get those coveted arms. Remember, when you do any exercise you need to make sure you are doing it with proper technique and according to your level of fitness. I always encourage my friends and readers to meet with a trainer for your first session and learn exactly how to do each exercise so that you don’t end up with an injury that lasts the rest of your life.

Burning fat is the way to toned arms
Let me tell you something that you might know, you might not. You already have toned arms. They are there right now. The problem is that they are being hidden under a layer of fat. So if you want to tone your arms you need to burn the fat that is covering them. That is the point of eating right and that is 80% of the exercise. If you want toned arms you need to exercise so that you are burning fat at a proper rate.

High intensity workouts are the best
One of the things we try to do here at FWF is educate women on the benefits of high intensity workouts. For too long now we have been told the slow jog on the treadmill for an hour is the best way to lose fat and get toned. It isn’t. Not by a long shot. The best way to get into the shape of your life is to workout at an intense pace. Some of the absolute best ways to do this include:

• Kickboxing classes
  I know a lot of women will groan at this and think that they will never try it but I guarantee you it is one of the best ways you can burn fat and get toned in a really quick time. Three kickboxing classes a week will absolutely change the way you go about your fitness. When kick a bag you use your entire body; your legs, abs, hips and arms. The same goes for punching. You will get your heart rate up to super high levels and you will find that your body changes very quickly.
• Skipping
  Here she goes about the skipping again I can hear you all say. But it really is one of the best ways to burn fat and tone your arms – you get the worst burn! Bruce Lee once said that 10 minutes of skipping was the same as 30 minutes of running and I tend to agree. Get yourself the best skipping rope and go for it!
• Circuits
  One of the most intense workouts you will ever do is a circuit. These focus on resistance and cardio exercises and are a great way to get the fat burning and the muscles working. So how do you do them? Simply choose one exercise for each body part and perform them one after the other with no break in between. Once you finish them all, take a short rest and then start again. Try to do the whole circuit as many times as you can.

It is really important not to overdo it though. A high intensity workout should not be done every day as your body needs time to recover and heal. Try and aim for three times a week with a few more gentle workouts in between. If you can do that for four weeks you will see some incredible results.

The importance of weight training and resistance exercises
Women seem to hate weight training because they are worried that it will make them bulky and manly. Well it won’t. I have said it before and I will say it again. Weight training and resistance exercises only help to make you thin and toned and healthy. They will not make you muscly because women, for the most part, do not have enough testosterone to grow big muscles. When you look at women in the gym who weight train they always have thin and hard bodies – never bulky manly ones.

It is time for all women reading this to add some weight training to our regular cardio workout. Mixing weights with cardio has some major advantages including:

• Elevating your metabolism
  When you weight train you elevate your metabolism. This is a very good thing because it means you will be burning calories even when you aren’t at the gym.
• Burns more calories
  Mixing weight training with cardio actually burns more calories than if you just did one slow cardio workout. The lifting of the weights is a very hard motion and it takes up a lot of energy.
• Your body becomes fitter and healthier
  There have been scores of studies that show that weight training makes you extremely healthy and a lot fitter. Basically, without getting too technical, when you weight train you turn your body into a fat burning machine. The more weights the more fat burning.

How often should you weight train?
If you want to get into weight training you should start slowly and work your way up to about three times a week. If you can mix it in with your kickboxing or other high intensity workouts you will be on the way to a very quick set of toned arms!

Conclusion

Getting toned arms like Michelle Obama is a long process. Sure, it can be sped up but please don’t think that it is an easy road. You need to be committed to a near perfect diet and a workout routine that doesn’t quit when it gets boring. Remember, if you have any other tips you can leave a comment below as it might really help someone out there on their journey.

photo credit: mikebaird

When you start your weight loss or fitness journey there is one question that you will inevitably be confused about – should I do weights or cardio first? It is a good question and one that you should absolutely try and find the answer to. In this post I am going to give you some general information and then hopefully you will be able to make up your own mind.

The argument for doing weights first

First of all let’s have a talk about the idea of doing weights as the first part of your routine.

1. You are fresher
The main advantage of this strategy is they fact that you are fresh and awake at the start of your routine. This means you will be able to lift more weight and as such make more progress.

2. Less injuries
Many personal trainers also attest to the fact that less injuries occur when you do weights first as you have a good amount of energy to put into your technique. When you are tired and fatigued this focus often vanishes.

3. Better for weight loss
Some bodybuilders and personal trainers also tell us that weights should be done first if we are trying to lose weight. This is because the weight training helps to deplete the sugar levels in your blood. That way, when you move on to cardio, you will be burning more fat than sugar. And this is what we want.

The argument for doing cardio first

Now let’s take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum – cardio first, weights after.

1. A proper warm up
The main advantage of this strategy is the fact that you get a really good warm up before you hit the weights room. Many women these days jump right into the weights without much of a warm up and end up pulling a muscle or doing a slight strain that can set your weight loss progress back weeks or even months. When you do cardio first you are more likely to warm up properly.

2. You can go further/harder
As you know, here at Free Women’s Fitness we like to advocate harder cardio than normal. We like to encourage all the girls out there to hit the treadmill or exercise bike with vigor and passion and to step up and do a more intense workout. This becomes difficult after a weights session, however, as you are too fatigued and low on energy. If fitness is your main goal then it might be better to do your cardio session at the start.

Conclusion

There are positive and negative aspects to both scenarios depending on your goals. If you are aiming for weight loss then perhaps it might be better to do weights first. If you are trying to get fit then jump on the cardio machines first and really bang it out with some intensity.

If you have any other suggestions then please drop by the women’s only forum and let us know. I would love to hear what you have to say.

photo credit: Iwan Gabovitch

So, the big question, what is better – free weights or exercise machines? It is an interesting question and one that almost every gym-goer asks at some point in their career. In this post I am going to show you why I believe free weights to be a whole lot better than exercise machines.

• Free weights:
  Any weight lifting device that you can lift and move freely. The main examples are dumbbells and barbells.
• Exercise machines:
  Any weight lifting device that has a fixed use. For example, overhead press machines, ab crunch machines, etc.

Exercise machines – some advantages

Before I get into the reasons why free weights are better I want to give you a couple of reasons why exercise machines should still play a big role in your workout.

They are safer
The main advantage of exercise machines is that they are safe. These machines are designed to use your body in a certain fashion and as such there is a lot less room for injury. For example, when you use a rowing machine your back is positioned nicely and the puller only moves in one fixed direction. This means you will have to work pretty hard to pull a back muscle.

They teach you technique
Another major advantage of the exercise machine which is closely related to the first one is the fact that they teach you how to do exercises in the proper fashion. As the machine is built for one particular movement only it is a lot easier to learn how to do that movement.

Why free weights are better

photo credit: combust

If you are trying to lose weight, get fit or sculpt some part of your body you will be much better off using free weights. And I am not the only one who says this; fitness trainers and bodybuilders from around the world all agree that free weights are better for you.

The reason is simple. When you use free weights you get an increased range of motion. This range of motion means that you will be working more muscles at once and as such you will get a more intense workout.

Take the bench press as an example. When you push a barbell above your chest you need to use lots of stabilizer muscles in order to keep the weight in the right position. When you are on the exercise machine you don’t get this effect as the machine holds the weight for you. These stabilizer muscles are extremely important for your posture and muscular health.

As a general rule you can say that the bigger the range of motion the better the exercise. Exercise machines, unfortunately, do not provide this range of motion and as such we need to set them aside and choose a good free weights exercise instead.

Free weights can be dangerous
Of course, there is always a down side. Free weights can be dangerous if you don’t use them correctly. It is vital that you learn the proper technique before using heavy free weights to avoid any injuries.

When it comes to weight lifting the most important thing is technique. Always. If your technique is correct and nicely performed you will have good results. If it is incorrect you will get bad results and even worse injuries.

Conclusion

Once you have learned the correct way to use them you should always pick free weights over gym machines. You get a better range of motion and utilize many different muscles at once. This is good for the progress of your muscles and the overall health of your body.

photo credit: patrick kiteley

Life is busy. Work, family, cooking dinner. It doesn’t leave us with a lot of time to workout. So when we finally make it to the gym we need to make sure we are getting the most out of our workout sessions. In this post I am going to show you 11 ways to get more from your time at the gym.

11 tactics to get more from your gym session

These tips are designed to help make your gym workouts more efficient, effective and result producing. If you have anything else to add please head over to the forum and leave your tips. You never know, your knowledge might really help someone.

1. Have a coffee before hand
Studies have shown that coffee helps you workout. It keeps you more focused and alert and it can even help you perform better physically. This is particularly true if you are doing a weight loss workout as caffeine speeds up your heart rate and metabolism.

photo credit: Joanne Probyn

2. Warm up correctly
A lot of women fail to warm up correctly. If you are doing a weights session that involves a lot of upper body work you need to make sure you warm up that part of your body. Running on a treadmill is no good! If you are going to be doing upper body weights perhaps start with some rowing.

3. Keep hydrated
When you workout your body loses fluids. This can end your workout prematurely because it starts to make you feel sick and tired. Keeping hydrated is extremely important if you want to make sure you are getting the most from your time at the gym. Keep a water bottle with you or make sure you constantly visit the fountain.

4. Workout the big muscle groups
There are two types of weight lifting exercise – isolated and compound. Isolated exercises only work one muscle at a time and as such do not have a lot of full body benefits. Compound exercises, on the other hand, workout lots of muscles at once. This is a much better option for saving time, burning calories and getting a full body workout in a short space of time.

5. Use heavy weights
Whoever it was that first said that light weights tone your muscles was a fool. Light weights don’t do much at all to be honest. If you want to tone up and lose weight then you need to use heavy weights. Don’t worry, you won’t get bulky. All you will do is burn calories faster and make a lot more progress.

6. Workout with a partner
Sometimes we can be a little bit lazy when we workout by ourselves. We wander around looking at the televisions or taking big breaks in between sessions. However, if you workout with a partner a lot of that is cut out. Similarly, you will be more likely to work hard when your partner is pushing you to do better. Try it out.

7. Have a fixed routine
A few years ago I used to go to the gym and spend half of my time walking around wondering what to do next. This is a big waste of time. Plan your sessions before you go by creating a fixed routine. Stick to that routine and you will find that your sessions become a heck of a lot more productive.

8. Take some music
There is nothing like a good loud song to get you working out harder. I always seem to run a lot further when I have a good hip hop song in my ear. Try and put together a workout playlist and crank it on whenever you do your cardio sessions. The added emotion will really get you moving.

photo credit: dongga BS

9. Have a set goal
One thing I noticed recently was that I worked a lot harder at the gym when I had a set goal. In previous years I would just go the gym out of some sense of needing to stay fit and slim but recently I decided that I wanted to lose 5 kilograms after spending too much time in the local cafe on an overseas trip. Once I had this set goal I did what I needed to do to achieve it and stayed on track. Find out what you want to achieve, write it down and go for it!

10. Cut your sessions to 45 minutes
Your gym sessions should not go for longer than 45 minutes. Any long than this and your body starts to produce a chemical that can actually hamper your progress. But that is not the only reason. If you cut your session times down you will be forced to fit more in and work harder. This is a fantastic way to work out – intensely.

11. Squat
The squat is the best wight lifting exercise there is. A good session of heavy weighted squats will burn more calories than any other exercise. But what is really cool about the squat is the fact that your body will continue to burn calories after you have finished the workout. If you really want to super charge your gym session you need to start squatting on a regular basis.

If you have any other suggestions please drop by our forum and let us know!

photo credit: Photos8.com

Do you set your alarm for a 6am run but then hit snooze til 9? Do you plan on going to the gym after work but never seem to get there? Sounds like you’ve got a case of fitness laziness!

In this article I am going to give you some simple steps to overcome fitness laziness. For once you overcome this hurdle, the rest will seem like a walk in the park.

Admitting that you have fitness laziness?

The first thing you need to do is admit you have a problem. Once you have admitted you have a problem you can begin to solve it. If you never admit it, you will never solve it. Here are three ways to tell whether you have fitness laziness:

• You don’t last more than a month
  One surefire way to tell if you are lazy is if you begin a weight loss program or a new fitness regime and then quit after a month. This is lazy because you have not given it enough time to work and are giving up too early.
• You cheat all the time
  Another way to tell if you are lazy is if you cheat. This could be that you have a “cheat snack” every now and then or it could be that you blow the gym off to go to a party or watch TV. Lazy.
• You leave the gym early
  If you ever leave the gym before completing your workout or head home after only jogging a few blocks it is a big sign that you are being lazy. Successful people never cut their workouts short – they always follow through to the end.

If you do any one of those things then it is time to admit that you have a laziness problem. Now that you have done that we can get to work solving it.

How to overcome fitness laziness

Laziness is a habit. It is not an inbuilt personality trait. Laziness has become a part of your life because you have allowed yourself to slip into that mindset. This means that with a few simple habit changes you can reverse its negative effects. You can change.

1. Take a vow in front of someone you respect
One of the most powerful ways to overcome laziness in relation to weight loss or fitness is to take a strong vow in front of someone you respect, love or admire. Vows are very powerful things and, when done with a good motivation, can shape and change your situation.

The best thing to do is gather together your husband, parents, siblings and friends and then make the announcement that you want to achieve a certain goal. It might be that you want to drop 20 pounds. Once you have made that announcement vow in front of all of them that you will achieve your goal within a certain time frame. This puts the onus on you.

2. Think about the consequences
Another way to combat laziness is to think about the consequences of your laziness. This is often the most powerful way to spur you in to some new and more motivated activity.

For example, if you keep putting off your weight loss program there is every chance that you will become overweight. Being overweight can be damaging to your health and can cause heart problems, diabetes and several other serious illnesses. Think about these things the next time you want to put something off til later.

3. Start small
One reason people fail when it comes to fitness is because they start in the deep end. Instead of getting up 20 minutes early and going for a light walk they try to get up two hours early and do a full gym session. Not going to happen. If you want to overcome your lazy habits you need to reverse them slowly.

Start by changing small things with your diet and fitness program. Instead of going for a marathon run everyday try just doing a nice light walk for half an hour. Instead of cutting out all carbs cold turkey try cutting out a few items at a time; bread, then rice, then pasta, etc. When you do things gradually you are more likely to succeed.

Conclusion

As I said, laziness is a habit. And you don’t get rid of bad habits, you just replace them with better ones. Start slow, take a vow and think about the consequences of your lazy behavior. If you do these three things you will achieve your weight loss and fitness goals a lot faster.

photo credit: soylentgreen23

There is one question I know a lot of women are concerned about: will training with weights make me bulky? In this post I am going to give you a few things to think about. Hopefully it will solve your worries.

Why is this a concern?

It seems as though women are just as afraid of becoming big as they are of becoming fat. Women these days want skinny bodies with minimal body fat and maybe a few curves in the right place. Bulk and muscle is considered to be masculine and unattractive.

However there are women out there who are fond of bodybuilding and wish to become bigger. To these women I say “good on you!” and encourage you to delve deeper into the world of female bodybuilding. This article is aimed at women who wish to use weight training as a weight loss and fitness tool without becoming too muscular.

Will weight training make women bulky?

So the question on everyone’s lips is whether or not training with heavy weights will make you bulky. It is an interesting question and one that has several confusing answers. I will try my best to shed some light on the matter.

1. Most women cannot bulk up
The fact of the matter is that most women cannot becoming more bulky by training with heavy weights. The main reason for this is that the female body does not have enough testosterone floating around in it and thus not the correct “environment” for muscle gain.

2. Women can bulk up if they try
If you are reading this post with the hope that you will find some information about bulking up there is good news, it is possible. If you want to gain more muscle you need to start on a good protein supplement such as whey protein powder. This will help to create that environment that we were talking about.

Final say

If you are worried about bulking up I say, stop worrying. Weight training will help you get fit and burn a heck of a lot of fat and it will not make you muscular as long as you are mixing it with a good cardio workout regime.

This is Part Two in our three part series on how to lose your fat butt. In the first post we looked at the crucial dietary aspects of losing weight and now we are going to take a look at some weight training and anaerobic exercises that will help you tone, shape and lose your fat butt!

Weight training and anaerobic exercises for the butt

If you cast your memories back to the first post I said there were three things that you need to do if you want to lose your fat butt. They were:

• clean up your diet
• start working with weights
• start doing some cardio

This post is about the second one, working with weights, and it is a really important part of your progress.

Weight training burns calories. In fact, I would say that it burns more calories than cardio. Why? Well two reasons actually. Firstly, weight training is hard work and it gets your metabolic rate up really high. This means that you burn calories during the workout but also long after the workout has finished. It is almost as if weight training allows you to keep exercises even when you are at home! Secondly, weight training builds muscle and muscle burns fat. Take a look at any woman with a toned body and you will see that she is quite firm. This is a mixture of weight loss and muscle gain – the muscle she has put on has burned off the fat. The two don’t co-exist well.

So it is important to work with weights if you want to lose your butt. And don’t worry, you WON’T end up looking like a bodybuilder. Women simply do not have the testosterone to look like this. Any muscle you do put on will be minimal and it will burn off the fat around it so in actual fact you will look smaller, not bigger!

Here are the weight training and anaerobic exercises that you need to do:

1. Jumping squats

4 sets of as many reps as you can do.

As you probably know by now we are big fans of jumping squats here at FWF and we advocate them for almost everything! If you want to lose weight; jumping squats. If you want to burn calories; jumping squats. If you want to tone your butt; definitely jumping squats!

Jumping squats work your entire lower body and they are amazing for building muscle and burning fat. This exercise will really get your heart racing. Check out this post for detailed instructions on how to do the jumping squat.

2. Weighted squats

4 sets of 15 reps

Weighted squats are the squats you do in a squat rack with a barbell on your shoulders. They are quite difficult to do so I recommend reading as much about them as possible before you go to the gym and pop your knee out.

Weighted squats should be done slowly and with the muscles your are working foremost in your mind. Do not lose concentration. You should also go no lower than parallel if you want to make sure your knees stay healthy. Lower yourself down to a count of five seconds and then push yourself up as quickly as you can. I have found this gets the best results. And remember, pick a weight that allows you to ONLY pump out 15 reps. No more, no less.

3. Walking dumbbell lunges

4 sets of as many reps as you can do

Dumbbell lunges are a great way to finish off your workout and by now, trust me, you will be feeling like quitting. Take two medium heavy dumbbells and find a place where you can walk without getting interrupted. If you workout at a gym quite often the staff will let you take the dumbbells out to the car park where you have more room to move.

The exercise is just like a standing lunge except you walk forward instead of going back to your original position. It is a fantastically rough way to burn calories and your butt muscles will feel like they are on fire! Try and perform four sets of as many as you can do. The heavier the dumbbells you choose the harder it will be. Don’t cheat on your reps either! Make sure you go all the way down to the ground with that back knee.

Tips for making the most of your weight training

I want to give you a few other tips about these exercises in order for you to get the most out of your weight training sessions. I often see women at the gym doing their reps in a really bad way that will surely cause them some problems later down the track. I want to make sure no FWF readers are in that group!

1. Go slowly
The best weight trainers in the world do their reps in a slow and controlled manner. They know that by going slowly you increase the pressure put on the muscle and avoid any injuries that you might get from banging them out quickly. Make sure you do all you reps at least to a count of four.

2. Warm up
Before any weight training session you should always spend a few minutes warming up. However, I am not talking about a little jog on the treadmill. I am talking about a warm up that warms up the area you are going to work out. What is the point of running on a treadmill if you are going to be doing upper body weight training? Make sure your warm up matches your weight training session.

3. Read, read, read
Weight training is an art form. Each exercise needs to be done in a specific manner if you want to maximize its utility and avoid injury. I always tell women to read as much as they can before doing the exercise and always get a trainer to help you until your technique is perfected. Without good technique there will be no progress.

PART THREE of this series is on cardio workouts to lose your fat butt.

Every woman is afraid of having a fat butt. We all know the common saying “does my butt look big in this?” because we have all said it! In this series of three posts I am going to show you how to lose your fat butt using a few simple exercises and diet tips.

Understanding the butt muscles (glutes)

It is important to get a good understanding of the butt muscles before you go and start working them out. Why? Because when you know where the butt muscles are you will have a better idea of how they work and this will help with your progress.

The scientific name for the butt muscles is the gluteus maximus and it is the red area on the diagram above. As you can see, the butt muscles (or glutes) tie in to the upper hamstring and the base of the lower back. They are there to help you balance and are involved in many motions where the leg is pushing out, such as stepping up a hill.

How to lose your fat butt

There are three things you need to do if you want to lose your fat butt. They are:

• clean up your diet
• start working with weights
• start doing some cardio

Now I am not saying you need to do a lot of these things but you do need to do them smartly. This series will show you the best ways to diet and exercise so that your fat butt will be a thing of the past.

Cleaning up your diet

photo credit: Zesmerelda

The first post in this series will be on how to clean up your diet. There is a reason I put this first. It is the most important. It doesn’t matter how much you run or how many days a week you spend at the gym, if your diet is crap so to will be your results.

If you want to clean up your diet you need to take a few simple steps. Forget fad diets and weight loss pills. Forget calorie controlled. All you have to do is:

1. Eat natural foods
This is a big thing for us here at Free Women’s Fitness. We strongly believe in the power of natural foods. If you want to lose weight you need to cut out all the man made foods like soda, candy, pasta, baked goods, etc. and replace them with fruits, vegetables, lean organic meats, free range eggs, etc. This is the diet humans were meant to eat and when you start cutting out the old stuff and replacing it with this the weight will just fall off.

2. Eat six meals a day every three hours
Did you know that digestion takes up more energy than any other process in the body? Isn’t that amazing, the act of eating actually burns calories! This is a good thing for us and we need to take advantage of that.

The way to do that is to eat six small meals every three hours instead of the traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner. The reason we do this is because if we eat small meals more often we keep our metabolism burning and this will help us to burn calories. Also, if the meals are small it is likely that we will burn most of the calories during the day before it gets a chance to be converted to fat.

3. Replace high carb foods with high protein foods
For a little while you are going to need to cut out breads, pastas, baked goods and rice. These foods really hamper your butt toning progress! Instead you need to start eating high protein foods like nuts, milk and free range eggs. These will help you build the muscles that will tone your butt and legs and burn off all the fat cells.

4. Drink more water
Water is an excellent weight loss tool as it helps to keep your appetite at bay. It also cleans out your system and leaves you feeling light and happy. Try to have a big glass of water before each meal as this will keep your from gorging yourself when you sit down to eat. Don’t drink all your daily water intake in one sitting, however, as this puts a lot of pressure on your internal organs.

5. Harness the power of the post workout shake
The most important meal of the day is no longer breakfast – it is the post workout shake. If you want to tone up your butt and lose weight you need to start harnessing the power of this very important meal.

When you workout the body uses up a lot of energy and it starts to run out of protein, sugar and minerals. Therefore, it is important to replace them straight after you work out. Not only that, but you need to start giving your muscles protein so they can rebuild and become stronger. This is one of the most important factors to toning and weight loss success.

Try to have a drink that is high in protein within five minutes of finishing your workout. The best protein shakes are natural ones made of milk, eggs and a little bit of whey protein powder. If you start doing this on a regular basis you will see results soon.

PART TWO of this series is about weight training for the butt.

photo credit: Mr. T in DC

We all love a nice round butt. We love the way it looks in a pair of jeans and how it makes us feel when we go out. But achieving that round, firm butt can be difficult. Here is a simple women’s butt workout that you can do in around 20 minutes.

Warm up
Firstly you will need to spend about five minutes warming up well. The exercises themselves are quite difficult and as such you need to make sure your legs and joints are well warmed.

A good warm up for the legs is to do a bit of jogging followed by a few sprints. Once you are a little warmed up do some stretches and then maybe a few light squats. This should prepare your legs nicely!

The 20 minute butt workout

Now we can get in to the main workout. It is simple, easy to do and requires only some basic weight training knowledge. Remember, if you aren’t sure how to do the exercises go back through our exercise archive.

1. The lunge – 4 sets of 15 reps
Start off with a simple weighted lunge. All you need to do is grab two medium heavy dumbbells and hold them by your side as you lunge forward, alternating legs each time. Make sure you tense your glutes as you perform this exercise and do it in a slow and controlled manner. Make the decline slow and steady.

2. Jumping Squats – 3 sets until failure
The jumping squat is my all time favorite legs and butt exercise. It punishes your lower body like nothing else and will leave you sore and in pain! But, this baby burns more calories than just about anything else in the gym and gives you a fantastic butt workout. Only have about 30 seconds rest inbetween each set and make sure each set is explosive and powerful. You want to make sure you are hitting this one hard. Check out this post on how to do a jumping squat if you want more information.

3. Step ups – 4 sets til failure
I always think of the step up as a bit of a reverse lunge. Instead of stepping down you are going up! Again, take two heavy dumbbells and find a very stable bench a little higher than you knees. Step up and down again and again until you cannot do anymore. As always, make sure the motions are slow, controlled and well timed. This exercise is as much about control as it is about muscle isolation.

That’s it!
That there is your simple 20 minute workout. As you progress you can add more weight or more reps or even repeat the whole workout again. The exercises here are simple to do and will have you building a new butt sooner than you think.

photo credit: sun dazed

I hear a lot of woman saying they don’t want to use heavy weights. They say they don’t want to get too bulky or too masculine. While these are legitimate fears they are not based in logic. In this post I want to tell you why all women should use heavy weights.

Why women don’t use heavy weights

Take a picture of any gym in the world: women on the cardio machines and men in the weights section. There is a bit of crossover but in truth this is the way it is. Women seem to only want to do cardio and some lighter weights machines at the gym but they never want to do full heavy weights workouts.

Why is this?

Like I said in the introduction I think it has a lot to do with fears of losing the female figure. Women want to have small arms, tight buttocks and a flat tummy. They do not want bulging muscles and broad shoulders! Fair enough. Why would you.

But the fact of the matter is, women will NOT get to this stage. A heavy weights routine twice a week will not leave you looking like a female version of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It just isn’t going to happen.

Why?

Simple. Women do not have the necessary testosterone levels to make that kind of muscle gain. And it takes a lot of testosterone to build muscle. When you see female bodybuilders, all tanned and huge, you can rest assured that they took a lot of supplements and steroids to get to that stage. They might deny this is true, but it is.

Why all women should use heavy weights

So now we know why you aren’t using weights let’s get on to some reasons as to why you should be.

1. Weight loss
The main advantage of weight training is that it burns calories. Lots of them. Many fitness experts will tell you that a session of weight training is more beneficial than a session of cardio for losing weight. This is because weight training increases the ratio of muscle to fat and turns you into a fat burning machine. You will burn fat while you are working out and you will burn fat when you finish.

2. Happiness
Weight training causes your body to release chemicals in to your blood called endorphins. These chemicals have been scientifically proven to make you happier and cure depression. An hour at the gym is more likely to make you feel happy than chocolate, anti-depressants and a new car all put together. It is extremely good for your mindset. Furthermore, weight training will make you look fantastic – another reason to be happy!

3. Strong bones
Women are susceptible to osteoporosis. This is a weakening of the bones which can be painful and lead to breakages and other nasty things. The good news is weight training goes a long way to help prevent this. Women who train with weights are much less likely to experience bad osteoporosis than women who don’t. It is good for your bones.

4. Good health
Weight training is good for your immune system. Often get the local cold? Try weight training regularly for a few months and see if you get it when everyone else has it. I am betting you don’t. Since I started weight training I have experienced much better mental and physical health. I have more energy and have been sick at least half as often as I used to be.

Conclusion
Women need not be afraid of training with heavy weights. It will work towards building a lean, tight and fat-free body and it will boost your health and immunity. Weight training is one of the best things you will ever do for yourself. Give it a go.