[Inarius]

Ok... my girlfriend is looking for a workout to help her burn fat and tone up so she is naturally looking to me for advice. I dont know much about female fitness at all so all I have given her to do was cardio. It's atleast a start. Should she be doing lifts with me? Like deadlifts, squats, benching? or should she be focusing on something else? I'm not sure where to start her off or what direction to point her in. Just looking for a little advice. thanks.

[Guejsn]

Originally Posted by Inarius

Ok... my girlfriend is looking for a workout to help her burn fat and tone up so she is naturally looking to me for advice. I dont know much about female fitness at all so all I have given her to do was cardio. It's atleast a start. Should she be doing lifts with me? Like deadlifts, squats, benching? or should she be focusing on something else? I'm not sure where to start her off or what direction to point her in. Just looking for a little advice. thanks.

No WORKOUT is going to help your gf lose bodyfat (BF) and "tone". She can train towards it, but ultimately fat loss is in the DIET. Makes sure that her diet is geared towards fat loss. The key thing here is to work out what her MAINTENANCE calories are (There are various methods and equations that you can use to calculate this). Then, to lose fat, she needs to make sure that she's are having up to 500 calories LESS than maintenance. Depending on how fast or slow she losses BF, she can adjust and tweak her calorie intake each week. She needs to NOT be afraid to eat carbohydrates (CHO), and not be ridiculously LOW with her calories! Most importantly, remember that it IS OK TO CHEAT every now and then. Actually the body NEEDS cheat meals and days (1-2 a week will get you results). By having a day where she eats what she wants, it helps psychologically, but will also help prevent her body from going into starvation mode (if it does this, her body will battle her to hold onto the fat as much as it can). If she prefers NOT to ‘cheat’, then adding in 1-2 higher CALORIE days (i.e. go up to Maintenance, or even Bulking, or even slightly higher), with the extra calories coming from quality COMPLEX CHO (called calorie/CHO cycling).

As for "toning", there is really no such thing; essentially all it is is either a) losing BF, b) gaining muscle, or c) simultaneously gaining muscle whilest losing BF. Once her diet is sorted, then, yeah, she should be doing "lifts like you". Multiple sets of primarily compound exercises should be used, because it will a) the greater frequency per muscle group will boost her growth hormone more than doing an single sets, which will build more muscle mass and thus increase strength more effectively; b) increase neural activity; c) recruit more motor units in a given session, and therefore train her body to work more effectively as a whole; and d) increase her bone density and bone strength (very important for females) more than isolation exercises would (Heyward, 2006).

Cardio is NOT necessary for fat loss, either, if her diet is spot on and she is resistance training. However, the BEST exercise programme for losing BFis one that includes resistance training, cardio (mostly in the form of high intensity stuff), and some flexibility (just to help the joints).

If she is a complete beginner to resistance training then 2 days a week will be sufficient for her (Baechle, Earle & Wathen, 2000); and her programme should be written is for ‘conditioning’ only, to be used for “strengthening and stabilizing those areas that give us greatest support, along with any areas that are at the highest risk for injury . . . along with any other individual weak links present” (Aaberg, 1999, p. 59). It is also time to establish good posture and technique in her (Aaberg, 1999). She should also see relatively quick results if she is a beginner. Her programme should be changed every 4-6 weeks, to make sure that her body does not adapt to what she's doing, and so that she continues to make progress (Baechle, et al., 2000).

[Inarius]

thanks a lot!

[Guejsn]

Originally Posted by Inarius

thanks a lot!

No worries, babe. If you need anything else, just PM me.

[Guejsn]

Heya. Thought you might want to check this log out: (http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=108740491, post #5). I made some notes for this guy on diet for fat loss for his gf. They may help your gf out too.

[Inarius]

thanks again!

[Guejsn]

Originally Posted by Inarius

thanks again!

You're welcome Good luck to your gf with her 'toning'.

[kkschaef]

Originally Posted by Guejsn

No WORKOUT is going to help your gf lose bodyfat (BF) and "tone". She can train towards it, but ultimately fat loss is in the DIET. Makes sure that her diet is geared towards fat loss. The key thing here is to work out what her MAINTENANCE calories are (There are various methods and equations that you can use to calculate this). Then, to lose fat, she needs to make sure that she's are having up to 500 calories LESS than maintenance. Depending on how fast or slow she losses BF, she can adjust and tweak her calorie intake each week. She needs to NOT be afraid to eat carbohydrates (CHO), and not be ridiculously LOW with her calories! Most importantly, remember that it IS OK TO CHEAT every now and then. Actually the body NEEDS cheat meals and days (1-2 a week will get you results). By having a day where she eats what she wants, it helps psychologically, but will also help prevent her body from going into starvation mode (if it does this, her body will battle her to hold onto the fat as much as it can). If she prefers NOT to ‘cheat’, then adding in 1-2 higher CALORIE days (i.e. go up to Maintenance, or even Bulking, or even slightly higher), with the extra calories coming from quality COMPLEX CHO (called calorie/CHO cycling).

As for "toning", there is really no such thing; essentially all it is is either a) losing BF, b) gaining muscle, or c) simultaneously gaining muscle whilest losing BF. Once her diet is sorted, then, yeah, she should be doing "lifts like you". Multiple sets of primarily compound exercises should be used, because it will a) the greater frequency per muscle group will boost her growth hormone more than doing an single sets, which will build more muscle mass and thus increase strength more effectively; b) increase neural activity; c) recruit more motor units in a given session, and therefore train her body to work more effectively as a whole; and d) increase her bone density and bone strength (very important for females) more than isolation exercises would (Heyward, 2006).

Cardio is NOT necessary for fat loss, either, if her diet is spot on and she is resistance training. However, the BEST exercise programme for losing BFis one that includes resistance training, cardio (mostly in the form of high intensity stuff), and some flexibility (just to help the joints).

If she is a complete beginner to resistance training then 2 days a week will be sufficient for her (Baechle, Earle & Wathen, 2000); and her programme should be written is for ‘conditioning’ only, to be used for “strengthening and stabilizing those areas that give us greatest support, along with any areas that are at the highest risk for injury . . . along with any other individual weak links present” (Aaberg, 1999, p. 59). It is also time to establish good posture and technique in her (Aaberg, 1999). She should also see relatively quick results if she is a beginner. Her programme should be changed every 4-6 weeks, to make sure that her body does not adapt to what she's doing, and so that she continues to make progress (Baechle, et al., 2000).

Thi is absolutly right on. I tell my clients all the time that they have to tighten up the diet in order to reach theirs fat loss goals. There's no way around it. A clean diet is THE key elemnent.

[TheLegend]

A clean diet is important BUT women CAN weight train. They will not bulk up unless hormonal or genetic issues arise. You burn more calories weight training due to post exercise oxygen consumption and the more muscle you have the more calories you burn, to put it simply. All the women I train lift weights and none of them have ever wanted it another way. You won't see the number change on the scale right away but there will be a definite number of inches lost.