Nearly didn’t get that…

When lifting weights you should be lifting heavy.  And yes, that includes women.  Before you start telling me you don’t want to be bulky or have big muscles please understand this – it just isn’t that simple.

Seen a woman with BIG muscles?  She is almost certainly taking steroids.  The female body just isn’t designed for getting big.  Did you watch the Olympics?  Notice how many incredibly strong women there were in the weight lifting who didn’t have big muscles?

Lifting bigger weights will burn more calories, make you stronger (and who doesn’t want to be stronger), decrease the chance of osteoporosis, help build core strength and did I mention it will burn more calories?

Also, although this article is aimed at women, all of the points are valid for men too!

Finally, generally speaking, you cannot tone muscle.  You can however:

• 1. Diet

Ok, so it’s not an exercise – but without the correct supporting diet you will never reach your goals.  Looking to gain muscle?  You need to eat more calories than you burn so you must be gaining weight.  Want to lose fat?  Then you need fewer calories than you burn.  That might seem a bit simple; that is because it is!

• Not building muscle? Eat more
• Not losing weight? Eat less

Do not try to combine building muscle and losing weight.

• 2. Squat

Alongside the deadlift this is the most important exercise in your arsenal. Working the lower back, glutes, quads, hamstrings and calf muscles all in one exercise.  It is important that you squat to at least parallel – anything else is not a full squat.  You want 100% of the benefits – do 100% of the exercise.

Ladies, if you have ever seen a woman with a great bottom; chances are it was built with squats – not Zumba!

Here is a video a girl squatting a good weight – notice how not massive she is?

• 3. Deadlift

Just like the squat this is another exercise that hits many muscles at once.  Working the forearms, back, glutes, quads, hamstrings and calf muscles.  Form is very important with deadlifts and I’d recommend filming yourself or getting someone experienced to check you are lifting correctly.

Recruiting as many muscles as the deadlift does, you’d better believe its a fantastic exercise to burn calories and raise your metabolism for hours after your workout.

Here is another girl deadlifting twice her bodyweight – notice how fantastic she looks?

• 4. Indoor Rowing

Now I enjoy running and have clocked up many hours on the roads.  But running generally speaking isn’t all that good for you, especially if you run with poor form.  And you probably do (sorry!).

Indoor rowing however is non impact and using upper and lower body muscles will give a great cardio workout (and burn lots of calories).

A few points about using an indoor rower however, the numbered handle on the wheel is not resistance.  The damper setting is used to emulate different sizes of boats on the water.  It should never be used to make a workout harder or easier (if you want to make the workout harder – pull harder!)

Here is a video that explains how to set up the damper setting

And here is a video that explains how to row  (notice how she doesn’t over reach)

• 5. Crunch

Crunches are good, sit ups are bad.  If you want a nice tight midsection you must not do exercises where your abs are pushed out.  Doing hundreds of sit ups and leg raises might be good for your core but will give also give you a thicker waist.

Remember:

• Abs are created by losing fat which means eating fewer calories than you burn.
• You cannot spot burn fat
• The abdominal muscle is one single muscle – leg raises do not work the lower abs, lower abs come from having very low body fat.

For not doing any of the above is why you should crunch.

This mini seminar explains further

• 6. Stomach vacuum

Working your transverse abdominis will give you a tighter waist and stomach vacuums are great for this.

• 7. Bench Press

Flat bench pressing gets some bad press for damaging shoulders but with correct form it is a very safe exercise to do.  Working your chest, triceps and shoulders it is another great compound movement.  Do not get caught up in the myth that decline, flat and incline bench press can increase the size of different parts of the chest.  The shape of your chest (like every other muscle in your body) is genetic.  You cannot change genetics.

Here is a another video of a girl (notice how she isn’t huge) this time bench pressing a heavy weight

• 8. Overhead Press

Shoulders, triceps, core muscles (hopefully you are seeing the theme with exercises that work lots of muscles at once) are all worked with the overhead press.  Doing overhead presses will also help increase the weight you can bench press and help keep shoulder injuries away.

I’d prefer you to keep your feet under your shoulders and not push with your legs, but this is another great video showing a strong girl overhead pressing

• 8. Chin up/pull up

You should include a mixture of both these exercises in your workouts. Working your back, shoulders and arms will help develop a v taper to your body (which will make your waist look smaller).  One of the best things about chin ups and pull ups is the minimal equipment needed – any flat bar will do.

If you are struggling to do either exercise, try doing negatives where you start at the top of the movement and slowly lower yourself down.

Please note, lat pull downs are not an acceptable alternative and the only way to get better at chin ups and pull ups is to chin up and pull up!

Here is a 44 year old woman doing 39 pull ups.  Doesn’t she look great?

To summarise:

• Match your diet to your goals
• Quit Zumba – NOW!
• Put down the pink weights
• Pick up heavy weights
• Always lift with good form

Want further proof that lifting heavy weights will make you look fantastic?

Diet feels better, the carbs are fuelling my workouts nicely and I don’t feel tired through the day anymore.  My weight is still dropping, but it has definitely stalled a little.  I’m sure the pre workout carbs is going to mess with the weight a little as I am sure to be holding a little extra water.  I will drop the calories a few hundred anyway and see if I can kickstart the fat burning again.  I haven’t done much cardio lately so that could be another reason.

Overhead Press 
5 x 20kg
5 x 24kg
3 x 28.5kg
5 x 36kg
3 x 40.5kg
2 x 47.5kg *pb*
5 x 10 x 25kg

Chin Up
10/10/8/8/7

The extra energy definitely made a difference (although the workout still felt especially hard – maybe more carbs needed?) and the belt felt fantastic (review to come soon).

I’m still not sure how to properly programme in all the different things I want to practice/workout.  Why isn’t the week longer?

Barbell Squat
5 x 60kg
5 x 75kg
3 x 90kg
3 x 105kg
3 x 120kg
3 x 134kg
5 x 10 x 80kg

Seated Leg Curl
5 x 10 x 50kg

With my workouts suffering from the lack of carbohydrates, today is day one of targeted carbs Keto

The theory seems sound, a small amount of high Gi carbohydrates (but not fruit) before and after weightlifting to fill the muscles with glycogen to help full the session.  Fructose cannot be used as it fills the liver and not muscles with glycogen so will affect going back into Ketosis.  As well as the right type of carbs, it is also important to get the right amount of carbs as too many again will affect Ketosis.

My initial plan is to use 35g of Waxy Maize Starch (WMS) 30 minutes pre workout with 20g of BCAA’s, this should hopefully shuttle the nutrients to my muscles nice and quickly, post workout will be 20g of WMS and 30g of a powdered protein – initially Soy because that’s what I have left.  Main reasoning to use WMS is simply because it isn’t a sugar!

The rest of the day remains the same with the exclusion of chicken.

£50 worth of 3/4″ plywood, a big box of screws, some wood glue and a blister on one finger later and its built :)

I built it with 3 different sized sides to give a little more flexibility (from 20″ to 30″).  To build the same one you will need:

2 x 30″ x 22.5″
2 x 30″ x 20″
2 x 18.5″ x 22.5″

All the bits were cut for me at the timber yard and its pretty accurately done (not quite spot on – but good enough).  I had used 200 screws  when it was finished using one every inch as I a firm believer in better to be safe than sorry.

Hope you find the video easy to understand, listening back to some of the clips I say “so” far too many times – next time I might write a script.  It’s also clear that I cannot think and talk at the same time (downfall of being a guy I guess).

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below :)