Workouts for men and women should be different because men and women have very different bodies. Workout plans for women need to be suited to their body and different from a man's workout. Men often focus on muscle since they have more muscle and women tend to focus on fat loss since a woman's body has more fat than a man's. Things like fat and muscle have to be considered when putting together an exercise routine, no matter what it is that you want from a workout.
Some of the basics will work for both men and women since, as humans, our bodies are quite similar. Most often men and women have different exercise goals and therefore want something from a different from a workout. One issue is that due to pressure from the media and a horrible self image, most women look to lose fat and achieve a stick thin body that is not normal. Women seem to constantly be worried about losing weight and achieving a look that is very unrealistic and impossible. Women are not alone since many men also worry about how they look and will do anything, including taking illegal drugs, to get huge muscles.
I am not saying that getting fit and healthy is not a good goal, but it is important to understand that looking good may not always mean you are healthy. Health and fitness are terms that are often misused since people do not seem to understand their correct meaning. You can look amazing and have almost no body fat, but that does not automatically make you healthy. In theory, you could lose a lot of weight by eating very little food and existing on diet sodas. is this the most healthy way to go about getting thin? Not at all. You need to find a balance between losing weight, getting in shape and being healthy while doing it.
Now for the workout routine.
Ideal workout plans for women should have two main components.
1. Strength Exercises
2. Cardio Exercises Done In Intervals
It is best to workout three times per week with each session being about an hour long, along with reducing the amount of calories you consume so that you burn more calories than you eat.
Strength Exercises
Strength exercises can be something you do in your home or you can go to a gym. Many people do not want to go to the gym because they don't like the atmosphere, so feel free to stay home and workout. Many people wrongly believe that a gym is full of people who have great bodies and that are in amazing shape. Once you actually go to a gym you will be surprised to see that most people are your average person who are there for the same reasons you are. There are not going to be too many people, if any, that are ready to start posing for the cover a fitness magazine. Try not to be intimidated and give the gym a try because you may find that you like it and can meet some great workout buddies there.
Dumbbells, workout balls, resistance bands and body weight exercises, which may just be the best, are all involved in strength exercises. Bodyweight exercises may be the best since you need no special equipment to do them as they use just your own bodyweight. When you are working out at home, bodyweight exercises are ideal because you won't need equipment. You may be one of those people who think bodyweight exercises won't work to get you in shape, but give them a try and you may be surprised. The U.S. military uses bodyweight exercises in training and nobody will say their workouts are not strenuous, such as the Navy where they do their routines using only body weight and in the woods. You can make any workout, even without weights, very intense.
If you can build up some lean muscle then you can burn more calories even when you are not working out. Men find it easier than women to lose weight because they naturally have more muscle mass. Usually if a man and woman diet together, it will be the man that will lose weight faster even if they are following the exact same diet and exercise routine and every aspect is exactly the same, just because of the fact that the man has more muscle, which burns more calories. Resistance training is so important because it will help you boost your ability to lose weight. Each time you are training you have to keep increasing the resistance and overload your muscles. You do not want to keep doing the same exercises with the same amount of weight and same number of repetitions. You have to keep progressing, either increasing repetitions or weight or just reducing the amount of rest time in between sets. Doing this progressive style of training will help your body to get stringer faster. You will increase the amount of muscle on your body so that your body needs to burn more calories. Your metabolism goes up and you burn more calories and fat throughout the whole day, not just when you workout. Interval cardio is the second part of your workout.
Cardio Training in Intervals
Cardio done in intervals is not the same as the cardio most people do, but it is very effective at working the body. Interval training lets you get faster results so you work out less for better results. You only need to do intervals for about 15 minutes or even shorter.
An example of intervals on a bike would be like this. It can also be done on other cardio machines or during any type of cardio training, but using a bike is a pretty simple option. The scale for this would be 1-10 with ten being that you are working at your maximum level and one is the lowest or lightest level.
- Start at a 2 or 3 to warm up for a few minutes.
- Take it to a 4 for about a minute.
- go up to a 9 and stay there for 30 seconds.
- take it back to a 4 for one minute.
- Go back to a 9 for 30 seconds.
- Stick with this, alternating between the 4 and 9 for about 13 minutes total.
- End by decreasing from a 4 down to cool down.
Do this program three times a week with a goal of working up to about 45 minutes for the entire workout. You should aim to do the cardio for 15 minutes and the strength training for about 30 minutes.
