While men focus on building large muscles, women focus on keeping the weight off, toning their muscles and looking fit. A full-body workout offers women to reap health benefits.
The best exercises for men are not the same as for women as the goals are different. But the base of all exercise programs remains the same. It has to include cardio, strength and flexibility component. Most women only opt for cardio vascular exercises such as high impact aerobics, gymming, walking, swimming and other exercises. Women often neglect strength training all together, which is the most important component of fitness as they are afraid that they will bulk up like men and look masculine. But on the contrary, women cannot gain muscle mass and look bulky as they do not produce as much testosterone as men do. This testosterone is the main hormones which is responsible for increasing the muscle size. Weight training cannot be ignored as it increases bone density and helps prevent osteoporosis, improves muscular coordination and reduces the risk of injury. Strength training exercises when performed through a full range of motion increases flexibility.
Also some misinformed women may stop exercising and their muscle turns into fats. But muscle and fat are two different types of tissue. When a weight training program is discontinued, one starts losing muscle due to inactivity and poor calorie intake which will a give the impression that the muscle has turned into fat. But actually the muscle is lost and fat is accumulated. Therefore fat has to be burnt with cardiovascular exercise and muscles have to be worked to increase tone and give definition.
Women strength training plan
Abdominal exercises – plank, crunches, oblique twists.
Upper body exercises – triceps lifts, bicep curls, chest, shoulder lifts and so on.
Lower body exercises – plies, squats, inner and outer thigh lifts.
Stretching exercises
Moving from one part of the body to the next or mixing different muscle groups in the same exercise can save time and can also challenge the muscles, reshaping them more quickly. You can either use free weights, resistance tubes, gym sticks or your own body weight or the machines in the gym. It is advisable to begin with light weights and few repetitions. One can gradually increase the load and the repetitions to see desired gains in toning and sculpting. And lastly, include a good flexibility exercise such as yoga, Tai chi, callisthenic or a stretching program to improve flexibility in the joints and relax the muscles. These exercises reduce the risk of injury and improve blood circulation to the joints and muscles.
If you are not the one to hit a gym then try the following fitness routine at home and gain the same benefits
Method 1
Start with stretching to increase the blood supply to the working muscles and do a short cardio workout for 10 minutes. You can either stair climb, skip or jog on the spot. Cardio helps warm up the body and boost your calorie burning.
Here is the next move to further boost your metabolism for the next 23hours.
Method 2
Start off with a set of thirty pushups. Pushups help to tone triceps, biceps and the chest muscles. Once you have finished the pushups, do 20 reverse crunches to target abdominal muscles. Proceed to use two stable tables or chairs and perform dips to target chest muscles, do as many as you can. The muscles that you can target are thighs. Perform 15 alternate forward lunges and proceed to target the calves by doing 15 tip toe calf jumps by balancing on the ball of the feet with the feet lifted off the floor. This completes the full body workout.