On this page I’m going to talk about exercise. You either love it or hate it. I was a hater not that long ago but what I realise now was that it was actually my lack of fitness and feeling embarrassed that was stopping me. That’s why I started to work out at home – where it’s just me, my tunes and a good sweat out.
Not only will starting to exercise help you with your weight loss goals but it is also amazing for your overall health and wellbeing. It improves your heart and lung functioning, reduces your risk of diabetes & high blood pressure and helps your strength and balance in your day to day activities.
I am lucky enough to have a home gym with my husbandI, so I have quite a few bits of equipment for my training but I didn’t when I started and I’ve built up different pieces of equipment slowly over time from places like Gumtree and eBay – an upcycled home gym if you’d like!
So what I’m trying to say is that no matter if you’re new to exercise or already set on what you do have a read of this page. I’m going to talk about the two types of exercise I use – resistance training and cardio – and see if it sparks any motivation in you to give either a try.
REMEMBER if your diet is not right you will not see all the benefits of your exercise no matter how hard you work out, so have a read of my Nutrition page and blog on What is macronutrient dieting? first.
Resistance Training
Resistance training i.e. training with weights and moving your muscles against resistance. It should be a part of your training no matter what your goals are. I’ve never looked back since I started training with weights. It does become a really addictive and rewarding way to train. But it can seem a bit daunting if you’ve never picked up a dumbbell before!
The benefits of weight training are many. Obviously it burns calories directly as you are training but it does a whole lot more than that for you. When we train our muscles with weights we create microtears in the muscle structure that then need repairing when we’ve finished. These new muscle fibres tend to be slightly thicker and stronger so the strength and size of our muscles slowly starts to increase. This repairing mechanism uses calories so the bonus here is we are continuing to burn calories even after we’ve finished training and is why it is important to have plenty of protein in your diet, especially around the time you train, so your muscles have the building blocks to do this repair.
Now don’t worry if you read the paragraph above and worried that lifting weights is suddenly going to turn you into bulky body builder! As women we lack the natural levels of testosterone that men have (we have 1/16th the amount) to build large and bulky muscles so weight training gives us a lean, toned and shapely body with a bit more definition that always look good.
I don’t want to “bulk up” or weight lifting makes my legs or arms bigger – these are most common things I hear from patients when I encourage them to start weight training. It is true that when we start to train our muscles they do demand more blood supply to provide the oxygen and fuel they need to perform. This in turn does swell the muscles slightly – after all muscles are actually 70% water – which can (if you are carrying a layer of fat over them) give the illusion that you’re getting bigger. However if you are committing to a fat loss diet at the same time you will start to notice the beautiful shape and tone of your muscles coming through as you continue your fitness journey.
So what about women body builders? They look big and muscular. Well it is important to remember that this is the look they are wanting to achieve and they train, eat and supplement to build their muscles this way. They tend to have a very low body fat percentage so their muscles are more pronounced and obvious to see. So really don’t be afraid to pick up those weights and have a go.
If I haven’t convinced you already then maybe this will. When we lift weights we increase the amount of type II muscle fibres we have and having more of this type of muscle mass on your body will mean you burn more calories at rest. That’s right – even when your sat on the sofa watching TV you’ll be burning calories. This comes from the basal metabolic demand different tissues have on the body. It takes calories to maintain our body tissues daily and muscles demand more basal calories to maintain, so use up more of your daily calories than the same amount of fat does.
Another fantastic benefit for women of weight training is bone health. Osteoporosis or thinning of the bones is more and more common. It results from many factors but a large problem is our lack of sunlight exposure reducing our production of Vitamin D, which drives calcium into our bones strengthening them. Weight training helps to improve bone strength as placing the bones under pressure when we lift encourages them to become stronger. This is especially beneficial for women after the menopause when we lose the protective factor of oestrogen and will help to reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
So I think I’ve put together a pretty good argument for why you should start picking up those weights. I will be posting some workout ideas on my blog along with pictures and videos on my Instagram page so if you feel like having a go have a look there and see if anything inspires you.
Sometimes I might use equipment that you might not have or not feel confident using. Remember even performing a lot of the exercises at body weight (so no actual weights) can be enough. If you’re serious about having a go why not look around locally and see if you can pick up a couple of light dumbbells and a 5-8kg kettlebell to get you started.
Cardio
Cardio has a great role in helping with both weight loss and our heart and lung fitness. There are 2 main types of cardio I use; high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and steady-state.
HIIT is based around performing an exercise at maximal intensity for a short burst, resting and then repeating this for between 20 to 30 minutes. It’s the best type of cardio for fat burning. You can vary what exercise you do but you need to make sure you give it your all during that burst.
When you first start HIIT training, depending on your level of fitness before, it can be all you can manage to sustain that exercise for 10 seconds. That’s ok as long as you’re working as hard as you can during that time. With time try and aim to be able to do the exercise for 30 seconds non-stop.
With resting between repetitions, again at the beginning rest until you feel you can go again at that same intensity – don’t worry if it’s a couple of minutes. As you do it more and more your fitness will improve and you can aim to keep your rests to between 30 to 60 seconds.
There are so many benefits to HIIT I can’t recommend it highly enough:
- You can do it anywhere you don’t necessarily need any equipment
A lot of the HIIT style exercises you can perform often do not need any equipment, just a bit of space, so you can do it anywhere and anytime. Lots of HIIT circuits are based on bodyweight moves such as jumping jacks, high-knees, air squats, burpees and mountain climbers.
- You can vary the exercises you do
In the circuit you can perform a different exercise each time you do a burst of exercise so you can keep it varied and target lots of different areas of your body. You can add weights into movements if you want to challenge yourself more or you can perform a HIIT style routine on an exercise bike, cross trainer or treadmill. As long as you do a short intense burst of exercise, rest and repeat you’ll be heading the right way.
- You burn calories after you’ve finished
This is the best benefit of HIIT. Not only are you burning calories whilst you are exercising but this style of training has been shown to yield the best calorie burn once you’ve finished! When we perform intense bursts of exercise our muscles are not able to get enough fuel and oxygen during this time so they start to use a different metabolic pathway to keep us going, this produces lactic acid which gives that familiar burning feeling in the muscle. Once we’ve finished exercising the body owes those muscles an oxygen debt to make up for that time it had to use that different pathway. The overall result of this debt is that you are burning a significant amount of calories after you’ve finished your exercise and this is how HIIT results in such fantastic fat loss results. Exact figures are difficult to come by but research has shown performing just 15 minutes of HIIT will burn as many if not more calories than an hour of steady running on the treadmill!
- It’s over in 30 minutes
There’s no long hours needed in the gym. Its 20 to 30 minutes of your day and it’s over. You can sit back satisfactorily afterwards knowing your body is still burning those calories!
I usually suggest performing HIIT style workouts somewhere between 3 – 5 times a week. If you also perform weight training I try not to combine the two at the same time. For my lifestyle I tend to try and perform my HIIT in the morning and then my weights session in afternoon.
Despite loving HIIT for its fat burning benefits, steady state cardio still has a place in my training schedule and I like it for its fitness benefits. It helps improve our heart and lung capacity and it is also usually a great way to get outdoors.
Steady state is exercise you perform at a similar intensity throughout, like running, cycling or walking. You can do it at the gym or outside. Its fantastic to improve endurance and obviously it still burns plenty of calories whilst you’re training.
I tend to fit in 1 to 2 sessions a week and usually this is a run or long walk. It’s good to aim for 45 minutes to an hour of this type of exercise but obviously when you get started don’t push yourself to hard.
There are lots of smart phone apps that can help you track your exercise and it can be rewarding to see the calories you burn and monitor your progress each week. I would recommend investing in a heart rate monitor after a while as well as it can help you keep a more accurate track of your progress and fitness.
Monitoring your heart rate can be a great way to guide your HIIT too. To get the best fat burning benefits you ideally want your heart rate to be 80-85% of your max heart rate (220 – your age) during your bursts of exercise and you can then wait until your heart rate recovers to around 50-60% before you perform your next interval.
I hope all of this has been helpful in getting you thinking about exercise. Keep your eyes on my blog and my Instagram for tips, ideas and workouts that you can do. Also please feel free to contact me with any questions you have about anything to do with health and fitness and I’ll see if I can help.
