Don’t get me wrong, I love being a personal trainer in Wellesley, MA.  But on day that I do not see any personal training client I tend to go to one of the other BSC’s.

So last Monday I went to work out at our sister club in Franklin, MA.

After about fifteen minutes of some foam roller work, to get rid of all the knots in my muscles, I headed down to “the dungeon” (if you have ever been to the Franklin club you know what I talking about).

Due to the fact that I got up later than usual, I got to club during ladies hour and there were quite a few of them in “the dungeon”.

I think that it is great to see women in the weight room and not just doing cardio for a “work”out. But ladies if you are going to go to the weight room and hog a piece of equipment, at least make the exercises something that will actually get you to your fat loss goals.

 Part way though my workout I went back to the only place in “the dungeon” (and BSC Franklin for that matter) that you can do weighted pull-ups.

This one and only place happens to be attached to a cable-cross station.

As I stood there waiting for my turn (rather impatiently), I started watching the woman doing the kickbacks. If I’d have thought better of it, I’d have just gone on to the next exercise and gone back to the pull-ups later. But then I wouldn’t have thought of this post to help you.

And to my chagrin both towers were occupied.

One side by a rather toned women doing upright rows with a very respectable amount of weight (she obviously knew what she was doing). The other side by a larger women, probably about 50 lbs overweight, doing kickbacks with almost no weight (and not exactly optimal form).

Being a rather curious person I decided to watch to see what else this woman was going to do for her “work”out. 

During my brief rest time between sets of course.

So as I was watch the larger kick back lady continue with her “work”out, I came to a few conclusions:

1. She was most likely at the gym to lose weight.
2. She was doing exercises she believed would help her reach that goal.
3. She more than likely did  steady state cardio before hand.  She wasn’t sweating so I am not exactly sure.
4. She was lifting super light weights because she didn’t want to get big an bulky.  I found this ironic.
5. She was more than likely not going to reach her weight loss goals.  Probably due to giving up from lack of results.

I am also going to add that her diet was probably not as good as it could be and that she hadn’t eaten before going to the gym.

I appluad her for taking the first steps and actually getting into the gym.  But if she really wants to lose weight, some drastic changes need to be made  to her program.

These changes are in order of importance:

• She needs to learn proper nutrition and eating habits.  Your diet will account for at least 80% of your success.
• She needs to limit or stay away from single joint exercises.  Full body exercise burn way more calories than those that just focus on the problem areas.
• She needs to lift moderate to heavy weights (for her anyways).  Lifting heavy weights has been shown to not only burn more calories (up to 500 in 20 minutes) while you are lifting them.   But doing so also keeps your metabolism for up to 48 hours after.  No ladies you will not get big and bulky.  I and all my female clients can prove that myth false.
• If she still wants or thinks she needs to do cardio, she should stick to quick sessions to interval training after she lifts weights (or on a seperate day).  I myself thingk that cardio is overrated (and over used) but I understand that some of you are so conditioned that you must do cardio or you get the shakes and the cold sweats od a crack addict needing a fix. Interval training, short periods of near max effort followed by equal or longer periods of low effort, has  been shown to burn more calories over time than steady state cardio, staying at one pace the whole session.

Following the above advice should get you way closer to the weight loss results than the typical program I see most women doing. 

And doing so will also keep you from becoming the topic of a future post of mine. 

Unless, of course, it is a success story.

Health and Happiness,

Paul F. Sweatt

 

Tags: fat loss, full body exercises, interval training, Nutrition, weight loss, workout

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 7:36 pm and is filed under Fitness, Weight Loss Strategies, Workouts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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