Working in the fitness industry has to be the worst occupation in the world when you’re at a party full of people you don’t know.
At least 75% of them will ask you about how they can lose “this” or tighten up “right here.”
My favorite is when a 187 pound woman with a plate full of doughy, greasy food asks me how to get a body like Jessica Biel.
By about the fourth such inquiry I usually start looking at the drapes and wonder how long it will take me to fashion a noose out of them and attach it to the ceiling fan while praying that it will hold my weight.
Recently I was fortunate enough to have the extreme pleasure of being in this exact situation.
I couldn’t have been more excited (please note the strong sarcasm).
While browsing the food selection I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see my friend Heather.
“Hey Jay, I want you to meet Kristin. Jay’s a personal trainer.”
“She always says that, it’s an inside joke we have. I actually work for Rawkus Records. I discovered and signed Mos Def several years ago.”
“Oh stop it Jay. He’s just joking. He’s a personal trainer.”
“Well, not really.”
“What do you mean, not really? You’ve been doing that for like 20 years I thought.”
“Yeah, but I’m a strength & conditioning coach, I mainly work with athletes and guys who want to get bigger, stronger and faster. Not so much the pussy stuff.”
“The ‘pussy stuff?’ What does that mean?”
“Umm… I don’t know… forgive me. Sorry. Nice to meet you, Kristin.”
“Ok, well Kristin is really into working out so I’ll leave you two to talk. Kristin, be sure to grill Jay, he knows a lot about training. He writes for a bunch of magazines.”
Note to self: plan a significant payback for Heather as soon as possible.
“So Jay, I have been trying to lose these last ten pounds and tighten up my lower abs and butt.
I do weights three days per week, take a bootcamp class, an aerobics step class and walk three miles every other day.
What else do you think I should do? I want a body like Jessica Biel’s.”
“Me too…me…too. Have you seen her ass lately? It’s like J Lo with muscles.
Good lord, what I would do…I mean… Wait, what was the question?”
“What should I do?”
“Umm… Maybe eat less?”
“No seriously.”
“I kinda was serious. I see you need a refill on your drink, can I get you one?”
“Sure.”
“Ok, I’ll be right back.”
En route to the bar I notice my friend Ray standing directly in front of me.
“Is that girl Kristin behind me?” I asked him.
“No.”
“Good. Now here’s what I want you to do. Stage an argument with me and knock me out cold.”
“What?! Are you drunk? Why?”
“We’re beyond the point of questioning. Please just do this for me as a friend and carry me outta here. I can’t take it anymore.”
He handed me a very large glass of straight vodka and told me to drink up cuz he wasn’t about to throw a haymaker in my direction.
I did and a minute later Kristin reappeared.
“So Jay, how about it? Can you give me a training program that will help me get ripped and get a bangin booty like Jessica Biel’s? I promise I won’t waste your time and will do anything you say.”
I looked for an escape but came up with nothing.
Since I had no other option, I slugged my vodka and said, “Let’s grab a seat and I’ll break it down for you.”
Almost everything you have read in women’s fitness magazines is all wrong.
I want you to stop reading them immediately. As much as you may think you want and need the information in there, you really don’t. It’s like asking your boyfriend how many girls he’s slept with.
You may think you want and need that information but you really don’t. And what happens when he flips the question on you?”
“Huh? What’s this have to do with training?”
“Exactly.
Anyway, the first thing you have to understand is that there are only a few things you can do to change the way you look.
The word “tone” does not exist.
It is not a reality and there is no definition for it.
You can only make a muscle bigger or make it smaller.
The same can be said for fat cells; you can make them bigger or you can make them smaller. That’s it.
You can’t shape or elongate or tone a muscle or anything like that.
So basically what every female should be aiming to do is build muscle and lose fat.
While the phrase “build muscle” scares some females, it shouldn’t.
When you build muscle you will end up looking better and burning more calories at rest, meaning it will help you lose fat and get leaner.
While many females ask me about how to get a body like Jessica Biel, the fact of the matter is none of them will ever come close because they have a fear that they will end up looking like Hulk Hogan in a matter of weeks so they shy away from lifting weights that will actually do anything.
This is a fear that is completely unfounded.
Females simply don’t have the hormonal profile to build muscle at the same rate as males; not even close.
And, trust me; it’s not even that easy for most males. If it were there would be a lot more 250 pound muscular dudes walking around.
The principles that make up an effective muscle building program for a male are exactly the same as those that make up an effective training program for a female.
Here are a few things you need to do:
Lift Heavy
No matter what you have been brainwashed to believe from watching Oprah or reading US Magazine, girls should not be lifting soup cans and three pound dumbbells with the thought that it is actually going to do a damned thing.
You need to challenge yourself and give your body a reason to actually change. Kickbacks with a couple water bottles aint gonna cut it.
Lifting heavy weights in the range of 8-15 reps should be the basis of your training.
High reps do not burn fat or help you improve muscle definition. Heavy weight training burns far more calories than high rep nonsense with light weights ever could.
It’s not how much you sweat or even how many calories you burn during the workout that is important but rather how many calories you burn in the 24-48 hours after your workout, during the recovery period.
Lifting heavy elevates your metabolism to a much higher degree and forces you to burn far more calories all day long than light weight, high rep training does.
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Use Big Compound Exercises
Females should not be relegated to the butt blaster and the abductor/ adductor machine while avoiding squats and deadlifts at all costs.
If you want to gain muscle and burn body fat you have to focus on the basics.
These include military presses, bench presses, bent over rows, pull ups, dips, squats, deadlifts and all their variations.
Isolation exercises like leg extensions and triceps kickbacks are a waste of time.
Follow the Rule of Progressive Overload
Some people do the exact same workouts with the exact same weights over and over again for months or even years and never get anywhere. It’s no wonder why.
Once you do something new, your body will do all that it can to adapt to the stimulus so that it is prepared for it the next time and does not suffer the same shock and trauma.
So if you bench press 65 pounds for two sets of ten reps today, your body will rebuild itself bigger and stronger to prepare for that challenge again in the future. When you keep doing that same 65 pounds for ten reps you will eventually stagnate as you are no longer giving your body a reason to adapt.
You need to continually challenge your body.
You can do this by adding more sets, decreasing your rest periods, or most importantly and most effectively; increasing the weight.
Females should not be afraid of getting stronger or increasing their training weights. I never understood why more females didn’t have the desire to get stronger.
What could be a better feeling than looking sexy and feminine yet being incredibly strong?
I once wrote an article for a female fitness magazine and when I suggested that the readers increase the weight once the movement became too easy the editor I was working with freaked out.
“Isn’t there something else we can tell them other than to increase the weight?”
Yeah, tell them they should be in the kitchen, bare foot and pregnant like they belong, for Christ’s sake!
Isn’t that the equivalent of telling them that they should remain weak forever? Jeez…
At this point Kristin had her hand on my thigh and over the course of the last half hour as the vodka kicked in, she started to look better and better.
And all this talk of Jessica Biel’s ass was getting me rather excited. Because of that and since she seemed way more interested in what I had to say than any girl ever should be I decided to continue…
While many of the principles of effective weight training are exactly the same for males as they are for females, there are a few differences that need to be pointed out.
These differences are not of major concern and the fact is that many females could get great results doing the exact same workouts as their male counterparts. But since I brought it up, here they are:
Females Get Better Results with a Slightly Higher Rep Range Than Males
While most males build muscle most effectively in the range of 6-10 reps, females often tend to do better while working in the range of 8-15 reps.
Notice I didn’t say 20-50 reps.
Remember, that stuff is useless nonsense. Heavy sets of 8-15 reps are the way to go for most females looking to get that lean, athletic look.
Females Can Tolerate a Slightly Higher Training Volume
Because they are usually weaker and have less overall muscle mass than males; females recover faster.
This why they can tolerate a greater number of sets and reps in their training.
Females Require Less Rest Between Sets Than Males
Because they are weaker, less muscular and recover faster, females don’t need to rest as long between sets.
While most males will need at couple minutes between a heavy set of squats before they will be able to repeat the effort, most females can do so in just a minute or less.
If they are extremely weak, they may actually be able to repeat the effort in as little as 30 seconds.
If you give them a workout that calls for the same rest periods that males use they will be bored to tears.
***
After our discussion Kristin seemed satisfied, and since I can’t say that for most girls after they spend a half hour on a couch with me, I was pretty happy as well. “I think this chick loves me,” I thought. “How could she not? I mean they all do, right?”
“So Kristin, whattaya say me and you get outta here?”
“That’s my fiancé right behind you. And I really gotta get going. Thanks for the info.”
“Uh…what?!? But I thought we had something there. I…I…I…”
Suddenly I felt another tap on my back and turned around to see Heather.
“Carol, I want you to meet my friend Jason, he’s a personal trainer.”
In an instant my thoughts shifted from Jessica Biel’s curvacious backside to Frank Costanza…
SERENITY NOW! SERENITY NOW!!!!!
**********
Now you know how to get a body like Jessica Biel.
Of course diet is a large part of it but hopefully this article gets you started on the training.
The skinny look went out years ago and nobody finds it appealing anymore.
There is nothing worse than a pancake ass in a pair of pants you can barely keep from sagging.
To build the banging, firm, round glutes that every girl wants and for a complete muscle building, fat melting program and diet download Bikini Body Workouts 60 Day Transformation System right now at http://bikinibodyworkouts.com/workouts/.
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Thank you!
