Women often find that they can keep their weight about the same over many years by just eating sensibly and light cardio.  But often, in their mid thirties or forties, they start getting “soft”.  By only looking at the scale they don’t notice it.  But what has happened is that they have slowly lost muscle and slowly gained fat.  Their shirts and pants still fit (for the most part) but their body composition is far less attractive.  And equally (or more) importantly, they are on a track to become helpless in their older age.  Muscle loss is equated to functional loss – and functional loss is a loss in quality of life.  Muscle loss in your 30s and 40s is slow enough to not be noticed but once you get to your 60s and 70s and 80s, you may be no longer to lift a milk gallon over your head.  Let’s make sure you never get that weak ok?

Should Women Lift Like Men?

This site is geared towards men.  After all, I am one.

But we all have women in our lives – wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, etc.

So whether you are a woman, or know one, or just play one on TV, this post is for you.

Part 1 of 4

So Should Women Really Workout Like Men?

For the past few years, all the “experts” keep saying how a woman should lift like a man.  But is it true?

The answer is yes and no.  I’ll boil it down to one (long) sentence for you:

Women can and should do nearly the same exercises as men, but because women have different goals and different chemistry, the ideal program will usually be different than what a man would use.

I’m going to break this series down into 4 parts.  And if you post an intelligent comment to any of these, then afterward shoot me an email at support@worldfitnessnetwork.com and I’ll send you

We all have to share.  Sometimes it’s time, sometimes it’s money, and other times it’s just plain space.  It’s for this reason we have rules; although, occasionally they go by another fancy word… “etiquette.”  There are many different types of etiquette; restaurant etiquette, workplace etiquette, and yes there is workout etiquette.

Hey, I’m not going to lie to you, I like our Geico friends “The Cavemen.”  Sometimes it’s even fun to act like one myself.  Society, however, doesn’t feel so kindly about my friends for the most part.  Etiquette ensures that we don’t strangle each other with our socks.

If you read the super fine print on the back of your gym contract then you probably saw some of the common rules on the back.  Most of them aren’t a big secret and are listed on every home page of every bodybuilding/gym website known to man.  There are however, a few little known rules that even the most active gym goer may not know about.  Not only do I work out in a gym but I work and manage at a gym and train people – I know what it’s like, from multiple angles, when people don’t follow these basic rules.  The term “basic” implies that the rule will be found in pretty much every gym.  Some aren’t as clear-cut.  Planet Fitness for example has a “no grunting” policy.  I personally think if you aren’t grunting you aren’t working hard enough.  Whereas in a football training facility, for example, you hear screams.  In that scenario it just depends on location; not quite a “basic” rule then.

I have taken the liberty of enlightening you with most of these rules but, I need to state a few things first.  Not everyone has always been a member of a gym, so I will assume that you are a brand new, first day member of a health club.  Also, I am aware that if you looked you WILL be able to find more things than I point out.  I’m not trying to write a book, just an article.   So if you’ve got some more to add, jump into the Comments section.  And lastly, I know what it’s like to just be told “what” and not “why” so I will give you the point-of-view I have with some of these too.  I understand your reasons, I’ve been there.  Just please don’t take anything personal if you are the person I am describing.  There is no hostility being thrown, so don’t take it as such.  Furthermore, if I DO offend you, it’s probably because you needed to hear it anyways…

Cameron’s Basic Gym Etiquette Rules

(If you see a “more” link, click it to read the rest.)

Looking trim and being unfat requires work - here are the tips

With so many tips, I’ll overrule my usual verbose nature and dive in, somewhat tersely, with the 25 Ways To Be Unfat.  Each of these could be its own article (or even its own book!).  But I’m just giving you a sentence or two for starters.  We’ll break these down into 5 categories:  Overview, Attitude and Behavior, Eating, Lifting, and Cardio.

Since I focus worldfitnessnetwork.com on weight training and running, you might expect this article to be focused on weight lifting and running, right?  Well, for sure, those are both part of the picture to be unfat.  But eating habits are the most important factor for getting trim.

Final preamble:  these are written for the person who wants to be lean, not super-lean.  If you want to get into cover-model shape, there are more subtle techniques that come to play.  But if you want to look good enough for the beach, these are for you!

1) 80% of the battle is what you eat – the cliché is true:  you can’t out-train a bad diet.  Eat smart and you’ll be lean.

2) 10% of the battle is resistance training – training with weights can help by burning some calories, increasing metabolism, and changing your body composition.  Even for women.  But many guys fall into the trap of building muscles that are still covered in fat.   More on this later…

3) 10% of the battle is cardiovascular training - cardio (e.g. running) can help with calories but is only one-tenth as important as how you eat.  And too much of the wrong running can burn muscle in addition to fat so you can’t over-rely on it.

All of these are mostly mental; if you learn the right techniques and then have the discipline to act on that education, even when you don’t feel like it, then you’ll win.  Your attitudes and behaviors are key:

4) Don’t strive for perfection – getting your psychology about fitness right is most important; until you want to get ultra-lean, you are shooting for a 90% compliance; do the right thing 90% of the time and you’ll get lean.

5) Set goals – if you don’t set targets, it’s hard to know if you are making progress and it’s hard to know when you’ve “arrived” at your destination.  Forget complicated goals – keep them simple by focusing on Measureable and Timebound.  An example of a good goal for a woman:  I will weight X pounds, at less than 20% bodyfat, by July 4.

6) Adjust your social life – avoid other fatties or soon-to-be fatties; who you surround yourself with influences who you become.  If you’ve already had a junk-food meal this week, say ‘no’ to the group going out for a Chinese lunch.

7) Keep a log – write down what you eat, when you exercise, what you did, etc.  Think of it as your fitness diary.  You can do this online or on paper, I don’t care.  But keeping a log will keep you on track even on days when you are less motivated.

Eating

8) Eat frequent small meals – eating smaller meals more frequently will

If you say barbell curls, I’m going to reach through the computer and smack you!

By now you know I live and breath The Big 7 as the core of any lifting program.

But which single one is the best?

Today’s article is SURE to cause a lot of debate and disagreement!

“What is the best lifting exercise?” is a really hard question, and of course it’s a silly question too.  Nobody is every confined to a single exercise.  But it’s a fun point of debate, and an instructional one.  Because it forces you to consider what gives you the best results for the time and effort involved.  Right away, that clearly eliminates any isolation-type movement from the list.

For years I’ve avoided taking a stand.  Until now.

I’m sure to get a lot of people disagreeing with me – that’s ok, I can take it.

The single best, most important, most impactful lift is …

I recently took my family to visit my parents and got to workout with my dad at his gym (Gold’s Gym – wow, their membership fees are really low!).  While coaching him, I was reminded of many tips that I bet you’ll find valuable.   (Dad, you don’t mind do you???)  Let’s get right into the list of 12 Tips and Observations:

1. After Your Warm-ups, Every Set Is A Working Set. Don’t stop at the end of set #2 with “gas still in your tank” so that you’ll have more energy for set 3.  Go all out for set #2.  And then, go all out again for set #3.
2. Old Guys Can Still Lift Heavy – My dad is almost 70 and of course he can’t lift what I can lift.  But there’s no reason to go easy on yourself.  Even if you are “an old guy” you still need to lift heavy – that means heavy FOR YOU.  For me, lifting heavy might mean X pounds.  For you, lifting heavy might mean Y pounds.
3. Cable Machines Are Not “Machines”.  I discourage use of machines.  My dad uses a lot of these newer cable machines from a company called FreeMotion.  They really are excellent.  I even used them for deadlifts (there wasn’t enough weight on the stack for doubles but it was still surprisingly effective).  But most fixed-path machines still suck.
4. Intensity Trumps Volume.  I had to remind my dad, and I’m guessing you can use the reminder too, that it’s better to do 4 exercises really intensely than it is to do 6 exercises without going all out.  30 minutes of intense lifting is better than 50 minutes of moderate intensity.  Of course, you do need to be safe and you can get “too intense”.  But I’d bet you are currently really far away from being too intense.

You know, I recently wrote an article over at The Goal Triangle about how you have to fail in order to succeed.  Well, here’s a case in point:  the new email format.  I tried to make things easier for you and for myself, and improve the look of the emails you get, but I “failed”.  It was harder for me to manage, and the html codes ended up triggering more spam filters (meaning many of you never got some really good articles – check your spam folders over the past few weeks to make sure).  So, I’m back to the old format.

Poll Results

You may have noticed the poll taking place on the right side of worldfitnessnetwork.  The previous poll asked what your top fitness goals were.  After hundreds of votes, the top 2 were: #1: build muscle and #2 shed fat.  Probably not surprising given the content I write about!  Be sure to take the current poll (which will be changed to a new poll in February).

The Fight For Your Fitness Wallet

If you are signed up for other fitness sites, you may have noticed a huge increase in sales hype and email volume.

I’m here to give you the straight story about why they are doing this, and how you should respond.

Since most of those guys are sending me information about how I should promote their products, I see their strategy.  Here’s what’s going on…

10. Intensity Is Underrated

Whatever your routine is, do it hard.  (After you’ve gotten the form down.)  When I say hard, I mean hard.  Other than your exercise-specific warmup, you should feel like you couldn’t get another rep out of your set.  (This is different from “train to failure” which means you go past the last rep you can do – that’s not something I recommend for beginners.)  Oh, and if you can do 2 more reps than your plan calls for, then you need to increase your weight.

And heavy weight helps your progress.  To get the proper hormonal response from weight training for building muscle, losing fat, and gaining strength you have to really push yourself.

This also means that you don’t skip workouts.  I realize that life happens, and you might have to miss a day.  But with your 3x per week schedule, you can miss a day and make it up to stick to 3x/week.  If you do get to the gym and “don’t feel too motivated”, you need to psyche yourself up.  A short intense workout is far better than a long half-effort one.

11. Rest

There are two types or rest:  in between sets and in between workouts.  For rest in between workouts, that’s taken care of by only going 3x a week (see previous point).  Muscle doesn’t grow during the exercise.  It grows AFTER the exercise and if

Done properly, weight lifting is the best exercise for all three goals.  Wanna lose fat while you sleep?  The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns at rest.  Wanna look good in a t-shirt and shorts?  Build some curves by adding muscle.  Looking for extra power in your favorite sport?  Strength training with weights helps almost every sport.

But if you’re just starting out (or if you’ve been just toying around at the gym and need to get your butt into a serious routine), you need to remember these 19 things.

1. Don’t Read The Muscle Mags

Ok.  You’re fired up like a George Forman Grill, and ready to become Arnold Junior.  So where do most guys like you turn for advice?  The muscle mags.  But 50% of the muscle mags are pure ads.  And another 30% are ads disguised as articles.  And another 15% is either flat out bad advice or advice inappropriate for beginners.   That leaves 5% of goodness.  And the sad truth:  as a beginner, you won’t know the difference.  Skip the magazines and go for a serious book (see below).

2. Only Full Body, Compound Exercises For Your First 3 Months (No Curls!)

I know you want to do curls.  It’s ok to admit it.  Guys think big biceps are the sign of a real man.  Stop.  If you can’t do 15 chin-ups, you have no business doing curls. What you want to do – exclusively – for the first 3 months are compound movements.  Compound movements are those that involve more than one joint (and thus, recruit more than one muscle group).  Why?  You’ll burn more