I
want a sculpted body!
Why not! All that you need to do is start
exercising in an intelligent way, and if the intensity
and form are right, you will begin to see results
in a month's time!
Generally speaking, any exercise programme will
have two components. Training with weights - anaerobic
or exercise where oxygen as energy is expended
in extremely intense and short periods - and cardio-vascular
training where you use oxygen for longer periods
(about 20 to 40 mins) over moderate intensity.
Weight training improves your body structure -
you gain or lose inches and tone the muscles while
cardio-vascular training improves your body composition
-you loose body fat! Depending on what kind of
a body you have, you may pay more focus on either
of the two training protocols.
But before we do that,
let's address some myths that may hold you back
from exercising!
Myth # 1: A woman will put on ugly muscle
mass!
Fact! A woman can never build muscle mass like
the way male body-builders do because women
have a very low level of the male hormone testosterone.
Bodybuilding is a sport and the means to it
is weight training. Every sportsperson who requires
a reasonable standard of fitness and endurance,
will train with weights. But then, each sport
has its specific weight training techniques!
So, when you train with weights, you will always
train with techniques that will help achieve
your fitness goals!
Myth # 2: Weights will stunt my height!
Fact! This is not possible! It is just that
short women or men will tend to put on more
muscle than their taller counterparts! Your
arms and legs are like levers - longer the lever,
lesser the intensity and shorter the lever more
the intensity. More intensity results in more
muscle mass. This is very comparative and it
certainly does not mean that short women will
look like body builders - unless they train
with techniques appropriate to bodybuilding!
(Certain spine-loading exercises for boys and
girls under the age of 16 or so are contraindicated
in order to prevent injury to spine or back.)
Myth # 3: The more I exercise, the more
fat and weight I will loose!
Fact! Ideally, never exercise more than 60 to
70 minutes every day. If you train with weights
every day - which is a "must" since
you need to train upper and lower body parts
on alternate days, then you need to do aerobics
or treadmill only thrice a week. When you over-train
your body will fatigue! Your metabolic rate
that ought to gone up with regular exercise
is now actually lowered because of the calorie
deficit (as a result of over-exercise)! When
you exercise too much and eat too less, or combine
the two, your body actually begins to "rebel"
by holding on to its main source of fuel - fat!
Of course, cutting back the exercise to about
60-70 mins and/or increasing your calorie intake,
then this will not happen.
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