Let me make this abundantly clear, everyone should be performing some type of resistance training. Whether you are using weights, kettlebells, bands or your own body weight, everyone needs to put pressure on their joints and do so as often as possible. Sitting on the couch or at an office chair for prolonged periods of time is taking the fast track to obesity, osteoporosis and arthritis. To maintain bone density and muscle mass over the long haul, a significant amount of pressure must be placed upon joints and their connective tissues.

I have trained a large number of clients over the past 16 years, both male and female, with ages ranging from 12 to 85. I probably train more women than men and I have found that in order to work effectively with some women, there are several false beliefs that first must be addressed before we can develop an effective training program that they can comfortably accept.

These are the most common statements I hear:

1. I just want to tone. The word toning should be saved for describing the intonation in one’s voice. It has no place when it comes to training. You either add muscle or you lose it. It is physically impossible to shape a muscle. That shape is already genetically predetermined.
2. I don’t want to get too bulky. Women do not produce enough natural testosterone to build the same amount of muscle as a man. It is just not possible. Unless you are eating copious amounts of high quality calories and strength training a minimum of 5 days a week with extremely heavy weights while sticking a needle in your butt once a month, you have nothing to worry about. When a woman tells me that her legs get bulky when she squats, my response is that she needs to get leaner. “Bulk” is simply muscle covered with a bunch of fat. A pound of fat takes up three times the surface area of a pound of muscle. So get rid of the fat and add some muscle and you will be surprised at how sleek you will actually look, and your clothes will fit better too. Don’t kid yourself, Jessica Biel didn’t build up her backside by spending hours and hours on a stationary bike. She did it by squatting and deadlifting. Nobody wants a posterior that resembles a pancake.
3. I just want to do cardio. Performing cardiovascular exercise is not the best overall method for fat loss. Resistance training speeds up your metabolism both in the short and in the long term. For every pound of muscle you can add to your frame you will burn an extra 50 calories a day. Add 5 pounds of muscle and you can eat an extra 250 calories a day!!! Even if you are training for an endurance event, resistance training will improve your overall aerobic performance and help prevent injury by strengthening your joints and connective tissues.
4. I just want to get lean and have a six pack. For a lot of women, being exceptionally lean (under 12% body fat) has extreme hormonal effects on the body. Those women that you see on the front of fitness magazines don’t stay that lean year round. They dramatically cut back on their carbohydrate and sodium intake 4 to 6 weeks before a shoot and become very dehydrated. I don’t recommend it. If you want to see your abs, by all means, go for it. But remember, every person has a different set of genes. What might take your girlfriend six weeks to accomplish, could take you six months or more.
5. Women and men should train differently. I am not quite sure what “training like a man” or “training like a woman” means. Are certain exercises inherently geared towards one gender? Men and women may have specific goals they are looking to accomplish, but it is possible to achieve them both with the same programs. Men tell me that they want to look jacked or ripped and women want to be lean and shapely. The fact is you can’t have any real shape without building muscle first and to build muscle you need to lift weights. I am not talking about doing countless sets with 3 pound dumbbells. You need to lift weights that challenge your muscles in the 6 to 15 repetition range for multiple sets. Once that gets too easy, you need to add more resistance. Women produce 10 times less testosterone than men do. So if anything, they need to work more intensely than their male counterparts, not less.

Here is a simple exercise you can perform to build up your butt and hamstrings that will give you some shape back there……:)