Here is something I have observed over the years. No matter which gym I train at, there is a typical workout structure to the female gym workout. Here are some exercises that I've noticed as a general trend:
Typical "female gym workouts"
- Cardio
- Leg abduction machine
- Leg adduction machine
- Leg press machine
- Leg extension machine
- Leg curls machine
- And more cardio
Now there's nothing "wrong" with this. In fact I think it's great that people are getting active and being proactive in improving their body! However, I do want to make some suggestions on how to improve the effectiveness of such an approach.
I'm going to make the assumption that the "typical" female gym workout primarily is aimed at toning the lower body. By toning, I am referring to a combination of fat loss and muscle gain in order to increase the degree of definition. I make this assumption because that is a very typical goal for many of my female clients.
It's perfectly natural to assume that by working the lower body, you are going to enhance tone to the lower body. But I do believe that this is a very narrow-minded approach.
Firstly, to tone up, we need to stimulate some degree of muscle growth, with typically more emphasis on fat loss. Leg press is a great way to accomplish either of these objectives. Leg curls can be useful because many typical compound leg movements don't recruit the hamstrings to the same degree as the quadriceps and glutes. But for heavens sake, ditch the abduction and adduction machines. Honestly, these are a complete waste of time and effort. You will be stimulating these muscles on nearly any compound leg movement. Plus, these exercises do relatively little regarding calorie expenditure.
Another problem with this example workout is that it is very focussed on lower body. An imbalanced workout is not only going to inhibit your results, but also increase the risk of injury. For if your lower body is extremely strong, yet your upper body is extremely weak, you increase the risk of injury. This is typical in many daily tasks, such as lifting something fairly heavy. The legs can cope, but the upper body will struggle to maintain correct posture and control.
Never overlook the advantages of weight training with regards to fat loss within your female gym workout. Cardiovascular and good nutrition alone will only provide a proportion of your potential fat loss results. Weight training does two things - it stimulates a significant degree of fat loss AND aids in increasing muscle mass, thus increasing your daily calorie expenditure! So perform a full body program and you will begin to really accelerate your results!
It is important to consider that you cannot spot reduce. In other words, by training legs, you are not going to target fat loss from your legs. Your body decides where fat is broken down from. So in actual fact, a leg press could stimulate more fat loss from your waist than your thighs!
Oh, and don't be afraid of bulking up. Females have far less testosterone readily available relative to males. Testosterone is required for muscle synthesis. So, muscle growth is going to be an extremely slow process.
I hope this sheds some light on female gym workouts. If you'd like to know more on weight loss and toning, I would highly recommend that you sign up to our free course, Conquering Your Body!
