If you are a woman of today’s world, it’s likely that you were influenced by the toxic body image and fitness culture of the 90’s or 00’s. You were told 1-2 hours in the gym were your minimum, to aspire to be stick thin, spend hours on the cardio machines and to eat low fat low carb everything.
Even writing this out makes me cringe! The fact is you do not need to put your body through stressful long workouts and spend thousands on fancy gym memberships in order to get results! By the time I had my 2nd son, I was a mom on a mission to get in a workout anywhere! Time was valuable and driving to a gym was no longer feasible. I utilized my space wisely, my bedroom, my living room, outside at the park…. You name it.The world became my gym and short effective workouts are now my go to!
Thirty minutes is all you need to get a heart pumping full body workout in.
In every workout program, I believe there should be 3 components:
- Strength training (to build muscle & strong bones)
- Cardio (endurance, great for a health heart)
- Flexibility (to keep you mobile & moving)
While the industry has trained us to “burn as many calories” or “cardio is the way to blast fat off your body”, of these 3 components, strength training and the ability to create muscle mass on our body would be the most important in the long run. Next would be flexibility, THEN cardio. So wipe whatever the 90’s taught you and focus on these styles of training in this order.
There are many reasons why strength training is the most important.
Whether we like it or not, time is moving, and that means we are all getting older. Muscle mass starts to naturally decrease after the age of 30. It is crucial that we focus on exercise that makes us stronger to help us live longer. Strength and resistance training also helps with bone density and stronger joints, all while helping with weight loss and maintenance.
The best part is, muscle is the fountain of youth, literally.
Muscle is lean and tight, and helps us stand taller, look sculpted and causes us to burn more calories. It takes more energy for your body to hold muscle than it does for your body to hold fat, which means that naturally your body will burn more calories the more muscle it has, and you do not need to look like the incredible hulk inorder for this to happen.
So don’t worry about bulking up from lifting heavy! Most women do not have enough testosterone in their bodies to build that bulky mass muscle like men.When you compare a pound of fluffy fat to a pound of lean muscle, you can notice the difference and choose the lean muscle any day. The other thing to make note of, is that muscle takes time, infact, it will take longer than many of us prefer. Typically, a weight training resistance training program will be designed for 12-16 weeks. That’s the average time it will take for building that lean, fat burning muscle on your body. Typically in 4 weeks you will notice changes, in 8 weeks your friends and family notice small changes, and in 12 weeks, the whole world will notice a difference.
Workout 1
What exercises are the best?
The general answer, ALL. All exercises have a purpose, and any exercise is generally better than no exercise at all. However, all movement comes from 6 foundational movements;
- Squat
- Plank
- Hip Hinge
- Lunge
- Push and Pull
- Rotational
Depending on your fitness level, completing all of these in one workout can be a challenge. Or maybe you are used to more advanced workouts and looking at this list looks like a rotational burpee jump to you! It is. When we break down movement and perform it correctly, it all stems from foundation.
Workout 2
When I design a workout routine, the first thing I care about is safety.
Every exercise can be modified to each person’s ability. The 2nd thing I look for in an exercise program is the FUN FACTOR! If it’s not fun, then why do it? When we can have fun with our movement, whether it’s running or a dance class, we are more likely to stick to it.
When figuring out what type of exercise is “fun” for you, the best thing to do is revisit a time in your life when movement was fun! For most of us, that is when we were a child, typically around 8 years old. Did you play sports? Did you dance? Rollerblade? Play hide and seek? What was the childhood memory that gave you so much joy moving?
It’s safe to say that what we did in childhood, can spark joy in adulthood, especially in motherhood. If playing softball was your thing, you might enjoy a group class or more athletic bootcamp style of workouts. If you loved to be in the theater- dancing around, maybe cardio dance is your go to. Whatever your movement is that makes you feel good, do it. Just start, your body will start to thrive with movement, and the self care that your self esteem needs.
In this 30 minute method of exercise, I have included Muscle, Cardio and Flexibility in each workout.
After the warm up, there are 4 exercises and each exercise is performed for 1 minute, for a total of 8 minutes. You will need a medium set of weights, however, if this is our first workout, you can do the entire routine with no equipment. After weights, we do cardio. Four exercises are performed for 1 min each and repeated 2x for a total of 8 min. Finally we get to the flexibility, and mobility part of the workout and this works as your cool down.
Enjoy!
