When it comes to women fitness there is a unique way exercise to ensure you meet the needs of a woman’s body. Here are my 5 tips that I make sure I incorporate into my everyday training routine and I encourage you to do the same.
Five Women Fitness Tips for a Flawless Figure:
- Flexibility
- Free-weights
- Functional Movements
- Fast-paced Exercises
- Friggin Hard work
Flexibility
Simply put, flexibility exercise stretches and elongates muscles. These help to stretch muscles, protect against injury and allows the maximum range of motion for joints.
Benefits:
- improves the efficiency of daily activities
- improves the movement of muscles
- improves concentration of the mind
- improves blood circulation within the body
- aids in speedy recovery from injuries or accidents
- reduces tension of the muscles
You are NEVER too old to improve flexibility.
Stretching releases the lactic acid that builds in muscle with use and causes stiffness, tension, pain and fatigue. In addition being flexible may also increase lubrication in the joints, creating ease and fluidity throughout your body.
Free-Weights
There are numerous benefits to resistance training and is a women fitness secret that is now beginning to be understood. Resistance training increases cardiovascular strength, reduces incidence of injuries, improves posture, improves strength, improves body composition, prevents osteoporosis and reduces loss of muscle mass due to inactivity.
By lifting weight you’ll preserve muscle mass as you age. We naturally lose muscle over time, unless we lift weights.
Functional Movements
Functional training focuses on building a body capable of doing everyday activities in positions your body uses in everyday life. Exercises that require the use of the greatest number of muscles and joints, such as lunges or standing dumbbell presses, give the greatest positive body changing results. The key to functional exercise is teaching all the muscles to work together rather than isolating them to work individually. Women fitness programs must take postural and stability muscles into account for a better looking and better functioning body.
Functional movements improve:
- balance
- stability
- coordination
Fast-paced Exercises
It is all about keeping your body in FAT BURNING ZONE…by keeping your heart rate elevated throughout the entire workout. This will not only have your body burning a ton of calories during your workout – you will be burning calories for hours following your workout.
Friggin Hard Work
Achieving a flawless figure is not easy but it is attainable. Anyone who says you can look a certain way through a magic pill, liquid potion or simply by going on the next ‘hollywood diet’ is simply misinformed with no scientific proof to back them up.
i totally agree with yr advice. unfortunately as u mentioned earlier i am a couch potato and hate any form of exercise. i find my body hurting too much if i try out any form of exercise and also experience very heavy bouts of breathing which puts me off any form of exercise. i want to get rid of my obesity but, this unstoppable breathing does put me off. pl advise what i should do. i treasure yr advice n want to improve my health. iggy
Hey Iggy, I would just start with 30 minutes of walking every day. That is your goal..30 minutes of walking! Let me know when you have completed a couple weeks of walking and get back to me for the next challenge. YOU CAN DO THIS!
Good morning Flavia, thanks for reinforcing those great tips that I am already doing. I love and follow your workouts faithfully. Enjoy getting all of the great info.
Thanks Flavia this was a really great article! Just to let you know, right after you said “You are NEVER too old to improve flexibility.” You said retching releases lactic acid. 🙂
Fixed it thanks!
Thanks Flavia! You are so right! I love the articles you provide for us and your videos. You are so motivating!!!!!
Flavia,
You look amazing, better than any celebrity. You are my inspiration to look good. I’m far from the shape you’re in though. Whenever I start slacking off and than you send out email, I open it, look at your picture and instantly get motivated to work out and eat right. Not to say about the very valuble info all your emails include. Thanks for all your emails.
Great article. I’m trying to purchase your Full Body Licious through PayPal and it is not letting me. I do not have a credit card. Can you please help me. I really want to start getting my body in shape and lose weight. You look amazing, yes it does take a lot of hard hard work.
Hey Patty, I can help you through my email. [email protected] We will get you sorted out!
Flavia…
Good to know how important flexibility is for a fit body. I just started Bikram yoga and even though I’ve been doing your workouts for over 6 months and stretching afterward, I found after two classes I’m not all that flexible and my stability/balance needs work as well. It’ll be interesting to see the progression I’ll make after 4-6 weeks of yoga. Your posts are always so insightful, thanks for sharing!!!
Thanks so much ladies!!
Is that you in the pic w the dark hair?!! If soooo, u loook super amazing!!!!! Dark hair suits you~
LOL, no this chick is HOT! I do have some pics of me with dark hair on my FB if you are interested in seeing it. My hair was a lot healthier and I am thinking of going back, not as dark after I film FULL-BODY-LICIOUS 2.0.
I get exactly what you are saying! I was jet black n lightened last year! My hair was long, thick before the lightening process and now its breaking and it won’t grow. So I darkened it the beginning of the year.
Your HOT as well!
I couldn’t find you on fb 🙁
I love your full-body-licious programme and have seen some good results in myself, although is there anyway to stop me losing my boobs?!? I am losing fat all over & toning up but I like my curves & dont feel as sexy with my boobs disappearing! I find myself wanting to put weight back on to feel more attractive.
I know we can’t pick & choose where we lose fat from but any advice?
I’m not overweight, so not looking to lose massive amounts, I mainly want to tone up.
Would pec exercises be best as they make your boobs appear perkier or by building more muscle in that area does it burn the fat more?
Hey Rhona, no there isn’t a way to stop losing your boobs…it’s sad! Not lifting too heavy on chest will actually help. Having too much muscle will cause them to look flat but you still want to use weight training on your chest. Focus on working your upper pecs, such as with flys.
hi flavia, thanks for yr suggestion. u will not believe me, but, it is the truth. i am not able to walk even for 5 mins without gasping for breath, so what do u suggest. i do climb up 64 steps daily as i live in an old building, but by the time i reach my home i am like a dead duck, although i take deep breaths as i climb up. any valuable suggestion. pl help. iggie
Hi Ignatia, I would start with walking the 5 minutes 5 times a week. Next week bump it up to 10 minutes 3 times a week. The following week 15 minutes twice or three times if you can add another day. After that continue to increase to 20 minutes 3-4 times a week for a couple of weeks and when that is no longer to hard, increase to 4-5 times a week for a couple more weeks. Now we are into about 4-6 weeks. When you have done this, send me an update and we can go from there!
Flavia –
I have been exercising since mid February in the following manner: eliptical, treadmill, circuit machines, free weights, zumba and I ride my horse and my bike. I subscribe to Flavilicious Fitness as well as Beyond Diet, XFLD/Joel Marion and John Romaniello and I try hard to follow the advice from the experts and I incorporate HIIT as much as possible. So far I have lost 12 pounds and 9 inches. I need to lose another 20 or so pounds (of fat) to be back to a size 8 clothing (I am currently a size 12 and 5’4″)
Here is my question: I love the concept of your workouts, but even though I have been exercising, I find some of your exercises to be very challenging. I did your trim thighs workout on Mon. Some exercies I was able to do 10 reps/3 sets. Others I could only do one set at half the reps. BUT – I was SO SORE on tuesday and wednesday that I could hardly walk, and stairs were a nightmare. What is your advice for working my way up to being able to do the full workout and what do your recommend for minimizing the “day after”pain?
Hey Sara, thanks for the question. For pain a lot of times it is becauce you did not get enough nutrition from your post-workout nutrition. Try to eat as soon as you are done the workout and if you are keen, add in 5g of Glutamine…it helps with muscle soreness.
No problem at all to start with one rep. Here is what to do. The exercises that are challenging, do with bodyweight and one set 6-8, next week bodyweight and 2 sets 8-10, week 3 do all 3 sets…week 4 add in light weight and do 1-2 sets and increase the weight by 5% each week and add the full 3 when you are ready!
Flavia -Thanks for much for the reply! I have been eating post workout but did not realize that the nutritional content would have an impact on soreness. I know it’s important to get both carb and protein post workout. When possible I have a post workout shake (prograde). Otherwise I have some lean protein and some carb – usually fruit (no tuber, grain or gluten). Any recommendations how to improve that quality or a comment on the quantity? I will also add the glutamine. THANKS!
Sara
Sure, if you are looking to gain some muscle size a powder form of carbs are best like Vetargo but I usually just have whole foods within an hour. I find that quinoa helps with my recovery probably because of the protein in the grain. I also use white potatoes at times because it is fast absorbing so eating potatoes post-workout will also help!!
Another thing that is great to do is add in some greens powder or vitamins after a workout when you are depleted 🙂
Flavia….a friend of mine has been advised to drink juice after a weights workout to reduce the lactic acid buildup and muscle stiffness……Do you agree with this….if so …..how does it work..??
Hi McGlee,
It is important to replenish your glycogen stores after a workout but juice isn’t necessarily the best option. If you did drink juice post workout you would want it to be all fruit without added sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Check out this article Flavia wrote for more information: https://flaviliciousfitness.com/2011/07/21/post-workout-nutrition/
All the best!
Anna, CPT, FF Specialist
If you are talking about vegetable juicing then YES!! Pumping your craving muscles with all those nutrients is brilliant
Great post ! find more about Women Fitness tips on our site.