Getting ready for month 2 of the 3-month challenge

The Female Fitness Paradox

Interestingly, the formula for attaining both a body that performs well and looks amazing is the same but it is the exact type of program that women often shy away from. It is the Female Fitness Paradox. Women are often afraid to work hard, lift heavier weights at lower reps, do less “cardio”, eat more protein and do more functional, compound exercises because as women, they wrongly think that these protocols will produce the opposite results. Meanwhile, the hours of steady state cardio, high rep/low weight “toning” classes, spinning classes, low fat/low calorie fad diets and teas, frozen light entrees and whipped yogurt desserts are taking you further and further away from your goals.

With that being said it is time to embrace change and push even harder for what you want as we go into the next phase. You might think the first change you should make has to do with pumping iron in the gym, that’s not the case. When it comes to putting on lean mass, nutrition is everything. The additional weight that you lift challenges your muscles to respond by growing more fibers to adapt to the new physical demands. Once your workout is over you must provide the body with all the building blocks it needs to create a new and improved version of yourself!

Embrace carbs and protein!

I often hear about women skimping on carbs because they think adding too many of them will cause a sudden surge in body fat. Now that is a myth. Carbohydrates should be 70% of your daily food intake along with protein at 30% and 10% for healthy fats. Of course your carbs should primarily come from natural for items like vegetables, whole grains like nuts and from fruits as opposed to processed and overly cooked and refined foods.

Protein is essential for the development of future muscle and to keep your existing muscle in check. This protein is best served for the purpose of muscle development at a ratio of 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of your body weight each day. I recommend a post workout recovery protein smoothie with roughly 25 grams of protein after your workout, and spread the balance across your other meals.

Points to note

: • Supplement Branch Chain Amino acids and or Glutamine into your diet, they help not only with recovery, but growth as well.

• To build maximum muscle, you must take rest seriously. You actually tear your muscles down while in the gym. In order for them to properly recover and build, they need to have weekly rest time.

• Take at least one day of full rest from my workouts each week • Do high-intensity interval training (HIIT) rather than steady-state cardio training

Here’s an example of how to structure your week for a three-day weekly approach.

Day 1: Chest & Back

Chest

• Push-up

• Dumbbell Bench Press

• Barbell Bench Press

• Incline Bench Press

Back

Pull-up

• Lat Pull-down

• Upper Body Horizontal Pulling

• One-Arm Dumbbell Row

• Seated Cable Row

• Bent-Over Barbell Row Day

2: Rest Day

3: Shoulders/calves/cardio

• Seated dumbbell press

• Standing military barbell press

• Dumbbell lateral raises

• Seated reverse flies

• Seated calf raises

• Standing single leg calf raises

Day 4:

Rest Day 5:

Legs/Calves

• Barbell Squat

• Barbell Deadlift

• Dumbbell Lunge

• Good Morning

• Split Squat

Day 6: Rest

Do these exercises while gradually increasing the weight by at least 5 more pounds weekly. The increase in weight should result in you working in a repetition range of 5-8 ish. The change will shock your body enough to initiate the change process.

Get ready for change!