Q:
I'm a 42 year old woman with two children. I do aerobics
every day, alternating between the treadmill, step classes
and calinetics. I've lost weight, and I look OK in clothing,
but I've still got flab in the back of my arms and around
my hips and thighs. How do I tighten it up?
A:
You can't. Wait....don't get discouraged. You can reshape
your entire body, and get both the back of the arms and
the hips and thighs lean and sexy. You just can't tighten
up flab. Flab doesn't tighten!
Women
often cringe when I use the word "muscle." They
have visions of their heads on Arnold Schwarznegger's body.
You should first understand that women, because of their
high proportion of estrogen to testosterone, can not develop
manly muscle without chemical enhancement. If you've seen
those masculine female bodybuilders on ESPN, and been led
to believe that lifting weights creates such monsters, you've
been misled. Although it's not commonly presented to the
general public, female bodybuilders often depend on anabolic
steroids to obtain huge muscle. Muscle is valuable to you,
especially if you want to reshape your body, and a slight
accumulation of lean body mass will not only keep you feminine,
it will likely enhance your femininity!
Women
appear to be more comfortable using the word "toned"
than "muscular. "Toned" simply means, reducing
fat and either adding or maintaining muscle in a given area.
Many
women make the mistake of undereating and over-aerobicizing!
If you exercise aerobically, beyond your body's ability
to provide regular fuel, the body reaches into muscle tissue
and as you lose weight, you lose muscle!
People
who get started on my program begin by performing only 12
minutes of aerobic exercise per day....and they lose fat!
The reason is twofold. Firstly, they develop a nutritional
concern for supplying the material for muscle maintenance,
and secondly, their aerobic exercise is customized so it
keeps them within their fat burning limits.
By
losing muscle through aerobic exercise, you then become
dependent on that exercise just to maintain the condition
you're in. Take a break from the aerobics and your body
will rapidly accumulate new fat stores.
In
addition to keeping aerobic exercise moderate, and providing
adequate nutrition for optimal fat reduction and muscle
maintenance, it is also important to provide some resistance
training to stimulate muscle development. End result.....a
lean, toned body!
Those
"trouble areas" you mentioned will develop as
you concern yourself with the body as a whole. Spot reduction
can not take place since the body loses fat proportionately
from all over. Develop muscle, however, and you can soon
begin to "shape" your body much as a sculptor
shapes clay. As you improve, customization of your program
will allow you to specialize on any areas you choose.
