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The Best Workouts For Women
Health | May 23, 2014
I’ve been blogging about fitness and my own healthy lifestyle for over 7 years now and what I’ve learned is that I’m always going to be learning. It’s a never-ending and a very important part of being a human. You constantly learn in every area of your life. You can learn at school, from media, mentors, trials and errors, or from your own mistakes. The important thing is not to assume that you know everything and that there’s nothing new to learn or discover, because that type of attitude is not going to help you in a long run. I’m always very excited whenever I learn something new that I can immediately implement into my life, business, or fitness regimen. One of the things I’ve learned over the past several months is that there is a significant difference between men and women and the way they should train their bodies.
I know you’ve read or heard many times that women should be lifting weights and train like their male counterparts in order to get a sexy body shape. The problem is that we’ve translated that literally and even tho we’ve been working so hard and trying to follow all the advice that men give us, we forgot about one important thing. We’re women. Our bodies and our goals are different from men. What is it that we women, really want? We want to fit in skinny jeans and have a cute round butt. We want to have a slim waist, flat belly, and some of us want to show a six pack. We do like tight and shapely arms but we don’t want to get too big and bulky in our shoulders. I think I speak for the majority of women.
Now let’s take a look at men’s typical goals. Big muscular arms, shoulders, Chest, and back. Visible muscles around the neck called traps. V shape back which requires to build muscles on their upper back and of course a six pack or preferably 8 pack. I don’t think I’ve ever heard any man saying I need my butt to be more perky or I need to slim down my legs. The only thing men are interested in when it comes to their lower body is to build big muscular quads and calves.
What I’m saying is that we can’t expect to reach our goals if we follow workouts that were put together by men for men. I used to do a lot of workouts based around exercises that would target your upper body more then necessary, while neglecting the important parts like my butt and legs. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we should avoid challenging upper body exercises, not at all. We just have to find the right ratio and balance so that we can reach OUR goals. I started implementing this strategy into my new workouts a while ago and so far I’ve been proud of the results. Rule number one, always include exercises for your butt and legs and make them the staple of your training. Rule number two. Stick with full body workouts that include cardio and abs. No woman should ever waste her time by splitting her routines into upper body, or arms and chest days. Unless you are a bodybuilder of course. So let’s embrace our female curves, and get on the right path to reach our goals!!
Big hug,
Z.
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*Hugs* thanks Z completely agree, you are the best!
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I agree! I´m quite fit, been training like you, Zuzka, for about 4 years, and today I have a very nice upper body and core, and not so nice lower body, even though it feels like I have worked my butt off! =D Ok, maybe it is quite nice to medium people, the frontside especially, but I would really like it to match more with my upper body. I´m going to change a bit of my training too, I´m going to put even more work on my legs and butt, and cut down upper body stuff. Hopefully it works, because I would really like to have, finally, some great glutes and hamstrings! =D
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🙂 any helpful hints for ab workouts such as ab splitters? I notice it is very uncomfortable on my tailbone. I’ve tried to really focus on form but still have a hard time. I have resorted to doing standing ab work instead. Any hints?
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I love it. Im gonna add it to my routine. How heavy kettlebell do you normally use please?
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Sorry, but I totally disagree!
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Exactly!
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Me too! Don’t fear the heavy weights!
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I couldn’t agree more that learning is a limitless part of life and is what makes being human so interesting. You wrote a post a while back about curiosity that I loved. However, I disagree with you on some things and would love to hear more of your take on this.
From what I’ve studied, learned and experienced myself, isn’t it best to focus on a balance of working all muscles in your body? I agree that men stereotypically focus more on their upper body, but this doesn’t mean they could also do with working their legs, glutes, abs, etc. Shouldn’t women get an equal amount of upper body workout rather than focusing primarily on legs, butts and abs? There’s also the misconception that women shouldn’t or needn’t be lifting heavy weights because they don’t need “big muscles” in their upper bodies. I’m pretty sure that unless you have genetics that predispose you to gaining muscle mass in your upper body or you’re consuming insane amounts of protein and/or supplements it’s physiologically impossible for a woman to have very muscly upper bodies.
Reading back over the last part of your post, I realize that you’re not saying to neglect upper body strength and that full body workouts including abs are important. I do like it when your exercises incorporate upper body work and I hope you’ll continue to provide full body workouts that aren’t predominantly lower-body.
I also want to add that I don’t not intend for this to be an argumentative or critical comment. I love your site, your workouts (I’d NEVER go back to upper/lower or individual muscle splits, especially after discovering your site and realizing that hour-long gym workouts are not important) and your blog posts. I really do appreciate it and I’ve learned a lot from you!
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Great post! I’ve noticed a significant improvement in my body since the Lifted Butt Series and my upper body was not neglected ! Love that your workouts incorporate the whole body even when there’s emphasis on legs and butt .
Thanks for all you do , definitely learned a lot from you regarding exercise and nutrition .
You’re inspiring, creative, have a great positive attitude and emanates beauty from the inside out !
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i haven’t seen before a woman that fits in her outfit at every workout and with such a perfect bodyshape, though i’ve been modeling for some years. Most time you watch a fitness video women have too much muscules or they are too skinny. .You have the right balance i think and it is great that you show real time workouts.
big compliment for your sympathetic attitued and for your body. U are doing your job great and you are a real inspiration.
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Zuzka – your body is out of this world!!! amazing! love your workouts!