The Strength Training Critic Blog

I’ve been researching questions on here and found to lose fat, but not so much weight (I’m 5′4” and 122lbs) you need "strength training." What exactly do I need to do to lose fat in those areas? I don’t have a gym membership so I would like some creative and enjoyable things to do at home.
If strength training is only for my stomach, what can I do for my love handles and thighs?

There is no site specific way of losing fat… the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn’t true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below.

The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.

Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs… almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.

For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet… that isn’t overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.

There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat… abdominal muscles will form in the position that you exercise them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.

If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.

Aloha

i want to loose weight and tone up my body but not sure on which exercise equipment to buy (e.g treadmill, bike etc…)

I highly recommend this …

Schwinn 430 Elliptical Trainer
Love this machine! I’ve lost 8lbs in 2 weeks riding 4 hrs a week off and on WITHOUT
dieting!! It really does speed up your metabolism! No noise whatsover( I had read reviews before assembly so I knew not to overtighten leg bolts) about 2 1/2 hrs to put together, seemed daunting, but went smoothly except for line-up on one leg bolt.
finally got it to catch 40 min later!! Whewww!! Despite that,LOVE THIS MACHINE!! I find console to be accurate for time and calorie burn readings.
Signed, 45M 5-10 NOW 187lbs!! Yeah Schwinn!! Great job! TEN MORE LBS TO GO….

I bought it from…
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JF20LI?ie=UTF8&tag=aor-sale-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000JF20LI
The prices are good and FREE Shipping.
Hope you like it. Good Luck!

I’ve been recruited to be a police officer, and need to get in serious shape.I’m only 5.4" and 115 pounds, and I’m a girl. I need to be able to keep up with the guys, so I need to do some serious strength training.
I have a small child so I don’t have time to go to the gym.
What kind of strength training can I do at home to prepare for the police training?

Hi,
You can start by purchasing a simple bench, a variety of free weights ranging from 5lbs to 20lbs, leg weights that strap around your ankles 3lbs and 5lbs, and perhaps one of those rubber stretch bands. With these, you can do a complete weight workout. You can find a lot of this equipment used. If you buy a copy of Shape magazine, they have a lot of strength training/weight workouts in there and a lot of good information. I would begin by doing something as a warm up like stretching and then jogging around the block before beginning the weight workout. You should workout every other day with weights, to give your muscles time to recover; 3 days a week minimum. On the other days you can do a speedwalk, run, jog or bicycle for 30 or more minutes. Take one day a week off. Good luck! You can do it!

Haha I’m trying to burn the fat on my stomach so I can have like a six pack going on and my thighs so that they’ll be slimmer, any tips of diet, and good exercises? Thanks!

Hi,
This is the most common problem to many of us.

Follow The Tips to burn your fat quickly and safely:

Drink more water day along.

Do not go to bed immediately after your dinner.

Try separating your meals into 5-6 smaller means per day, instead of 3 large meals.

Lose the fat, keep the muscle

Have you noticed how some people look frail and formless after they lose weight? That’s because they lost muscle along with the fat. Your muscles wear out every time you exercise, and they need time to rebuild and repair torn tissues. Increase your muscle mass by eating protein-rich foods such as fish, lean meat, eggs, and legumes. The more muscle you have, the faster you can burn fat.

Find an exercise you enjoy and do more of it. If you like to ride bikes go several times a week. If you enjoy hiking get away as much as you can. Join a square dancing club. Take a second job that requires physical work. You could make extra money and burn fat at the same time.

I recommend you to explore more at http://www.squidoo.com/burnfat-feedmuscle-sixpacks

I have an old DP Fitness for Life Air Strider. I call it a stand up bicycle, since their is no seat. On it, my feet go around in a pedal motion. For my arms, I hold on to two levers (handles) that go back and forth and enable my arms to make the same motion I would make if I was running. The whole exercise seems equivalent to jogging without the impact that you would get on the ground. I really liked this machine, but it is now worn out. What do they call this kind of exercise equipment today? Where can I get a good deal, possibly factory refurbished? Thanks!

elliptical

I am a 21 year old female, I am 5′7" and weigh 160 lbs. My legs are lean and in good shape, but my only problem is I do not know how to target the area between my thighs at the very top of my legs – the part where my thighs touch each other. What are good exercises to burn fat in this problem area? Or will the fat in this area shrink away with general aerobic workouts? Thanks!

Use a stepping machine at the gym – or buy one for use at home.

I am trying to do to the gym and do some strength training. I know you body needs to time to recover between exercise. How often should I be going? Everyday at the same time? Every other day? Twice a week? I am not trying to get really muscular ( I am a woman) just want to be a little stronger and look a little better. Also dumb question but how long does it normally take for visual results? I am very weak right now, some of the machines I have to do with no added weight.

If you work your entire body while at the gym, meaning legs, arms, back, chest, etc you should go every other day. Lifting weights creates miniscule tears in the muscle fibers that need at least 48 hours to regenerate. Now, if you only like to lift say, arms one day, and legs another day, then you can go every day. Lift your arms on monday,legs on tuesday, arms on wed, and so on…. What I am basically getting at is that it is not healthy for your body if you dont give whatever muscle group you worked at least 48 hours of rest before working it again.

As for visual results, that all depends on your lifestyle and genetics. If you have a high amount of body fat it may take a while for you to actually see the results because they may be masked by fat that you need to burn first. Also, if it is just genetically hard for you to build muscle, that may make it take longer as well. In general, I’d say to give it 3 months of consistent weight training and then you should see results.

Hope this helps!!

How do i burn the fat on my stomach to make my abs show but not lose potential muscle mass or fat in other places? If this is possible is it ok to do it the days after you weight train?

Since we cant spot reduce body fat the only way to get rid of fat in any specific areas is by lowering your body fat percentage which you achieve by healthy diet and exercise.
To not lose muscle never go over 60min doing cardio – do it 4-6 times a week for average of 45min
the best thing is to do cardio after weight training – you are full of energy to lift weights and can spend all thats left doing cardio
Diet is actually 80% of fat loss so you have to watch what you eat and count calories -once you get used to certain amount you wont have to count anymore -your body will feel it naturally
find daily calorie intake calculator on the net, enter all your stats and it will tell you how many calories you need a day to maintain, take off 300-400cal off that number and thats how much you need to lose.
eat 5-6 small meals a day (eat every 2-3 hours – it optimizes your metabolism)
5-8 servings of fruit and veggies a day
8 glasses of water
have complex carbs for breakfast – they give you energy
have protein (lean meat, legumes etc) for dinner – repairs muscle
dont consume foods that are made of white flour (white bread, cakes, pasta etc.), sugar loaded foods (cookies, icecream, candy etc) and nothing fried, oily.
ofcourse you can spoil yourself once in a while with a little treat:)

When one has young children (under the age of three), one obviously ends up spending a good deal of time at home & it’s difficult to get to the gym. However, most treadmills and exercise bikes have moving parts that are dangerous for small, curious toddlers. Is there home exercise equipment out there that is child-safe, or ways to better child-proof home exercise equipment you already have?

I would suggest keeping the exercise equipment in a seperate room, that is mostly off limits (such as a master bedroom, spare room, or basement) and using it at a time when you do not need to monitor your child– e.g. when it is napping. Or, alternatively, you could workout while s/he is in a playpen. It is good for you to realize that exercise equipment has many small moveable parts and are not safe for a baby.

That being said, I am sure those big exercise balls would be harmless and maybe even fun for a toddler! Yoga and aerobics are also good alternatives that do not require equipment– just a DVD!

I do a fight club type thing, and it requires strength training with heavy weight along with exercises like body weight exercises, explosive squats etc. You need an adequate amount of rest to gain any progress. So is there any way that I would be able to efficiently balance these two out?

try this
Monday & Friday

Squats 3 sets 8 to 12 reps
Bench press 3 sets 6 to 10 reps
Chins 3 sets 8 to 12 reps
Seated dumbbell press 2 sets 8 to 12 reps
Standing calf raises 2 sets 12 to 20 reps

Wednesday Arm Specialization

Standing Barbell Curls 5 sets 5 to 8 reps
Lying EZ bar Tricep Extension 5 sets 6 to 8 reps

Friday Arm Specialization

Scott Dumbbell or Barbell Curls 3 sets 8 to 12 reps
Overhead Pulley Tricep Extension 3 sets 8 to 12 reps

so work out 3 days a week, and eat