Women's fitness and shaping methods

First figure out the body shape you really want (not to follow the trend and have caricatured legs and hourglass waist), choose training based on the characteristics of female estrogen and progesterone fluctuations, weight the diet 80% higher than the training, and give the body at least a 3-month observation period. All other methods are adjusted around these four points.

A while ago, I helped two friends adjust their body shaping plans, and I felt very deeply. One is a young girl who has just graduated. She is 165 cm and 98 pounds. She just wants to make her butt look better in jeans. She used to follow Pamela's peach butt exercises online for 15 minutes every day. After practicing for a month, her knees hurt. Her butt did not increase but her legs became 1cm thicker. I adjusted her to weight-bearing hip thrusts twice a week, and slowly increased the weight from 20kg to 40kg. After each exercise, I added 10 minutes of hamstring stretching. In less than two months, her hip circumference increased by 3cm, but her leg circumference dropped by 1cm. The other is a 35-year-old working mother who usually has to take care of her baby and work overtime, so she can’t find time to go to the gym. Her needs are to slim down the fat on her waist, lose some fat, and wear formal shirts that are not tight. I asked her to walk two stops every day when sending her baby to school, and accompany her in the evening. When my son is doing homework, he sits on a chair and does abdominal breathing + seated rowing with elastic bands. On weekends, he goes to the amusement park with him to walk more and sit less. Without deliberately controlling his diet, he replaces his afternoon milk tea with half a stick of corn. In more than two months, his waist circumference has shrunk by 4cm, and he still has room to wear the shirt he wore last year.

There are a lot of controversies about body shaping on the Internet nowadays. Some people say that you must lift weights, otherwise it will be in vain. Some people say that lifting weights will turn you into a "muscular woman", or that practicing yoga and Pilates is gentler. Some people say that as long as you walk 10,000 steps a day without doing anything, you can lose weight. In fact, these opinions are both correct and incorrect. It all depends on your needs. If you want to have obvious right-angled shoulders when wearing a suspender belt and a curved buttocks when wearing a tight skirt, you must do resistance training, and the weight must be gradually increased, otherwise the muscles will not be stimulated and will not grow. ； If you just want to stretch your body and don’t have shoulder or neck pain, wear clothes and look energetic, then Pilates and yoga are enough. You don’t even need to go to a gym, just practice at home by following reliable videos. ； If you have a relatively large base and want to reduce the weight first to reduce the burden on your joints, then walk briskly or jog for 30 minutes every day, control your diet, and you will fall off the scale very quickly.

Oh, by the way, many people ask whether aerobic exercise will cause breast and muscle loss? This is really divisive. I used to know a female powerlifter who did steady-state aerobics three times a week for 40 minutes. Her body fat rate has always been maintained at around 18%, and she has not lost any muscle mass because she eats 1.6g of protein per kilogram of body weight every day and replenishes carbohydrates before and after training. ； But another friend of mine ran for an hour a day and ate less than his basal metabolic rate. After three months of running, his chest dropped from C to B, and his aunt delayed it for half a month. So it’s really not an aerobic problem, but whether you have a good combination of diet and strength training.

When it comes to eating, many people think of boiled chicken breasts and boiled broccoli when they think of body shaping diet. There is really no need. I had a former student who ate boiled vegetables for two months in a row in order to lose weight. Then he felt like vomiting when he saw green things. My aunt stopped eating for three months. Later, I asked her to add a spoonful of peanut butter every day, and she could eat what she wanted twice a week, whether it was hot pot or milk tea. She didn’t need to control the oil, as long as her daily calories were about 300 calories less than what she consumed. Not only did her aunt come back, she also lost 8 pounds in more than two months, and her waist circumference was 5cm smaller. Nowadays, there are many dietary schools, such as Mediterranean diet, intermittent fasting, low-carb and high-protein, and even those who eat home-cooked meals normally. No one is better than anyone else. The one you can stick to for a long time is the best: if it is inconvenient for you to bring meals to work, then 16+8 intermittent fasting is suitable for you, and there is no need to count calories. ； If you have a bad stomach, just eat three meals normally, with less oil and less salt. Don’t follow the fasting trend and torture yourself.

Oh, by the way, some people asked me if there is any use in girdling my waist? There are two girls around me, one of whom is rushing to get married. She wore a corset three months in advance and wore it for 4 hours a day. Her waist size did become 2cm smaller. She looks particularly good in a wedding dress. However, as soon as she got married, her waistline went back after eating something, and she still suffered from bloating. ； Another girl never wears a corset. She does core exercises three times a week, does deadworms, and abdominal breathing. Her waist circumference has shrunk by 1.5cm in more than two months, with no side effects. So this thing depends on your needs. It can be used as a temporary emergency, but in the long run, you still need to practice. Don't believe the nonsense that wearing a waistband can permanently slim your waist.

Another point that people tend to overlook is recovery. There was a period of time when I was very busy and I went to the gym to practice every day, 6 days a week. As a result, after a month of training, my physical fitness did not change at all, and I still caught colds easily. Later I learned that women’s cortisol is inherently higher than men’s. If they are overtrained and cortisol spikes, they will not only lose muscle but also accumulate fat around the waist and abdomen. Later, I changed to practicing 3-4 times a week, no more than 1 hour each time, and sleeping 7 hours a day, but my dimensions dropped faster. You don’t have to force yourself to move during your period. If the pain is excruciating, just lie down or drink a cup of hot milk tea. The weight you lose during your period is just water, so don’t worry too much.

In fact, I have been practicing for so many years, and I have seen too many people rush very hard at the beginning. They set up private training classes worth tens of thousands of yuan and bought a cabinet of fitness clothes, but in the end they stopped going for half a month. It's really not necessary. Body shaping is a very personal matter. You don't need to compare your weight with others or who has a lower body fat percentage. It's enough if you think you look good in clothes, are in good spirits and can climb the fifth floor without gasping for breath. No matter how many methods there are, the one that you can stick to is the one that suits you best.