Q and A Sept 7, 2012

Shawna:
My question is about weight lifting… I used to hit the gym every single day about 2 1/2 hrs and I got so slim and fit… Then I had my second child only did exercise  3 times a week for about 1 hr.
Now my arms are thicker than they used to be. Are they just fat?
Also what can I do to make my waist line smaller? Is this even possible at all?
Thanks for taking your time to read this.
A

 

Dear A,
Thanks for your question. First off, you don’t need to train for 2.5 hours, or even 1 hour to get results. It’s not duration of the workout that counts, it’s INTENSITY.
I highly recommend my program (go figure I’d suggest that) and also Mike Whitfield’s finishers, click HERE to check it out. Finishers are super quick and intense full body mini-workouts that take 6-8 minutes that replace traditional cardio.
People carry fat in different places, its quite possible that the arm area is where you carry your fat.
You NEED to begin to resistance train again. Don’t worry that resistance training will ‘bulk’ you up, it will actually help you to trim down fat and increase muscle tone. Muscle is more dense and takes up less space.
female fat loss over 40

Here’s a reminder post of how weight training affects women if you’re worried about getting ‘big’ (you never mentioned this and I don’t mean to insult or pick on you at all, just thought it’d be easier to send you here than write it all out again).

As for your waist, I happen to be a bit boxy myself. I have a boy like figure and any ounce of fat seems to settle around my middle. I have to be very careful too. You can’t ‘spot reduce’, so even if you do abs around the clock, fat will come off where it chooses, not always the exact spot you’d like it too (for example, I’ll lose fat in my chest -egads can things get smaller?? and my face gets too thin too which makes me look ancient).

The best bet for reducing the size of your waist is to do calorie ‘expensive’ exercises like burpees, mountain climbers, HIIT along with resistance training. My program is full of both. And for variety, do Mike’s finishers too.

Hope that helps, remember it’s a marathon and not a sprint, Things won’t happen over night, but they will happen with consistent effort and nutritional modifications.

I never mentioned diet, but 80% of how you look is from what you eat. Keep this in mind. Here are a few tips in this post, click HERE and HERE.

Keep me posted on your progress and feel free to send in any other questions,
Shawna

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