Legs Again ~ Build your FAT Furnaces!
Day 23- “Sizzlin’ in 6″…LEGS again!!! Build your FAT FURNACES!!!
See the week 3 and 4 workout download for details~ http://blog.buffmother.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Weeks-3-and-4.pdf
This morning I commented on a blog about slow weight loss and that inspired me to talk more about MUSCLE today:
here is my comment~
“Weight loss is always hard, but I do agree it’s harder with age. Do you know why? HORMONES~ not just the estrogens and progesterone ones, but the ones that are typically thought of as MALE hormones: testosterone and growth hormone. Those are stimulated to be released when you do certain types of exercise= Lifting heavy and intense anaerobic or lactic acid cardio…and also through diet, for example when you go from a fasting state (buffing) to a higher caloric intake (boosting). I know that in my own fitness when I focus on stimulation my body’s “anabolic” hormones, I can get LEAN!!!
Keep working hard and remember to work WITH your hormones and you will see you body respond!
-M”
And here is an EXCERPT from one of my articles about building muscle that BURNS FAT:
How do I go about building muscle?
Muscle in women deteriorates at almost every stage of life. This is why we must weight train!!!!
Weight training rebuilds your lost muscle and therefore rebuilds your metabolism. BuffMother!’s weight training philosophy is based on:
- The Basic Big three
- Challenge
- Change
The Basic Big Three:
What do I mean by the big three? There are 3 larger main muscle groups of the body and my lifting program is centered around them. Metabolism will be affected most if these 3 muscle groups are emphasized since they comprise the majority of the muscle mass on our bodies. The basic big three are your legs, chest and back.
1. Legs (and butt)
Leg muscles are the biggest strongest muscles of our body and in order to have a great metabolism you must not neglect lifting with these potential “fat furnaces”. The vast majority of women don’t realize how strong and powerful their legs can be without getting bulky. I understand that most women have a fear of lifting with their legs because they often carry a higher amount of fat in their legs and therefore fear adding bulk to their lower half through strength training. As women we don’t have the levels of testosterone necessary to build big bulky muscles! So don’t think that if you lift with your legs you will make them significantly bigger. Initially a small amount of muscle growth will occur and before you start loose your fat on top and inside of this muscle, you may notice a slight size increase, but this is temporary. You will soon notice how your legs gain new shape, firmness and a leaner appearance. All of which is caused by these muscles becoming more active and therefore burning more fat!
Let’s talk about the area that all women are concerned about, your butt. It must be dealt with head on. Meaning you must make a huge concentrated effort to reshape the behind that inactivity and age has destroyed. Butts require squats and lunges!!! Lots of them and with weight. No amount of donkey kicks, step-ups, abduction or adduction exercises will do the significant work that must be done in order to reshape your butt. These exercises are great auxiliary ones and are helpful initially and in complementary sense to a leg weight training program, but on their own they will not do much. Legs and butts are strong muscles so in order to change their looks we have to challenge them. This requires using heavier weights and intense contractions.
Most modes of cardio or aerobic exercise utilize the legs. These exercises do great in toning the muscles of the legs that are used during these aerobic sessions. However, they don’t hit all the muscles of the legs and butt and for the most part they don’t build them. Instead they are what we call catabolic. This means they lead to the breakdown of these muscles. For instance look at a marathon runner. They look sickly. They are some of the most aerobically in shape people and they do a lot of working out with their legs, but there muscles are tiny and they have gross butts. So let’s take a lesson from this. Aerobic exercise is very important for health issues, for stress relief, for conditioning the muscles we have, but bad at building muscle! Strong, active leg and butt muscles burn fat!
2. The Chest
I don’t mean your mammary glands. I am talking about your pectorals. The muscles all women need to embrace. I’ve been there. Pregnancy and breast-feeding do nasty things to a woman’s breasts. The looks of a woman’s breast goes beyond the mammary tissue, it lies underneath in the pectoral muscles. Remember what I had said about pregnancy robbing our bodies of muscle. This means the muscle that once lifted our breast now is gone, and it too needs to be rebuilt. If you want to give yourself a natural breast lift, build up your chest! It will not only help those saggy boobs, but also Boost your metabolism! Strong ,active chest muscles burn fat!
3. The Back
Oh, I forgot about you back there! Most women are absolutely unaware of the huge potential fat burning muscles they have on their back. Our backs are full of muscles. There are tons of them holding our spine, ribs and shoulders in place. These muscles are very important to our health. How often do we hear about back and neck pain? Unfortunately it is rampant. I truly believe that weak back muscles cause much of the pain. Lifting with your back requires proper form and extreme focus on the muscles you are working. Strong, active back muscles burn fat!
And don’t forget- you must challenge yourself if you want to see change, Challenge = Change…
Challenging yourself:
Muscles are very smart. If challenged to the limits of their capabilities they realize that they need to rebuild themselves even stronger. Then when faced with that same challenge they will be able to perform at a higher capacity. This is the key to understanding your weight training program.
You must find a way to challenge your muscles. Lifting the same weight every time you perform an exercise will maintain what muscle you have, but not change them. I don’t know many people that like spending an hour in the gym to stay exactly the same. We all crave to improve ourselves. So we must challenge our muscles by lifting weights that are challenging. There is nothing complicated about it. Just make sure you find yourself slightly challenged by your lifting program. Challenge yourself.
Change it up:
Change is good. Your muscles get used to the same thing over and over again. They get bored just like you do. Boredom causes your muscle to not respond just as it causes you to not want to do your boring workout. Don’t be afraid to change:
- Try some new exercises
- Change the number of sets and reps of your exercises
- Increase or decrease your rest time between sets and workouts
- Change the order of your exercises
Just remember to keep the basic big three muscle groups as the foundation to your weight training program. Change will help you stay focused and your muscles will keep working hard to burn your fat!!!!
Here are some supplements that I have used in my quest to build fat burning muscles:
l-glutamine, l-lysine, l-tyrosine, creatine, NO2 (AKG) products, CLA, Gamma-O, DHEA, fish oil, St. John’s Wart, caffine, whey protein, casien protein, sugar free Red Bull, Lubriflex, Move Free, Gaba etc. Exactly what I take depends on how I feel, where I am at in my Hormonal Cycle and what I am trying to accomplish within my fitness goals. There is a lot of money wasted on sports supplements that are ineffective, so do your research before purchasing anything.
Legs legs legs. Will there ever come a day when I dont dread lifting legs? I know they are stronger which helps a lot but I suppose I have a mental block about leg work outs that I need to kick! Haha
Thanks for this! I need to chase the butt and legs big time! Cool thing is–it appears the more muscle I have in a certain area…the less fat there is in that area. Plus, I need more mass in these chicken legs ; )
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post, Michelle. Being a 44 year old, perimenopausal woman, with a thyroid issue, I need all the information and encouragement possible to know I’m on the right track. I have a girlfriend who doesn’t understand my desire to lift, or why I want to lift heavy. She’s all about cardio 6 days a week and tries to talk me into doing the same. I’m hoping to inspire her, and my hubby and kids, as I continue to follow the HT lifestyle and begin to see more and more positive changes in my body and health. 🙂
YES, once you see how awesome they look you’ll get addicted to it!!
You will truly see your body transform fast if you push hard to build your lower body!!
Hi Viki Im 44 periomenpausal and thyroid issues too!:-) My surgery is over with – so no phyiscial activity for 3 days then hope to get my body moving again.
I’m sure you’ll be back at it in 3 days time! glad the surgery went well…heal up!!
Great info!! Danielle…I dread legs a lot too!
I guess I’m opposite most of you … legs don’t bother me but arms are what I dread.
So I don’t watch Biggest Loser on a regular basis but I did catch the last half hour of the finale this evening. SO inspiring and exciting for the women whose lives have been changed by weight loss and fitness. I’m sure you can find it somewhere online if you need an inspirational boost!
Again, an extremely timely post. I was extremely discouraged today and really needed this. I feel like God is really trying to teach me patience and focus…I have plenty of determination! I LOVE lifting the big muscle groups. I feel like I have lots of muscle there, I just need to find it.
Great article! I am feeling that as my back improves I am able to UP my weight! I AM SO EXCITED because I know that is what will help bring change! WOOHOO!
Great information. I know i need to work my legs harder. I was in the middle of another workout program when i sighned up for this contest. I have seen results but it is a little heavy in the upper body strength. I am almost done with it. A week and a half to go. Then i think i will get back to more squats and lunges. I also know that cleaning up my diet would help. I am a chocoholic lol!
Thank you for all the insight I always enjoy learning the new things and realizing that I can be on the right track and keep at it and the results will happen