Guest blogger Taylor Ryan is a NASM certified personal trainer and the head trainer of the all women’s site: The Art of Weight Lifting. Women’s fitness is her passion! Read more at her blog.
Not all exercise is created equal. We all know that running a mile burns more calories than biking a mile and that dancing burns more calories than gardening, but did you know that when it comes to strength training exercises, the same rule applies?
If you’re spending time at the gym on the weight machines, now is the time to stop. These are isolated exercises geared to work one small muscle in a designated range of motion… basically you burn very little fat and build or tone very little muscle.
The trick is big exercises that use multiple muscle groups and where you have control of the range of motion, and let me tell you, the bigger the range of motion the more calories you burn, which means the more fat you burn and the more muscle you tone up and build!
Here’s my list of the best women’s exercise moves you can do to see results!
1. Squats
2. Push-ups
3. Pull-ups or chin-ups (most gyms have an assisting machine)
4. Lunges
5. Shoulder Press
Try these moves out and then compare it to the machines. You will feel a big difference and so will your body, which will show!
The best part of these exercises is that you can add variations of the moves to keep motivated and far from boredom when you hit the gym.
Here are some ideas of what I mean:
- Instead of the standard squat do a plie squat or a split squat.
- For Push-ups you can change it up with incline push-ups, decline push-ups or even push-ups on a stability ball.
- For pull-ups you can change up the grip and lunge,s you can go reverse style, lunge walks or lunge off a stepper.
- Last, for the press there are curls to press, clean and press or the barbell press.
It’s easy to change it up when you know the variations!
Now you can stop wasting time on machines and start doing something that makes your time at the gym the most effective!
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