A Workout for Women Who Want to Be Toned

I am constantly amazed at the dearth of quality information on the internet available to women about fitness routines. The vast majority of blogs seem to be targeted at men with most of their content focusing on how get bigger muscles. I've gotten a ton of requests for information that targets women and most of the women I know are not concerned with building large bulky muscles. Most of the women I know want to have a slim, toned, yet feminine look and the truth is that does take a slightly different approach. Below I've developed a basic overview of a weekly workout schedule that women may want to consider in order to achieve that toned yet feminine look.

Weekly Workout Routine Women - Strategic cardio workouts as outlined below will help you achieve three important things:

1. These are effect fat burning workouts that will get your fat burners turned on
2. Strategic cardio will help you develop toned and sexy calves and thighs.
3. Strategic cardio will burn more calories during the week to help you lose weight

Strategic cardio should be done 3 times per week. Start with a slow, steady pace. Jog for 10-15 minutes to get your body warmed up and ready to go hard. Then do 6-8 interval sprints. Interval sprints are intense but brief sprints followed by a slow paced recovery. Sprint as hard as you can for 20 seconds and then walk for 60 seconds. If these are too difficult, then extend your recovery time to 90 seconds. Eventually they will get easier. Interval sprints spike HGH levels in your bloodstream. HGH is the hormone that tells your body to start using fat as an energy source. Once you've released the HGH by doing the interval sprints, jump back on the treadmill for a 20-30 minutes steady cardio jog. The HGH in your bloodstream will ensure that your body uses fat as the primary source of energy for this longer run. Doing workouts like this three times a week will really help get rid of any fat hiding your muscle tone.

Weight Training Workouts

We will use weight training to help firm up and tone your muscles. We will NOT be using weights to build bigger, bulkier muscles. You will want to do weight training 2-3 times per week.

Contrary to popular belief, low weight-high repetition workouts will not give you lean toned muscles. In fact, recent studies have shown that low weight-high repetition training can be just as effective at building muscle as high weight-low repetition training. To really bring out muscle tone you need to focus on strong muscle contractions, but you want to avoid too much fatigue in the muscle. It is the muscle fatigue of high repetition training that tells your muscles to get bigger. To do this, you want to focus on the 3-5 repetition range doing 5 sets for each muscle group. For example, if you want to improve the tone of your biceps then you would do 5 sets of dumbbell curls with repetitions of 5-4-4-3-2. You would want to increase the weight for each set. If you start with 10 lb dumbbells for the first set, then you would finish at 16 or 16 lb dumbbells on the last set. The first two sets should be pretty easy. The last set should take a concerted effort. Give your muscles plenty of time to recover between sets. Remember, you don't want too much muscular fatigue; you simply want your muscle to do strong contractions with heavy weights. Lifting this way will actually harden the muscle by making it more dense. By avoiding fatigue you will avoid bulky muscle growth; this is the most important tip usually missing from workouts for women.

Combined Strategic Cardio and Weight Training

If you are unable to work out more than three times per week then you can combine the weight training and cardio workout. To do so, keep your jogging warm up to 10 minutes. Then complete your weight training routine, but do not do any leg lifts. Then complete 6 interval sprints followed by 10-15 minutes of steady state cardio. This combination will allow you to reap the benefits of burning fat and improving muscle tone in fewer workouts per week.

The best workouts for women are those that teach you how to use cardio to burn fat and how to use weight training to build muscle tone. By using the above tips for establishing an exercise routine women who want to be toned will be well on their way to achieving that slim, sexy, look.

A final word on diet...

No matter how much effort you put into your workout routines, you can never outwork a bad diet. To really see the results of your hard work you need to ensure that you are not consuming more calories than you burn in a week. Check out some of my other articles for more advice on getting control of your diet.

Jeremy Koch is the author of the health and fitness blog, the Self Health Atlas. His goal is to consolidate the best health and fitness information in one place to help you develop the best diet and fitness routine for your needs. Check out his blog today at 

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