The number one “concern” I hear from women when it comes to strength training is that, “I don’t want to get bulky or look manly”. Unless you start consuming really high amounts of protein, and begin dedicating almost every waking moment you have into looking like a female bodybuilder, there’s no way you’re going to get “bulky” or “manly” from eliminating cardio and focusing solely strength training that consists of compound and bodyweight exercises. It’s just NOT possible.
So now that we have a simple understanding of what it takes to look like a female bodybuilder, let’s talk about why doing hours of cardio WILL help you lose weight, but will also BURN off fat-burning muscle and actually leave you looking fat and skinny at the same time. We’ll call this “skinny-fat” syndrome.
I guarantee you know what I’m talking about.
The person you classify as not really fat, but you can’t call them fit either. They’ve managed to lose a lot of size by burning off fat-burning muscle with hours of useless cardio, and are now left looking skinny-fat.
Unfortunately, this isn’t just a problem isolated to women. I can walk into any traditional gym at any given time and see every piece of cardio equipment occupied with someone sweating their heart out so that they can see the “magic” number of calories burned pop up on the screen. Problem is, that number is almost always wrong, and anything beyond 20 minutes of traditional cardio actually begins to burn your hard-earned muscle. Not Good.
If more people understood their bodies for what they are, COMPLEX MACHINES, they could immediately see that doing the same thing over and over actually makes the machine more efficient. And the worst thing you can do when you’re trying to shed weight rapidly is allow your body to become “efficient” at doing the same routine, over and over.
The best way to get the slim, sexy figure almost every woman on the planet wants is to push your body past it’s point of efficiency. And this is going to require the use of weights (and/or resistance bands) and a much higher intensity than you’re probably used to.
It’s also going to require most of you to give up most of the pointless isolation exercises in favor of body-weight and compound exercises. You’ll see results in half the time by actually exercising MUCH less than you ever been told, and eating MORE than you currently eat.
The silver lining is that you can stop wasting your time doing cardio, and focus on doing really intense 12-20 minute workouts and spend the time you would have wasted at the gym making sure your nutrition, which is 80% of your success, on point.
