Warining: Female Fat Loss secret exercises below…

I never want you to waste your time in a workout. Ever. You have a million things to do everyday, so you cannot afford to waste time doing the wrong exercises in your workouts. You don’t have time to waste doing silly things like crunches and bicep curls (yes, these are both lame exercises you should NEVER do!)

I want to make a deal with you – I will tell you what to do and you just simply do it. Ok?

When it comes to working out you must: GET IN THERE, WORK HARD, GET OUT. . . in as little time as possible, deal?

Best Female Fat Loss Exercises

If you were to ask me the best exercises for moms to burn fat, build lean muscle and tone your problem areas, I would recommend these 4 female fat loss exercises (yes, regardless of where your problem areas lie). In fact, I will let you in on a little secret. . . these are the best female fat loss exercise choices for women’s weight loss and baby belly fat loss.

These exercises will allow you to build more lean muscle throughout your entire body, so you lose fat in all your trouble zones. There is no such thing as spot reducing. So don’t waste your time trying. Do these 4 exercises and do them well.

Now, before I share these exercises, you need to promise me that you will listen to my advice. You will stop doing ridiculous bicep curls and do these exercises – even when you don’t really feel like it. I do these exercises even when I don’t feel like it, because they give me the best results. In fact, these exercises make up the core of all my strength training workouts, as I ONLY do exercises that promote muscle toning and fat loss for women.

These female fat loss exercises can be modified for brand new women exercisers, postpartum workouts (with your doc’s permission), and intermediate/advanced female gym rats. They pertain to every women’s workout program, regardless of age, weight, shape, size.

I’m going to tell you each exercise and why it’s amazeballs. Then, you’re going to incorporate it into your routine THIS WEEK, right? Remember, we had a deal. If you’re not going to keep up your end of the bargain, go do some crunches and email for help in a year, when you still can’t see your abs.

Top 4 Fat Loss Exercises for Female Fat Loss:

1. Squats:
Squats use all the biggest muscles in your legs: quads (front of the legs), hamstrings (back of the legs, ahem…cottage cheese zone), and glutes (your bum). Additionally, in order to squat with proper form you must use and engage your low back and core – BONUS! Clearly, squats rock because they use so many muscle groups at one time, allowing you to get a ton of bang for your buck. You will see this theme in all these exercises.

I do not believe in doing exercises that only work one muscle group. To maximize your time in the gym, you must do exercises that incorporate as many muscle groups as possible.

2. Lunges:
Lunges are a gift. Yes, a gift that you may feel for days as you lower your heiny to the toilet. A gift that keeps on giving, if you will. Lunges use all the same muscles as squats (quads, hammies, glutes) AS WELL AS your adductors (inner thighs), your abductors (outer thighs) and your gastrocnemuis (calves). I know what you’re thinking. And you’re right, they really are a magical gift. In addition to using pretty much every muscle in the leg, your core has to work like crazy to keep you balanced as you lunge. There are a million variations of lunges, which makes them all the more lovable and exciting, and each one challenges your balance to some degree. That is what makes you stand up tall and engage your core like no tomorrow so you don’t have to waste your time like those less educated gym dwellers around you who are do a million god forsaken crunches.

Ever notice how squats and lunges make you breathless, tired and maybe a little woozy? That’s because your body has to work overtime to repeatedly fire all it’s biggest muscles (your leg and bum muscles.) So your heart rate skyrockets (hello, climbing metabolic rate!) and you start to sweat a bit (hello, extra credit cardio!!!) This is how means your strength training session has now become a cardio session. More magic for you! You’re welcome.

3. Push Ups:
Ok, stop wincing. Push ups may be my favorite exercise. Yes, I’m a little sick in the head. And you will be too, sooner than later. Push ups work your chest muscles, your shoulders and your triceps. They also make your core fire like crazy so you can stay strong and supported in position. But, most importantly, they give you KILLER arms. Be honest, some things just come down to vanity. I once complimented a shoe saleswoman at Nordstrom on her arms (I’m sure she thought I was hitting on her.) You know what she told me? “I do three sets of 15 push ups every morning while I’m getting ready for work.”

Push ups are another perfect example of an exercise that works multiple muscles groups at once, maximizing your gymtime efficiency. But the real reason I love push ups is they make me feel strong and empowered. To put it simply, they make me feel like a badass. And I think feeling like a badass is one of the most important reasons in the world to workout. How many things do you do everyday that make you feel strong, capable, and powerful? Probably not that many. Mastering push ups gives you all those feelings.

Sure you may need to start out on your knees and work your way up to your toes. So what?! You’ll get there. And when you do, you may cry. I did. Confession: when I started school to become a trainer, I could not do one single push ups on my toes. I had a complete break down over this one day with my teacher. My young, super hot, super nice teacher who definitely thought I was ridiculous as I insisted I could not do one push up on my toes. He made me try and mid-attempt, I crumbled to the floor, by way of something like a belly flop, into a heep of tears. One of my finer moments.

But, I kept trying, making push ups a part of most of my workouts in spite of my strong disdain. Now I do them all the time BECAUSE I CAN. They make me feel strong and capable and powerful. You just can’t beat that feeling.

Oh, and PS – there are a million variations when it comes to push ups (hands closer together, further apart, staggered, slower, faster, one hand on a medicine ball, toes on a bench, hands on a bench, hands on a BOSU…)

So, because we have a deal, you will do push ups. You will thank me later. Promise.

4. Pull Ups:
Whoa now! Before you stop reading and break our little deal, just hear me out. Pull ups are the exercise of all badassery for women. They put push ups to shame. They are incredibly difficult, given women’s smaller upper body musculature. No worries, though, as there are a ton of ways you can make them doable for you. Before I tell you how, let me tell you why they rock.

Pullups use all the large and small muscles of your back (lats, traps, rhomboids), your biceps (which is why you never have to do bicep curls again) and shoulders. Plus, your abs have to work like crazy to get you into a full pull up. There’s no way around it. The sorest my abs have been in the last two years was after doing pull ups. See – I told you to stop doing crunches! Just like the other exercises listed above – pullups give you major muscle bang for your buck!

I know pull ups are really intimidating and overwhelming – I mean, c’mon, push ups made me cry, how do you think I ever tackled pull ups?! Long story short: an old boss bullied me into making peace with pull ups and making them a part of my life. I made it my mission in life to prove him a complete jerk (mission accomplished) and prove to myself that I deserved to strong and powerful. There are still (many) days when I struggle with pull ups. But I do them every single week, usually in two separate workouts. Sometimes with assistance, sometimes not. Just depends.

Click here for a pull up video I made posted for you awhile back.

If you’re in a gym doing pull ups, you can use the weight assisted pull up machine. That will help you learn to recruit and fire all those big back muscles. You can also use heavy lat pull downs to start to get used to pulling a lot of weight with your back muscles. If you’re at home and you have a pull up bar (here’s the one I have at home), you can put a chair out in front of you and put one foot on the chair. This allows you to push a little through your foot/leg as you pull yourself up. Lastly, you can use bands on a pull up bar (at home or in the gym). This is what I do most often, so I can get bigger sets of pull ups. The bands wrap around any bar and allow you to get the full range of motion. They also make you feel very strong and powerful, like you have been initiated into the Pull Up Club of Badassery.

In any of these female fat loss exercises, don’t be afraid of your own strength. Now, don’t go crazy and hurt yourself. But you should challenge yourself as you master the moves and add weight. This is how you build lean muscle that will help you burn fat round the clock.

Here’s how you can use these exercises as part of a full body workout:

Squat x 10-12
Lunges x 12 per leg
Push Ups x 10-20
Pull Ups x 6-12
Repeat x 3 rounds
Choose a weight that is challenging enough that you struggle to complete your last few repetitions.

If you enjoyed these 4 female fat loss exercises, check out my Tabata Workout video for an amazing female fat loss cardio workout.

Oh, and be sure to click the little “Like” button if you found this information to be helpful!

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