I am Richard Jones, head trainer and founder of the M.S.B. fitness brand here in California and now in Atlanta Ga. I am a certified fitness trainer and a nutrition specialist! I have been working out for 26yrs and i have been training majority women for the past 5 years. I believe body building does not always mean layering yourself up with lots of muscle and trying to look big and bulky like most women believe, but rather using muscle to reshape your body. My focus is more on getting females to understand the benefits of building SMALL amounts of muscle to help burn more fat on their body. My system M.S.B.stands for.... "Muscle Shapes Bodies" and it is a system that is based on the idea that muscles will shape and form a body to look anyway you choose!
Now we all know what muscles will do for a man but many do not know or understand what the right amount of muscle will do for the female body. Muscle is the foundation and second support system for the body's frame and it also gives the skin a good foundation and support base. Fat has many uncertain shapes that has holes, dimples and dents mixed in. Muscle has a greater density level than fat and weighs more per sq inch so in my program we will not be watching the weight scale as much, but focus more on the new shaping of your body.
On the show the Biggest loser , we all saw how people would lose 20 or more pounds that first week but then it goes to the normal 2-5lbs after that. The big secret most trainers/gyms use for fast weigh-loss is to get their client to lose the "water weight" first and then the client will think the trainer is amazing and leading them down the right path, then you will sign up for their 6-month course and then they got you. But later the pounds stop or slows just like the people on this years tv show the Biggest Loser. In the beginning you will throw-up more during the first week than any other week and this shock to your body(when pushed hard like the trainers on the show will do) is what drains the body of excess fluids(pounds of it). When you step on a scale and see 20lbs gone, you will think your trainer is a genius and just 3 more weeks of this and you will be back to a size 5. That is why most diet programs can offer a "Lose weight or your money back" guarantee deal because you will lose weight quickly with them but being "lighter" in weight does not mean looking better or being healthier!
Muscle helps the body look good under the soft layers of fat that women have.The pic below show that women also have muscle in the same places as men do but just a smaller version! With men we want as much of the fat gone as possible so we can show the threads and fibers of the muscle itself. With my female clients, they are not trying to look hard and ripped with veins showing. Most women just want to look firm and toned. It is the fat OVER the muscle that will still make you look soft and smooth like a woman should look so fat is really not the total enemy here but too much of it will make your body take on a whole new shape as you already know. With weight training you will just have a better foundation up UNDER the fat but still be soft to the touch on the top layer where your man touches. Think of a pillow top mattress with memory foam and a bed frame. The foam pillow top is the layer of softness but without the box spring underneath, that mattress would be soggy and too soft and would sag badly.
Muscle is your body's box spring and the bone is the frame and just as important as that combo is to the mattress set, so is it to the human body! Years ago it was taboo to think of a woman adding muscle to her frame for the fear of looking "Mannish"or "Husky". As a woman, you will not get as big as a man or get ripped like a man without drugs,but you might show off more of the muscle tone that you ALREADY have when working out and therefore making you "look" bigger than what you really are. Good example of that was Angela Bassett when she played Tina Turner for a movie role.She was not really huge, but just more cut.This is a extreme example because she probably got down to 10-15% body fat and no woman should be that low. With the right amount of fat still on you(say 20-25%) and with your new muscle, you will still have curves and the softness that makes women beautiful!
A episode of the tv show "The Doctors" supported the theory when they had Coco(the wife of Ice -T) come on and proved she did not have butt implants and showed everyone her workouts. If a woman has plenty of fat already in her butt(the 20-30% i was talking about) and then builds up her 3 major buttock muscles UNDER that fat by doing weight training ,then she will get a more plump, rounder butt that sits up higher and looks firmer. A lot of women already have fat on them in that area, but they just do not have enough real muscle mass under it to give that fat a good foundation or support for it to sit up high enough to look the way they want it to look.The goal is not to lose ALL the fat, the goal is to use muscle to give your body a better support base and to give you a smoother look.
At one training program i went to in Georgia taught us to train women using stretch bands and exercise balls and swimming only. Can u believe out of a total 4 hr class, they only had 30mins set aside for weight training teachings. Yes swimming, stretch bands,home DVD workouts and balls are all good exercise methods, but they do not shape the body, they just tone! I use muscle like i would use clay dough to shape a wooden stick figure. If I want my wooden figure to have bigger thighs then i would put more clay on that area. If I want her buttocks lifted more and rounded I would use the clay to shape it. Women can select what body part they think needs a lift and use muscle to do it with. I once trained a 240lb woman and i still had her build new muscle underneath the fat before we went into our pure fat burning stages just so she will not have that deflated look when she starts melting away the fat. She is now 201lbs,and standing at a tall 5'9, it looks really good on her frame. Its really the extra muscle we packed on BEFORE the fat loss training that is making her still weigh over 200lbs. Like i said before muscle weighs more than fat so the scale doesn't see that there is a tall, well toned solid but beautiful ,curvy woman standing on the scale!
I will not try to add slabs of muscle to your shoulders,chest or neck/traps etc, but I will increase the definition in your arms,legs and back area. A Woman's arms are the first to breakdown and turn to flab(goose arms) and the triceps(back of the arm) can begin to go in your early 30's. Think to yourself, how often do women actually use that muscle? The triceps muscle is the "push" muscle so how often are you pushing a great deal of weight during the day? The bicep muscle(front of the arm, pull/lift movement) is used everyday and even more if you have kids because you lift your kids up everyday and that is roughly 20-40lbs which is much heavier than any dumbbell I will have you lifting. Men do not have the trouble with the back of their arms like women and a big part of that is because of their sexual activity. Yes ...SEX! Most men up to age 60yrs and even older will still have sex at least twice a month! A man holding himself up during sex is a workout in itself for the triceps! Just using the arm muscle twice a month is enough to let the body know they are still needed and not to use them for back-up fuel reserve like the woman's body does to their triceps muscle.
There is one major reason why women and men do not lose weight the same and that key element is muscle mass! The problem with the men is they can be too lazy or not motivated enough to go to a gym. Or they get there and do not know what to do in order to really get the results they want. They usually quit after a month or two of not seeing results because they are working out improperly.That is where I myself(or a good trainer) comes in at.The problem with women is their lack of muscle or their "muscle to fat" ratio is so low that they do not have the extra help from the muscle like men do ,so they give up after a few weeks of working out. Their bodies has to work twice as hard to burn as many calories as a guys body does and that can be frustrating because what i have learned is that women can eat just as much food as men and sometimes enjoys food even more than men but have more trouble burning those calories. The picture above shows a female who had more fat cells on her legs with cellulite(like most women have) but after adding muscle in the right places, she now took away the cellulite by replacing fat with lean muscle mass and shaping the legs. Yes she will weigh more on the weight scale and her legs are even bigger/thicker now but look how much better and smoother her legs look!
Women need to understand that weight training does not mean lifting heavy weights to get big and strong. It means using weights to create a "load" or resistance against the body. This will also activate those special hormones in your body to help your body burn more fat. If your muscles are working more often against resistance or loads to the body , then your body will think your muscles is now needed to defend or protect itself and it will view muscle as a higher priority than fat. That is why most young people can stay lean and trim much easier without having to go to a gym. They are so active during their normal day to day life that their body values the mechanics of muscle over the benefits of fat.