This section is very important. Most people avoid weight training because they think dieting and cardio is the answer. Remember the more muscle you place on your body the more body fat you lose and the faster your metabolism works. I also would like to clear up a myth for all the women out there, weight training will not make you larger. Women do not have the testosterone that men do. We are estrogen based. Have you ever seen a skinny or average size female and when you look at them they have lots of fat and no muscle. Those are the people who have never weight trained and as they age a lot of health problem will arise. Weight training helps with your bone density as you age. Weight training can help control your body fat, which in turn prevent further medical problems in the future. Now remember what I told you earlier the number two cause of death is obesity, the number one cause of death in the United States is heart disease. Yes some of those heart problems are genetic, but a lot could be prevented by having lower body fat, by living a healthy lifestyle.

There are many factors that can contribute to how your body type will respond to weight training. For instance, genetics plays a large part. If someone carries a lot of body fat in their abdominal area, they have to be patient and wait till they place muscle on other areas of there body in order for them to lose their stomach fat. The combination of weight training, eating healthy and cardiovascular training will help them reach their goals. In the gym when someone approaches me about losing in a certain area, I explain to them there is no such thing as spot reducing.

Other components that may contribute in the way your body responds to weight training are gender, sleep, stress, alcohol, and as a reminder - dietary intake.

To start off, let me explain: we all have three different muscle fiber types. We have Type 1, which is our slow twitch muscle fiber. We have Type 2a which is built with a combination of anaerobic and aerobic exercise. And we have Type 2b, which is our fast twitch anaerobic muscle fiber. Depending on our goals, we want to hit all the different muscle fibers at different stages in our training.

There are four different types of resistance training goals. The first one is Muscular Strength. This stage is high intensity which will help recruit your fast twitch muscle fiber. This stage is for someone who needs to place muscle on their body. The repetition is less than six reps and three sets. The recovery time between sets is three to five minutes.

Another stage is the muscular endurance stage. This is a low intensity stage that Recruits Type 1 muscle fiber. This stage helps in caloric expenditure. This is a lot like cardiovascular training. This stage is usually twelve to fifteen repitions, for two to three sets. The Recovery time is usually thirty seconds.

The most important stage that most women neglect is the hypertrophy stage. This hits your Type 2a muscle fiber, which will help you lose body fat and speed up your metabolism. Women who complain about not having definition or their metabolism being slow have not ever entered this stage of training. The sets required to achieve hypertrophy are between three to six sets of 12 repetitions. The rest time is thirty seconds to a minute and half. You should feel like you could not do another rep by the time you hit repetition number twelve.

The last stage is Muscular Power. This stage recruits Type 2a and Type 2b muscle fibers. It is usually a multi-structural joint movement. There are one to two repetitions and three to five sets. The recovery time is two to five minutes.

Depending on your training goals, that will be how you choose which stage you should be in. If you are in it for fat loss, follow the routines I have designed for you. We will be staying in the Muscular Endurance and the Hypertrophy stage. So continue on to page 2 and see the exercises and learn the range of motion. Try not to forget to use my helpful tips.