Abs & glutes everyday?

StormWarrior

Are your abs and glutes just like every other muscle; ie you should leave a day or 2 in between training sessions? Or can you work them every day? This is for a girl so my ab/glute toning exercises are not overly strenuous.

Al_Fernz

It really depends on a number of things OP.

What routine are you doing and what results are you seeing?

If you are looking for a toned physique your diet will be an important factor.

StormWarrior

I'm looking for fat burn and a bit of toning. I'm doing weights for every other body part. For abs & glutes I have a workout video consisting of various different kinds of crunches, donkey kicks and stuff like that. It doesn't say whether to do it every day or not. Diet-wise I'm mainly eating chicken, prawns, fish, wholegrain porridge and rice, coconut oil and lots of veg. Do you have any suggestions?

Oh and of course I'm doing cardio for the fat burn, mainly hiking, kickboxing aerobics & stuff like that, and yoga to relax.

Al_Fernz

StormWarrior wrote: »

I'm looking for fat burn and a bit of toning. I'm doing weights for every other body part. For abs & glutes I have a workout video consisting of various different kinds of crunches, donkey kicks and stuff like that. It doesn't say whether to do it every day or not. Diet-wise I'm mainly eating chicken, prawns, fish, wholegrain porridge and rice, coconut oil and lots of veg. Do you have any suggestions?

Oh and of course I'm doing cardio for the fat burn, mainly hiking, kickboxing aerobics & stuff like that, and yoga to relax.

Don't be afraid to say that you're looking to build a little muscle! You don't have to call it "toning," to make it sound feminine;)

I'm not sure if I can say that it is ok to train using routine in this video everyday. However, I think it is possible for you to achieve your goal without performing exercises to stimulate growth in these regions everyday.

Its good to hear you have your cardio sorted. Keep this intense and this will help to burn bodyfat. Resistance training will help build muscle (or assist in giving you the toned look). What is your resistance training like? You said you are working all major muscle groups? This should include your glutes and abs to some extent, so I wouldn't say that you particularly need extra training for this area on a day to day basis to help you achieve your goal.

StormWarrior

I don't mind developing a bit of muscle, but I have a slight hormone imbalance and develop muscle more easily than most women. I want to reduce my overall size. When I started university I was a size 6/8, but for the past 2 years have been pigging out non stop on junk food (us students are lazy) and to my horror realise that I now need size 12 jeans. So I wanna get back down to a 6/8.

Do you think my diet sounds ok? I'm aiming to eat a half-sized meal every 3 hours. Do you think high intensity cardio is better for fat burn than trying to stay in the "fat burning zone?" For resistance I do stuff like incline bench presses, lat pull downs, squats, leg curls, etc. Just the usual stuff, although my local gym is a bit lacking in equiptment, I usually have to try and do most stuff with dumbbells.

Do you think my diet sounds ok?

Al_Fernz

StormWarrior wrote: »

I don't mind developing a bit of muscle, but I have a slight hormone imbalance and develop muscle more easily than most women. I want to reduce my overall size. When I started university I was a size 6/8, but for the past 2 years have been pigging out non stop on junk food (us students are lazy) and to my horror realise that I now need size 12 jeans. So I wanna get back down to a 6/8.

Do you think my diet sounds ok? I'm aiming to eat a half-sized meal every 3 hours. Do you think high intensity cardio is better for fat burn than trying to stay in the "fat burning zone?" For resistance I do stuff like incline bench presses, lat pull downs, squats, leg curls, etc. Just the usual stuff, although my local gym is a bit lacking in equiptment, I usually have to try and do most stuff with dumbbells.

I can't really pass too much judgment on your diet because you never posted a typical day's eating. However, I think that the foods you listed are all good and you have the right idea in terms of not starving yourself, eating regularly and not pigging out on junk food.

I am a big fan of continuous assessment (You probably have enough of that at college!). Make sure you keep assessing what you are doing and keep doing the things that work and scrap the things that don't. Keep making small changes to your diet and training.

For example, if you are not happy with your fat loss after 2 weeks then you may wish to cut back on a small snack or carb heavy foods after a certain time of the day. See how this works and then re-assess your progress after two weeks again.

A journal or log is a really good idea for tracking your progress.

Apply the principal of continuous assessment to your training also. It has been shown that cardio with high intensity is better for fat loss. However, I don't think it really matters for you. Pick something you like doing and will stick to. Make sure you work hard and you will reap the rewards. Again keep the stuff that works for you. If you are unhappy with your progress extend the length of your cardio sessions, up the intensity etc.. Make small changes and keep assessing.

Make sure that your form is good while weight training. Don't be afraid to lift heavy either - you won't turn into Arnie if you do! If you lift heavy loads it will make sure your sessions are more intense, therefore helping you burn more calories as well as providing your muscles with some stimulus for growth. A win-win kind of situation. Squats and lunges will help your glutes develop so I would make sure to include them.

StormWarrior

Is 2 weeks long enough to tell whether it's going to work or not? How should I check my progress, should I just take my measurements every week or weight myself? The gym here doesn't have any state of the art equiptment to use for measuring fat loss.

I always worry my diet isn't right, because when I was eating junk food I could eat loads. Eating healthy stuff seems to fill me up so much faster I always worry I'm not eating enough now. I'd say over the course of the whole day I would have a couple of chicken breasts, a packet of prawns, a couple of eggs, and about 4 cupfuls of carbs plus veg. But I really have no idea when it comes to diet so I don't know whether this is ok or not.

I try not to make my cardio workouts too intense because I had shin splints a few years ago and they sometimes flare back up if I do too much jumping around.

Also do you think calorie cycling is worthwhile?

Al_Fernz

Weighing yourself, measuring body parts and or using bodyfat calipers are great ways of measuring progress. G'em wrote a very useful blurb about measuring progress in the Beach Body Summer Challenge sticky.

No need to over think your diet. Cut out high sugar and high processed junk food and see where that gets you.

If doing a certain kind of exercise causes pain then do something else. Just make sure to do something!

kevpants

StormWarrior wrote: »

I have a slight hormone imbalance and develop muscle more easily than most women.

So freekin jealous. Wish I had a hormone imbalance...