In my previous article about anti cellulite exercise, I explained that the best exercises to get rid of cellulite are those that tone the muscles in the hips, legs and thighs. Fat is very soft tissue and does not naturally sit in a smooth or shapely fashion on the body. Muscle on the other hand, is firm and smooth and can provide shape to the legs and hips by keeping the skin taut. If too much fat is unsupported by enough muscle from underneath, the fat layer clumps together and cellulite results.
Many women do not know how to correctly utilize strength training in order to tone lean muscle in an effective way. This often ensures that women become disappointed from the results that they gain from their cellulite exercise routine. The first step is to ignore the conventional gym wisdom that is geared towards men looking to build large bulky muscles.
Instead, focus on these three muscle toning principles:
- Lifting the weights in the correct manner to work the muscles efficiently and avoid injury.
- A short workout of no more than 30 minutes that incorporates intense sets of exercises that fatigues the target muscles.
- Plenty of rest and proper nutrition between workouts to enable your body to recover.
Let look at each of these principles in a little more detail.
Correct Lifting Form
If you lift the weights in an incorrect manner then you are not working the muscles in an efficient and safe way. This means you are not getting the full potential value from your workout and are possibly setting yourself up for injury. Correct forms means lowering and raising the weight slowly, ensuring that you are not bouncing or throwing the weights. A cadence of 3 seconds on both the up and down phases is usually recommended for most exercises.
It is important that you avoid injuries at all costs. Discomfort is normal during exercise but almost everyone knows the difference between the discomfort associated with working out intensely and pain which is caused by injury or potential injury. Do not ignore any signs of pain – stop immediately and seek medical advice.
Brief But Intense Cellulite Exercise
Exercise fatigues a muscle and this stimulates it to grow. However, the effect is not directly linear. A muscle has a fatigue limit which, if it is reached, further fatiguing of the muscle will have little effect. This means that if you incorporate intensive sets that sufficiently fatigues the muscles then you will not need to spend a particular long time in the gym.
By my definition, an ‘intense set’ is one where you can almost no longer lift the weight on the last repetition – the point where if you where to do another repetition that you wouldn’t be able to complete it because your muscles are too tired. You can increase the intensity of the set by trying to complete the repetition but this is for advanced trainees only. If you are using intense sets then only 1 to 3 sets in total for a particular exercise is required. The more intense you workout, the smaller number of sets you will need.
Plenty of Rest
Muscles recover from a workout and grow while you are resting. Intense strength training as described above can tax the muscles significantly and you may not always be conscious of how taxing a workout has been. In the days following a workout, make sure you eat healthy and get plenty of sleep to give your body the right ingredients for it to recover. Also, avoid doing two intense workouts back to back. Instead, give yourself at least a day between workouts so you don’t exercise before your body is fully recovered from the previous workout.
Further Information
For women who are interest in pursuing cellulite exercise, I recommend two books.
- “No More Cellulite
” by Wayne Westcott and Linda La Rosa. This book is written specifically about how strength training can help women to reduce cellulite. Westcott’s program cab see results in just 8 weeks and requires just 40 minutes of cardiovascular, strength building and stretching exercises, performed together for 3 times a week.
- “Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great
” by Stuart McRobert. This book is one of the most complete and comprehensive guides on how to transform your body. While it is not directly written for cellulite removal, following Stuart’s advice will certainly help in cellulite elimination.
