I was taking the first set of after pictures for one of my clients, Kendra. In five weeks, Kendra has started working with me at 23% bodyfat (most girls in the gym would love to be at 23%). Now she's down to a really rockstar 19.5% bodyfat. These are the "first" after pictures, because Kendra's ultimate goal is to go to 18%.
Immediately after these pictures we did a workout that included pullups ("free" pullups, no assistance at all), pushups on gymnastics rings (much harder than normal pushups), and one leg squats (Russian Navy Seal style, not the pansy one leg squats you normally see in the gym). These are all really really hard exercises, and require a level of strength uncommon in the gym. At 19.5% bodyfat, Kendra also has a body uncommon to most girls. In fact, you'll find that most of the girls that have the strength to do these exercises are really really hot. This is not a coincidence.
Later that day, I was breaking down the workout program for one of my new clients. Like many of women when they first start doing resistance training, she was really concerned that with all of the strength work we were going to do she was going to "bulk up and look like a guy". Look, for you to "bulk up", it takes HUGE amounts of calories. Now a huge amount of calories isn't always an enormous amount of food; There are some really popular mexican food chains here that serve 1250 calorie burritos, a couple of those will do the trick. Girls that swear that they "bulk up easily" must eat huge amounts of calories Kendra, not surprisingly, keeps an extremely accurate food journal and follows her meal plan (and hits her calorie goal) perfectly 9 out of 10 meals. The tenth meal is considered a "free meal".
Fit, lean, toned girls lift heavy and hard. They usually eat somewhere about 1200-1500 calories per day. It's extremely rare to find a girl who is really lean who doesn't lift heavy and do hard workouts. It's also rare to find a girl who is really lean who doesn't keep a food log and know how many calories she is consuming per day.
By Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar.
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES),
and currently studing the Corrective Exercise Specialist (NASM-CES)˚ credential.
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC)* and Combat Applications Specialist (RKC2/CAS)
*RKC certified 2004-2006, registered to recertify 2007
˚NASM-CES will be completed 2007
© Joshua Hillis 2007
