It's important for women to not only perform aerobic activity on a regular basis, but also to include strength training into their exercise regimen. Whether the goal is burn fat, tone the muscles or train to become a bodybuilder, the length of time required to get noticeable results is often times less than 60 minutes per day, depending upon the training method. Typically, fat burning/toning workouts require a fast-paced 30 to 60 minute session one to three times per week, while advanced training routines require less time spent per workout, more workout days each week, fewer repetitions and much heavier weight.
Fat Burning
Women looking to build muscle in an effort to burn fat and tighten their body are on the right track. Building muscle is an efficient way to burn fat since muscle tissue burns more calories than fatty tissue does. One such way to build muscle and burn fat is through circuit training. Circuit training is type of workout that moves from one exercise to the next quickly and with little rest in between. One such circuit training routine was designed by fitness expert Stephanie Althea of MuscleandStrength.com. Her workout takes approximately 55 minutes to complete, and it includes several combinations of both weight lifting and cardio workouts. She also claims that you can burn 500 to 800 calories by completing this workout; hence the weight loss benefit. The basic idea behind Stephanie's workout and others similar to it is that you need to incorporate lighter weights, less rest in between sets, high repetitions and full body compound exercises to work more than one muscle at a time.
Muscle Toning
Somewhat similar to weight training for fat loss, muscle building routines designed for toning your muscles aim to burn fat while slightly increasing the size of the muscle. The fitness experts at WomensHealthMag.com recommend dedicating 20 minutes per day, two days a week to toning all of the muscles of the body. Their seven-exercise muscle toning routine consists of a squat/bicep curl combination, tricep dip variation/pelvic lifts, rotational lunge and shoulder press, warrior tricep extension, plank with front arm raise, sumo squat/side knee raise/side crunch combo and Swiss thigh and fly exercise. Do approximately three sets of 15 to 20 repetitions of each exercise, and spend 60 seconds or less in between sets. Muscle toning routines for women do not require too much time out of your day, and it's an important part of maintaining overall health.
Female Bodybuilding
The length of time required for women looking at entering the world of female bodybuilding can range quite a bit. While some women may opt to train for several hours throughout the day, some experts recommend actually shortening the lifting the schedule to 30 to 60 minutes per workout up to five or six days a week. Pauline Nordin of Bodybuilding.com is one such expert. Her advice to women looking to build muscle mass is to only complete eight to 10 sets per day, focusing on a specific muscle group each day. Additionally, she recommends only doing three to six repetitions for each set. In other words, use very heavy weight for each set. She says that it's okay to fail on some sets because that helps to push your body's muscle building potential to new highs.
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