FEMALE BODYBUILDING

Female Bodybuilding Diet, Workouts and Supplements

In general, a female bodybuilding program uses the same principles as any other program...high protein diet, supplements as necessary for amino acids, nitrogen synthesis etc, and a solid workout routine.Many women worry that lifting weights and taking supplements will lead to them "bulking up" and growing muscle, leading to them looking like a female bodybuilding model or a man. The truth is, women lack the testosterone necessary to get really big muscles (women have between 1/10 and 1/40 of a man's level of testosterone). The women you see with huge muscles are taking anabolic steroids and other banned substances that effect their natural hormones. I do not recommend using any substance that changes your natural hormones, as it can have permanent side affects, especially for women.
The truth is, lifting weights and eating right will make you leaner and harder. You will not only retain your feminine look, you will look even sexier. The treadmill alone is not enough for you to look good in a bikini, resistance training and weights will get you there.
While following any normal weight lifting routine will have positive effects, I recommend a few specific exercises that are aimed at enhancing feminine features, specifically the posterior (butt, back of legs, and back) and abs.

See some motivational female bodybuilding photos.

Posterior (Butt, Legs, and Back)

There is one exercise that I recommend above all for almost all applications, and that is the kettlebell swing . It is a compound exercise, meaning it works multiple muscle groups at the same time. It is the number one best exercise for firming and toning your butt, legs, and back. Click here to learn how to do them. It will be worth your time.I recommend working out three times per week, with at least one rest day between each workout (for example monday, wednesday, and friday). Find a weight that you can do 40-50 reps in a row and start with that. Do one set of as many as you can do each workout. Really push yourself and keep going until you can't do any more. Your goal is to build up to sets of 75. Once you get to 75, move up to a higher weight.
That's it. You will see improvements within a couple of weeks. If you already have a normal workout routine, add kettlebell swings to the end of your workout. I use this exercise in all of my programs, male and female bodybuilding, weight loss, muscle building, etc. It works wonders (can you tell it's my favorite exercise?)
Butt Specific - The Glute Activation Raise
The glute raise is another good, simple female bodybuilding exercise that targets the glutes specifically. Do 20 of them before your kettlebell swings.

Female Bodybuilding - Abs

Women should work out their abs the same way guys do, with a couple small additions . The normal program consists of two (three at most) solid ab exercises, which work out the entire range of abdominal muscles. For females, I recommend the following additions:

Stretch Your Hip Flexors. A lot of women, even after they have developed a nice six pack, have a small potbelly look. This has to do with the tilt of your pelvis, not with excess body fat. Do this simple hip flexor stretch for 20-30 seconds (on each side) every day to help fix this problem. Planks Planks and side planks are a great ab exercise for female bodybuilding and women and general. Not only do they tone your abs, but they won't build muscley obliques, which can happen with some common exercises. This way you keep your feminine hourglass shape. Do one set, 30 seconds each pose. When that becomes easy, switch to one minute of each. Diet My recommended diet for females is the same as for males. Protein rich, more meals (4-5 small-mid sized meals per day), no white carbs. See my detailed diet plans . If you really want to take bodybuilding seriously and work on your muscles, see the "Program 1" diet. If weight loss and toning is your goal, look at "Program 2". Supplements Multi Vitamin I recommend everyone take a daily multi-vitamin no matter what their goals are. Hardly anyone gets enough vitamin D, which has been shown to improve everything from injury recovery time to protein syntheses. Vitamins A and K are other examples where most westerners are deficient, and getting enough calcium and other minerals is important for everyone.Protein Protein actually causes your body to burn calories to break down the protein, so adding more to your diet has a lot of positive effects. Replace your morning bagel or toast with a protein bar or shake, reduce carbs and get a protein boost at the same time. Powders and bars make it easy to add protein to your diet. Creatine If you really want to add muscle mass, as a woman you will have to take supplements. Creatine has been shown time and time again to have great muscle-building effects. Use it in two-week on, two-week off cycles. Many people will tell you creatine has side effects, it "only adds water" to your muscles, and other nonsense. I have never seen any side effects from creatine or seen any scientific research to indicate any risk. It is widely used with great success in male and female bodybuilding worldwide. Glutamine Glutamine is widely accepted in the sports nutrition world as an immune system booster. It's an essential amino acid that your body uses to synthesize protein. Many experts believe it has positive effects on the metabolism and muscle recovery, as well as the immune system. It can be combined with any other supplement. L-Glutamine combined with Creatine Monohydrate is a common supplement combo, used to emulate the effects of anabolic steroids, without the risk. One Last Note on Female Bodybuilding... I talk with many women who want help losing weight, getting a six pack or nice butt, etc. Over the course of many conversations with women about fitness and weight loss, I realized something that, as a guy, I had never really understood before. That is the immense psychological and cultural pressure that women are under to be really fit and skinny.Women are bombarded constantly with marketing and other pressure to look like fitness models, and this has a lot of negative impacts on some women. Before you dedicate your life to any kind of fitness program, take some time to decide what is really important to you. Is looking like a fitness model really going to make your life perfect? Remember, the huge majority of the people you see in ads and fitness mags use steroids and other banned and dangerous supplements to look the way they do. The truth is, that is a look that is unattainable for most people. I certainly recommend that every person should dedicate some of their week to staying fit and strong, losing weight if necessary, and meeting their fitness goals. Being in shape will improve your health, self confidence, and many other areas of your life. Just remember, you are not your weight or your body fat percentage or your waistline. Don't get obsessed or tie your self worth to your body. Always keep improving, but love yourself first or you will never be happy. Bottom line: don't get caught up in media or marketing nonsense, love yourself, make realistic goals and work hard. You will be amazed at your progress.  Kettlebell Swings Kettlebell swings are the most useful and effective exercise out there. No matter what your fitness goals are, if you can only do one exercise, do the swing. I have seen people lose massive weight using primarily this exercise, including a lady who lost over a hundred pounds. Starvation, running, and drugs? Nope, minor changes in her diet and the swing. When done correctly, it will work the legs, butt, back, and abs. It is perfect for stimulating that hormone response in your body that I talk about so often, causing your body to build muscle and burn fat. That's a good thing no matter what your goals are, whether losing weight or gaining muscle. Want a perfect ass or a six pack? The swing is your best friend. How to do it Start with a lighter weight kettlebell that you can learn with without hurting yourself, say 10lb. Starting with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width. Place the kettlebell between your feet and slightly behind you. Pick up the kettlebell with both hands and start a small swing by sitting back and then popping your hips forward as you stand up straight. Make the swing larger, keeping the kettlebell fairly close to your body. Keep your shoulders locked back and your back straight. Slouching your back puts you at risk of injury. Also, keep your eyes forward and your head up. Drag the kettlebell all the way back below your butt on the backswing.That's it! That is the most effective exercise you can do. Work it into your workout routine and you WILL see results. I recommend one set of kettlebell swings per workout, high reps (at least 50 reps in a row) for max effect. Diet Plans - Fuel For Fitness Like everything in the fitness industry, the subject of diet plans is filled with gimmicky products, marketing deception, half-truths and outright lies. Almost every adult I know has tried more than one "diet" and given up in frustration.Let me do my best to clear up some of the confusion. First of all, I do not recommend any of the fad diets or well-marketed diet programs you see on TV or in the magazines. While some of them might work, for some people, for a while, their goal is to take your money. The effectiveness of these programs is an afterthought. Please, for your own sake, ignore them. No product or package will meet your weight loss or muscle gain goals for you. While you may initially lose some weight with a popular new diet, your enthusiasm and bank account will wane before long and you will revert to your old eating habits and your progress will disappear. Instead, I recommend a series of small changes in key areas that will have the biggest effect. Use the 80/20 principle?. You will be amazed at the effect of some very small changes in your diet. Be smart and selective about the changes you make. Being over-ambitious can lead to getting overwhelmed and quitting once your initial enthusiasm wears off. Your New Favorite Holiday: The Cheat Day How about the good news first...For all of my diet plans, there is one constant, the "cheat day". This is one day, every week (I recommend Saturday), where you may eat anything and everything you want: bread, cake, beer, sour gummy worms, whatever. This is a key part of the program. Aside from giving you an outlet for your cravings, this cheat day actually helps your insulin sensitivity and keeps your metabolism in "high gear". Whether you are gaining muscle or losing fat, the cheat day will help you. Use the cheat day. Embrace the cheat day. Love the cheat day. The Golden Formula Next I will define what I call the "golden formula". The golden formula is the intersection where sound scientific principal, tested practice, and individual variation come together. Make sense? OK let me clear it up...There is such a huge body of knowledge in physiology, biology, and exercise science that scientists and experts have a pretty good idea what causes people to gain muscle, burn fat, etc. They know the mechanisms and science, the things that "should work". There is also decades of history of people testing their own methods, trying to apply that body of knowledge to get ripped, shed weight, etc and figure out what actually works. Between the two, there is consensus in many areas about the methods, practices, and diet plans that get the best results. We can take these general practices and diet plans and apply them with great results for most people. However, everyone is different. While applying the general diet gets results for the most people, slightly tweaking and modifying that diet will get the absolute BEST POSSIBLE results for you. When you take a general, effective diet plan and tweak it to fit your body and your situation, you have arrived at your golden formula. My goal is to give you the general plan, and the information you need to find your golden formula, if you want to. For most people, following a simple diet plan based on sound general principle will let them meet their fitness goals (along with following the proper workout routines , of course). However, if you want to far exceed your goals and reach the limits of your physical potential, keep in mind my concept of the golden formula. It has helped keep me motivated to experiment with new ideas and find out what really works for me. The Fundamentals I have put together a diet plan for each of my general programs. Pick the one that matches your situation, whether you are trying to lose weight or gain muscle or strength.They are all based on a few fundamental principles: According to the laws of thermodynamics, you must consume less calories than you burn through work (exercise) and heat loss to lose weight. To gain weight, you must consume more than you burn. All calories are not equal. Adjusting the percentages of fat, protein, and carbs in your diet will have huge effects on the effectiveness of your diet. Protein is good! Weather you are losing fat or building muscle, a high protein diet is critical. Record everything! This isn't so much a principle as a good piece of advice. No matter what your diet goals are, recording your eating habits will keep you honest and pay off big time. Use a free calorie counter to make your life easier.I will explain in more detail for each of my recommended diet plans, but those are the basics. Keep them in mind. Now, decide which category you are in and select the diet plan that fits you: Program 1: I want to build muscle. Program 2: I want to lose weight.