I listened to a podcast the other day and it made me think. A high level personal trainer suggested that as women who are after weight loss, we are being misled by the industry.
First, the evolving trends of what a female body should look like are ridiculous and unhealthy. On one hand we have the skinny which is not realistic and not healthy, and on the other we have those who set a goal to be a fitness model to get in shape. Both of these cause enormous anxiety for women who want to lose some fat and fit into the size of jeans they used to be in before kids. Most women don't want to look like any of these two and don't want to go through and live the life that these two images require.
But... there is a new emerging alternative, and that is the body we get by moving and dialing in our diet. There are a few female leaders now on the social scene who lead this much better way of gaining back control over our health and bodies. This is where we have to understand the difference between exercise v.s. training. Women who exercise do so to lose fat. We are talking about aerobic workouts like zumba, the treadmill, step classes and the so on. Exercise wonderfully addresses the fat loss formula; expand more calories than we consume, and we will lose fat. Exercise, however will not give the toned body that training will (unfortunately the fitness industry will try to convince you otherwise with posted images).
Training on the other hand is a more focused approach to reshaping our bodies. This way of losing fat involves a mindset shift to caring for our bodies and our health at a deeper level. Women who train will make sure that they get their sleep, their hydration, their nutrition and their workouts. These women train as a lifestyle, they pick up the weights to get strong, to look after their bone health and to get a lean physique. There is a difference between the bodies of a lady who exercises versus someone who trains. Just to mention here, I am not talking about sports people or competitors, I am talking about a more committed, more encompassing view of moving.
Another side note; women are afraid of bulking up by using weights. I am not sure why that is, since, at least to me it is clear that the people we see with huge muscles are always pictured with huge weights. They also talk about lifting every day for hours. It is impossible to get those results unless you are on an extremely strict diet and do insane amount of weights for an insane amount of time.
I totally love this way of looking at these definitions and I wanted to share them with you.
Both are fantastic way of moving, this may help you understand which way you want to go based on what body image and results you are after.
