Top 3 Tips for Female Exercisers

October is Breast Awareness month - and all over the country, people are joining in to educate, inform, and support the cause. Even big professional sports affiliations are lending support; such as the NFL with its donations and player adorned pink gloves, shoes and gear.

Since this month focuses so hugely on women's health, let's take a look at the top 3 tips for female exercisers:

1. Incorporating resistance training into their program.
Resistance training or weight-bearing exercise is one of the most important components of an exercise program for a woman.Resistance training has myriad benefits including promoting lean muscle tissue which helps maintain the metabolism. The greatest benefit of resistance training for women is the benefit to bone mineral density. Enhancing BMD will help to stave of conditions such as osteopenia and osteoporosis. For women, the focus should be on high-intensity resistance exercise focusing on the hips & lumbar spine, with an emphasis on multidirectional movement.

2. Train with intensity. Intensity is relative and should be appropriate to the individual's experience and fitness level, but far too many women simply train at an intensity too low to realize the full benefits of their programs. Female exercisers can use the Rate of Perceived Exertion - a self analysis method - to determine their intensity. RPE is simply a scale from 6 - 20 that provides sample levels of intensity. The exerciser rates themselves by how the exercise intensity feels to them from 6 (very light) to 20 (very hard). Female exercisers should strive for minimal intensity of 12-14 when working towards improving fitness and enhancing metabolism.

3. Focus on total body and multi-joint exercises.
I've seen woman after woman enter a gym and do this same exact routine:
- Walk on the treadmill at a snails pace for 5 minutes
- Machine Adductor
- Machine Abductor
- Machine Ab Crunch

This routine will not create results. When the goal is weight loss, this simple rule applies: the more muscle groups you use, the more calories you burn; the more calories you burn, the more potential for weight loss you create. Toning trouble spots in the hips and glutes is fine, but there are far more effective ways that offer far more benefits. Multijoint exercises like squats and lunges require more muscles to work (remember the rule) and also provide balance, stability, core use and more! They're far more effective at training the hips and combined with more moderate - high intensity cardio, give you a much needed metabolic boost and overall effect.

So remember to incorporate these tips into your fitness program for greater results and improved health. Male or female, an exercise program should be a key element of a healthy lifestyle.