As a trainer, the greatest reward is watching a client transition from physical self-depreciation to full blown love-the-skin-you’re-in mindset. Many people–most especially women–begin their journey to physical fitness with less than loving feelings about their bodies.

Ask a group of average women to name a favorite part of their body and most will respond with “my eyes,” “my toes,” or even “my hair.” The most common response will be a perplexed shaking of the head because most women do not like their bodies!

As women begin to see the positive changes brought about by diligent exercise, they also begin to like their bodies. This inevitably manifests itself with better posture and more attention to dress and hair styles. I’ve seen many women lose only 5-10 pounds, but feel so good about the positive direction their body is taking that they appear 10 years younger and 20 pounds lighter in how they dress and carry themselves!

Therein lies the “secret” to losing inches in seconds: posture! Stand in front of a mirror relaxed, now tuck in that pelvis, shoulders back, hold your head high and elongate the trunk. Presto change-oh! You’ve eliminated inches from your appearance and your back is probably sighing in relief!

Posture is a habit: a good one or a bad one. If you slump, you are most likely compacting your precious spine. If not for vanity, practice good posture for back health! Ideally, when you stand your ears, shoulders and hips should all align. Yoga is my favorite exercise for better balance and posture, followed by Pilates and Tai Chi.

Laura Dayton

A friend emailed the other day. She’s hit her 50s and said ‘enough is enough’ and joined a small boutique club offering personal training. Having spent two days balancing on one leg, lifting light weights on the Bosu and creating giant arcs overhead with a ball she wanted to know my opinion of “core” training.

Core training should be part of everybody’s exercise program. It helps improve balance (something that diminishes with age) and may prevent back pain and injury, which if you live long enough eventually be on your list of physical ailments. However, I don’t believe it should take up your entire workout!

Twenty or so years ago I remember looking around the club and seeing at least 20 stairclimbers, all being used and some with waiting lists. I recall Cory Everson telling me how the stairstepper contributed to that “dimple” on the side of her glutes. Just this afternoon I looked around my club’s 50+ cardio machines and counted four steppers, off to a corner, and all collecting dust.

That’s the way of the fickle fitness world, I told my friend. Today’s buzzword is “core” and no trainer wants to look like they aren’t abreast of the latest trend.

My friend wasn’t seeking a glute dimple–she would be happy if she could see a little flexion in her backside again! What she really needs is a basic weight training program to build strength and bone density, some tips on using the heart monitor to get more fat burning out of her cardio, and a good flexibility cooldown.

As for core, I told her to get a stability ball and sit on it at her desk. As for those exercises she’s already learned at the club, do them at home on small balance board during the TV commercials. But when she’s paying for the time she spends in the club she should be using the cardio and weight equipment that isn’t suited to home use.

Core is excellent, but let us trainers not forget that a 50+ year old woman coming to a club deconditioned is most likely looking for fat loss and better mobility and strength. Get a handle on that, then impress her with your knowledge of core movements.

I told my friend to tell her trainer what she wants. It’s no different than telling your doctor what you suspect and requesting the tests you want, then taking the next logical step forward. Developing baseline skeletal muscle strength should precede fine-tuning the torque muscles of the torso. Just ask your mechanic: if the tires of the car are deflated who cares if the timing is correct?

I’ve had lots of feedback on why my book doesn’t cover men, and chants for MOW: Men Only Workouts! Give me a break! Nearly every workout ever written in the past 100 years is from a male perspective, even if a few of them use women models.

Let’s take a historical look. As we neared the 1900s, a circus in Ireland became the first venue to allow women to compete in a physical challenge of athletic skill. It  was a 100-yard dash held in August of 1891. Before you congratulate Ireland for its forward thinking, you should know that in 1898, the circus bowed to religious and political pressure and discontinued the race. It wasn’t until after world War II that women’s athletics was allowed in Northern Ireland again: Southern Ireland managed to keep it outlawed until the 1960s.

As for the Olympic games, they remained male-only until 1928 when, in Amsterdam, women were finally admitted as track and field competitors. the longest event was the 800 meters, won by L. Radke of Germany, who broke the finish line with her fellow competitors at her heels. Several of the women were so exhausted from their effort they collapsed after the finish, much like men had done thousands of times before. However, the Olympic officials were horrified and shocked to see these “frail” women fall on their field. Immediately, the all-male Olympic committee removed the 800-meter race, leaving a 100-meter race as the only track event for women.

A small but exceptional group of women paved the road for all women to be accepted as athletes and to begin exercising with the same facilities, equipment and gear men have enjoyed. Mildred “Babe” Didrikson (1932 Olympian), Florence Chadwich (first woman to swim the English Chanel), Maureen Connolly and Billie Jean King (tennis), Dorothy Hamill and Peggy Fleming (figure skating) are among the women who opened the doors for women to become athletes and begin training with weights and other serious equipment, previously deemed for men only.

That’s when I entered the scene, and I can tell you that the first women bodybuilders in the 1970s trained on men’s programs. They trained using men’s philosophies. They also trained using male steroids . . . well, we all know what happened to those dubbed the “ladies of the eighties.” My latest book is damage control for those times and designed to re-introduce the average public to the necessity of strength training for women of all ages.

I feel there is a gap in strength training programs geared for the average woman. Sure, on most athletic fields basic strength training is good for the goose and the gander. WOW: Women Only Workouts is a book and exercise approach written for women who want to look their best, not set athletic records.

In the same way that I see a void for serious strength training workouts for the average and aging woman, I still see a void for an approach to diet that makes sense to men. Come on guys, you must be sick and tired of all these books about salads, grazing, carrot sticks and “thinking thin!” Maybe I’ll get my brother to cover that with me in a future book!

Our strength training literature is not very enlightened. My brother’s Chi Mind Control book is still selling after 35 years because it was the first to bring a mental mindset to weight training. My WOW book brings a woman’s perspective to strength training in a manner a world apart from the bodybuilding attitudes of the 1970s and 1980s.

Trends in physical fitness continue to move toward core training–Pilates and Bosu reign supreme–while progressive resistance training is falling further from the front. We would be a more fit and healthy nation if everyone–men, women–could embrace and practice a regular program of strength training combined with challenging cardiovascular exercise.

Our bodies are low-tech: they do not need high tech solutions. Let’s all get back to the basics of movement and embracing effort! Anyone who has hit a personal best or crossed a finish line knows that kick of exhilaration such physical effort brings on–this is the mindset everyone needs when they approach exercise if they are going to see results.

I say pass on the passive and bring on some effort–what I call the Ugly face–back to exercise! You guys already know this, that’s why we need a WOW: women only exercise approach!

Laura Dayton

Laura Dayton

New, revolutionary and improved methods to lose weight and build a beautiful body are introduced every day in magazines, books and DVDS. I know, I introduce many of them.

So why are Americans more out of shape than at any other time? Can women beat stubborn middle age fat? Can we regain our strength and vitality?

Yes we can!

In the 1980s I changed the way women thought about weight training by introducing women’s bodybuilding. In 1994 I went against conventional training wisdom in my book Freestyle Training. In 1998 I launched the most aggressive exercise arsenal against a woman’s stubborn fat in my book Lower Body Solution.

Ten years later I have perfected a program of gaining and regaining the weight and shape of the female body. You will be surprised so many of us overlooked the obvious secret—the key—to our success. So surprised, you’re going to sit back and say WOW!

WOW: Women Only Workouts is available for immediate shipment. Read some of the excerpts. Each book is loaded with forms, journals, workouts, workout cards and logs to keep you on a program until you reach success. And each book guarantees: Follow the program; you will succeed at permanent weight loss and a more beautiful body.

Share your experience. Each other’s stories keep us inspired and motivated, and reinforce the simple fact that when we do this program: results follow. Often, radical results.

WOW