Women

Eclipse’s Guide to Women’s Fitness

Welcome to Eclipse and the Eclipse training program for women.  This program is a combination of some of the most effective strengthening, toning, and fat-loss programs developed over the past 30 years.  We’ve eliminated all of the misinformation and often outright lies taught in mainstream ladies fitness magazines as well as most mainstream fitness centers and have tested and designed a fool-proof program for you to eliminate any needless guesswork or self-experimentation.  If you wish to hire a coach to guide each aspect of training for you from start to finish, you are certainly allowed to do so, but the coaches are always available to answer your basic questions.  We have created a do-it-yourself program available that simply does not fail to add tone and strength without added muscle bulk as well as fat reduction to even a trainee with many years of training experience.  This program is the basic foundation for sports, modeling, and everything in-between.  If you want a well-developed butt, abs, and toned arms, this program is for you.  This is strength training, not bodybuilding, so we are training you like an athlete such as a sprinter with their well-developed rear-ends and 6-pack abs.  Below are some pointers and rules to follow.

Rule 1

Ask questions, no matter how silly they may seem.  The only way for you to make progress is to ask and tell the Coaches about your progress. Just like a doctor depends on the feedback of a patient for a diagnosis, this is equally true in the world of strength, conditioning, and weight loss. In our experience the people who get the best results are proactive in their interaction with our coaching staff. We want you to get results since our organization depends on it! Help us to help you create that win-win situation since by asking, you will reap the benefits of our experience rather than spending years of wasted effort by trying trendy training methods that are all hype and little hope.

Rule 2

Workout 2-3 times per week, for example, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Option two would be Monday/Friday, Tuesday/Friday or Saturday, etc.  Take the weekends off.  As your weights get heavier you should take 2 days off after three consecutive every-other-day training sessions.  The key is that you need 2 days off after each workout that contains dips and heavy squats.  This is one of our most commonly observed mistakes with trainees at Eclipse 24/7 Fitness Center.

Rule 3

Eat when you are hungry rather than traditional meals by the clock. Some find that delaying breakfast until you feel hunger (not thirst – be sure to stay well hydrated) is the key to their success. Others find that not eating 2-4 hours before bedtime works well. Everyone is different so you should experiment to find which of these strategies works best for you. Eating smaller meals is also very important but do not feel the need to eat 4-6 meals per day. Some people can comfortably eat 2 meals per day and not starve themselves. If you consistantly feel uncomfortably hungry you risk an eventual slow down of your metabolism.  Your meals should be a balance of protein and carbohydrates.  You can eat rice, even when you diet, as long as you combine it with a protein source.  Examples of carbohydrates are rice, pasta, sweet potatoes, fruits, or vegetables.  Examples of protein are eggs, chicken, fish, beef, beans, milk, and nuts.  If you are a vegetarian you can eat red beans and brown rice for a complete source of protein.  If you are worried about high cholesterol from eggs, don’t be afraid.  Eggs won’t increase your cholesterol as long as they are eaten in moderation.  For example, if you are going to eat omelets, eat one with 1 yolk and three whites.  Avoid sugary drinks and bread.  Eat whatever you want once per day as long as it’s in moderation, and always use good common sense.  Do not do a cheat day.  Cheat days are usually a disastrous display of unbridled gluttony that should be avoided at all costs.

Rule 4

If you are dieting, for example, eat half of a cup of rice and an ulam such as 100 grams of soy meat or a chicken breast 5 times per day.  Also eat 3 egg whites plus one egg yolk omelets filled with vegetables or whatever else you like to use.  Strive to lose an average of 1lb per week when dieting.  Starving yourself will slow your metabolism so eat often in small portions.  Women who starve themselves look like those ‘skinny-fat girls’ so often seen in modeling, who are thin yet have a very high body-fat percentage.  To be lean and thin yet toned, you cannot starve yourself.  If you are a vegetarian or thinking of becoming one, see Rule 5

Rule 5

If you gain fat easily, strive to eat one cup rice per meal plus the 100 grams of corned beef or a serving of chicken such as a breast or thigh during your strength/mass gaining phase.  An even better option would to become a vegetarian and limit your protein to only vegetable sources.  There are some incredible meat substitutes out there where you cannot tell that what you are eating is made of wheat and soy.

Rule 6

If you have a hard time gaining weight, you must eat as often as you can.  Eat one cup of rice per meal plus more protein rich food.  Also eat peanuts or natural peanut butter per day and 1 liter of milk in addition to your 5 meals per day.

Rule 7

Extra ab training is not necessary to gain a 6 pack since you can’t spot reduce fat in your mid-section and abs grow when doing heavy basic movements such as squats.  The abs must be trained like any muscle in the body, but they respond best to reps in the 1-7 range.  In the first 2 phases of your training, your abs will develop through indirect stimulus while low-bar squatting, deadlifting, overhead pressing, pull-ups, power cleans, and dips since they are critical for your core stability.

Rule 8

Squats and deadlifts are the core of your butt training.  If you don’t want to squat or deadlift, then don’t expect your butt to get bigger or lose its ‘droopy’ look if that is indeed your concern.  The old saying goes, ‘If you are not squatting, you are not training.’  You cannot substitute leg extensions or leg presses for squats.  Squats are actually the safest exercise for knees and make them stronger if done correctly.  They also increase growth hormone production which will lessen your bodyfat.  They also help increase bone density to stave off osteoporosis.  All of our current successful trainees are squatting, so learn to put full low-bar squats above all other exercises in their importance.

Rule 9

Shoes are optional.  We recommend that you do not wear shoes unless you are on the treadmill or in a class.  Chuck Taylors, Addidas Samba, or flat/hard-soled shoes are okay.  Regular rubber/athletic shoes cause often cause instability and are the source of most injuries in sports.  Athletic shoes will make your weights seem heavier when you squat and dead lift.  Always use good common sense if your feet are bare.  Look before you step or at least wear sandals when moving around the gym floor.

Rule 10

Too much cardio is will only make you hungrier and eat more.  When in phases 1-2, limit cardio to 15 minutes of HIIT on the treadmill or ask a coach to teach you the Tabata method for speeding your metabolism.

Rule 11

You do not need supplements.  Supplement mania is the result of hype, marketing, and outright lies.  Most fitness magazines depend on supplement advertising to survive.  If they do not cater to supplement companies, they will go out of business.  Slick and sly marketing is the reason most people who are reading this believe that they need supplements to make significant progress.  Fat burners do not make a significant difference in your training when it comes to elevating your metabolism but some brands may suppress your apetite. They are worth a try but you should not depend on them or expect unrealistic results.

Rule 12

Free weights are superior to machines.  Most machines and their so-called science and testing are funded fully by the manufacturers of said machines.  If a scientist dares to challenge the ‘findings’ of the machine manufacturers, they are basically black-listed from receiving funding themselves.  You would be correct if you are wondering how a test could be objective and honest if the person paying the scientist to study something is also the owner of the product.  Machines also cause imbalances that lead to injuries.  When the prime mover muscles get stronger on machines, the delicate stabilizer muscles get weaker and vulnerable to serious injury.  If you need a test, go ahead and train on machines for one month and then switch to free weights.  Not only will you only lift maybe half of what you did on the machines, you will have very poor control of your ability to stabilize and balance the weights.  This is what happens when you use a contraption that does most of the work for you.  Balance and stability is one of the main purposes of fitness centers, and this is not achieved from weight machines.  Always build your foundation using free weights for maximum long-term safety, results, stability, and balance.

Pointers when training

Most of our training for women involves our escalating density training system (EDT)  This is the most effective system we’ve tested to maximize fat loss while increasing firmness and shape.  As long as you stick with your training and find out what works best for you with respect to diet, EDT produces very fast results.

Always hold your breath when you are performing each rep.  For example, in the squat, when you are holding the weight at its highest point while standing, is when you’ll breathe.  Inhale and hold your breath when you squat all the way down past your thighs being parallel to the floor and then push yourself back up again.  Then exhale and inhale to prepare for the next rep.  Another example is the parallel bar dips.  Before you dip, take a deep breath and hold it.  Then go all the way down as your coach instructs.  Do not exhale until you are back at the top of the movement.  Take a breath and repeat the rep.  When you keep your lungs full during the movement you create intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) that stabilizes your torso.

Follow the program exactly as written and do not do extra exercises or force reps also known as a ‘spot’.  Forcing a rep is the fastest way to over train.  Doing extra exercises or sets is also a sure formula for overtraining. Also, DO NOT STRETCH BEFORE TRAINING!  Pre-workout stretching of a muscle weakens it and makes it vulnerable for injury.  This has been confirmed in several formal studies in recent years.  I trust these studies since they were not financed by supplement companies or machine manufacturers.  That said, ask any old-timer in the gym.  Most of them don’t stretch out of instinct and nearly all of them have never sustained an injury during training.  The time for stretching is post-workout after the muscle is already weakened and fully warmed up.  If you require extra flexibility, it’s best to do your stretching at another time such as later in the evening where you can focus at least 30 minutes of gradual progressive stretch on the muscles and tendons.

You are not required to follow our training when at Eclipse, but if you do, you will make more progress on it than you ever have before at other gyms.  All you need to do is ask our long-time members if you want to be convinced further.  Happy workout!