I am 5 foot 6.5 inches
I am female
I am 18 years and 9 months
I have a 30 inch waist
I my chest size is 38 B
My hips are 36 inches
I weight 10 stone 1 - 10 stone 4 depending on the day
My stomach has a bit of excess roundness these days. My inner thighs are very wobbly.

Other than this i am happy with my body.

I want to generaly tone all around. Expecialy my stomach and inner thighs.
If some on can instruct me the best and most effective way to do this AND KEEP IT that way.

Please not i cant touch my toes so if you can help me with that too il be gratefull


*edit im a fool*

20 inch waist? Jeez....
well, i would suggest pilates, its great for toning up.

My sentiments exactly.

That's almost non-existent.

exactly.....what could there possibly be to tone with a 20 inch waist?
But nonetheless, try the pilates.

ooh sorry i ment 30!!

oh god sorry!

haha...that makes SO much more sense now. i was picturing you as a barbie!!!
well, youre in about the same place i am, though i dont know what "stones" weight is. (sorry, im a stupid american.)
im trying to tone and lose some weight as well, and i do about an hour of cardio about 6 days a week and do as many sit ups and leg presses i can before my muscles yell at me.

today i waked 4 miles and done some sit ups, leg raises, on the spot jogging etc... i did the situps etc yesterday too and wow i can feel it. my stomch is sore, but in a nice way. i feel like ive done something. my legs are going to fall off.

I'm just going to keep trying and hopefully i will see some changes

good job. thats what you have to do, but DONT OVER DO IT!

I concur with the pilates post. Its really really good and will help you develop flexibility.

Can anyone recommend I good pilates book?

I really like to try it but my life is rather irregular so going to a class is difficult... Pilates is like a combination of yoga and ballet and stuff right? That sounds amazing..

what you'll to concentrate on is 1)cardio to lose some of the excess fat, and 2)strength training to actually tone.

cardio by itself will only make a smaller version of yourself now, which you say is untoned. you dont want that, right? in that case, its very simple, and it works like this for everyone, not just you- cardio to get rid of fat, weight training to actually SHAPE your body. that's key. people will get literally smaller doing cardio, but they will not remake their SHAPE unless they hit the weights.

so like jaded said, aim for very regular cardio. and challenging cardio too. the kind that you have to concentrate to get through, the kind you cant hold a regular conversation while doing. and make sure you are sweating for sure, if youre not breaking a significant sweat, its not a good enough of a workout. id say start out 30-45mins most days of the week, work up from their (in terms of time and intensity).

check out the sticky thread concerning weight training, there you'll find links that explain everything you need to know. you'll have to concentrate on your entire body, and your trouble spots maybe especially so. do not be afraid of lifting HEAVY weights, you will not bulk up. you'll just tone! and no 1 or 2lb weights, LOL! heavy heavy heavy, so youre dying and can not for the life of you lift the weight more than 12 times, tops. otherwise, you wont get those toning results!

diet is also very important. basic common sense for weight loss is key, and dont go ALL protein since you need carbs for energy for all that exercise.

i feel that that's a really really basic rundown, but i hope it helped! if youre unclear on something, just ask! i used to be a personal trainer and im an ex-athlete and do my lion's share of exercise.lol

Thanks you.. Im trying to start of fairly slow. I walked another 3 miles today in the bloody rain. I quite like walking though and its a start.

Exactly.

Just keep yourself motivated!

Overall I agree with you but I do protest at a few things

a) Doing cardio until you can't talk/breathe is not anaerobically effective. It means you're not getting oxygen to your blood and you're body is just concentrating on getting whatever oxygen it gets and stops fat burning

b) Doing weights which are too heavy for you, will cause you to strain your neck or back and you won't be building up your triceps/biceps, lats, etc etc. The trick is to certainly challenge your muscles, buyt also do weights within yout strength level and if she starts lifting 10 pound weights but doesn't know how to breathe properly, her pose and to make sure she's not strainging other areas.

I do agree with what you're saying but for a newbie i'd be getting them to start off small. 3/4 kg hand weights are perfectly fine. I know you were apersonal trainer but for a newbie they need to get used to things first and still work within their body's coping level.

To the person who asked me about pilates books, i go to classes. i really recommend at least fitting in a one on one session with atrained teacher to teach you the corset breathing and alignment, it will allow you to feel exactly what you should be feeling. Ask them to write up a porgram for you. Having said that i've heard nothing but good things about brooke siler's books (she's written a new one as well which incorporates pialtyes with your regular life) also stott pilates dvds i've had recommendations from my old teachers and uhlstreet whose a pilates instructor trained at stott and recommends them a well.

that is true, and my point too. i didnt mean to come across extreme, but sometimes people dont really get a good idea of what properly challenging themselves means because they've never really done it.

what i meant by the cardio thing is that i see so many people literally telling their life stories while on the treadmill, lol- that means its too easy! a sentence here or there is ok, but they should be breathing significantly harder than they would doing anything else. and technically, calories are calories, whether fat is burned or not. the 'fat burning' zone of difficultly in cardio isnt the only one that burns calories (and therefore leads to weight loss). but no one can keep up anaerobic exercise in terms of cardio for long, so yeah. and the weights really should be impossible past 12 reps, but you're right- they need to know proper form regardless.

its tough to give workout advice over the net, its just one of those things that you have to show people in person and take them through.

its all good. I respect your opinions and I guess the limitations of the net was I didn't quiet get what you meant.

MA - have you thought about writing a basic program for newbie KRers? Just a 6 week challenge or something with a good easy type free weight exercises that they could use/modify for themselves that might have some pisc on how to do it?

(Eg write somethng up with the basic weight things that address back, arms, legs, shoulders or something, not too much exercises but just a few that address teh corresponding muscles in each major area (eg biceps/triceps, etc etc, and perhaps modifications/alternatives they could do eg instead of 30mins full on cardio if they're really unfit, then 45 mins of a moderate paced cardio or somethign to start them off)

I reckon your knowledge could be really useful.

i havent actually, but thats a good idea! i used to design programs for people all the time, but id just take them through all the machines and exercises, i suppose actually writing it out would be a decent idea....

i find that some of strength training sites out there are indispensible since they have drawings and diagrams. but its probably important to include modifications for people of different fitness levels and sizes (since so many of those gym nautilus machines are designed for men 5'8'' and over! someone whose 5' can easily be forced to have wrong form!)

youve got me thinking, thanks for the suggestion! you seem to have some knowledge on the subject as well, perhaps if they mods here are willing, we could cook something up sometime.

If you like that kind of exercise, invest in a mini trampoline. Can be done indoors regardless of weather while watching TV or listening to music. Less taxing on the joints than jogging too. Although just as taxing on the cardio side. Think jump rope without the rope.

I'm sure the mods won't mind ( take a look at the mod list).

I'd love to cook up something. Perhaps you could put a progam together but we could look for appropriate websites with little videos and diagrams and moving gifs which best illustrate the exercise and find the modifications which may help someone if they're not strong or they need to just modify it for whatever reason.

I know what you mean about those nautilus machines. I am trialing gyms and this one uses the nautilius nitro plus and stairmaster brand treadmills, cross/eliptical trainers and bikes and they are so different from the other brand machines i was using at the other gyms i was trialing. It was kinda annoying too! Espeically the cross trainer which feels harder to use than the lifestyle brand ones. But the muscle boys adjust them for their heights and i have to constantly adjust it for myself or the functions are so different to the other machines, hence why i'm going back to free weights.