Okay I have a book (credited at the end of this post) that I used with all my PT clients and saw great results with. So I'm going to give you the information I would give you if you were on of my PT Clients.
If you are interested in my dieting suggestions, please let me know.
You said that you feel you are a T-frame:
The T-frame has slender legs and hips, coupled with an amply endowed upper body and has great shape training potential. All you have to do is tighten upper body trouble spots and recontour your lower body so that it's a little curvier. Achieving both goals will shift your proportions so that you're less top loaded. You can do it with the right exercise methods and fat-burning aerobics.
Besides appearance, there are significant reasons to pare down if you're a T with too much on top. Upper body fat is a risk factor for hormone related cancers such as breast cancer, as well as for heart disease. In contrast, having a stron, well developed upper body enables you to accomplish day to day tasks. If you participate in a sport, you have the stamina and power to throw farther, swing harder, hit more powerfully. Upper body strength even helps if you're a runner; the faster you can move your arms, the faster you can run. A strong upper body protects you against potential athletic injuries, particularly in your shoulders and back. Getting stronger can even alleviate everyday aches and pains, such as lower back problems, caused by muscular weakness.
To reshape your upper body, you'll use a technique known as supersets. Basically, these are combinations of two different exercises for the same muscle, performed on right after the other with no rest in between.
This kind of trainin, particularly when performed with high reps and moderate weights, increases muscle tone. Supersets also enhance the fat burning process, since the exercises are to be performed in rapid succession.
Another advantage of supersets is that they're time efficient. With supersets, you do more work but in less time. That's always a plus for today's on the go exercisers.
You'll definitely feel a burn in your muscles when you use supersets. This method of exercising produces a significant amount of waste products, namely lactic acid, in the muscle. The buildup of lactic acid causes the burning feeling and results from a lack of oxygen in the working muscles. The burn subsides during your rest breaks, when oxygen is resupplied to your muscles. The more fit you become, the longer you can exercise before experiencing the burn.
At the end of this post, I will attach a list of sure shapers for your upper body as well as some exercises for your lower body.
If you do not know what some of these exercises are or you do not have the equipment to do them, let me know and I'll explain the exercise or suggest a substitution.
Now to the cardio! Fat loss is an issue for many T-frames. If you need to she body fat, I suggest you try to fit in four to five aerobic sessions a week for some extra calorie burning. You can do these following your upper body and lower body workouts. There's a fat burning advantage in this as well: By the time you've finished your shape training workout, you've used up plenty of stored carbohydrate in your muscles. This forces your body to start burning fat for fuel once you start performing aerobics. By doing cardio after shape training, you make the switch to fat metabolism much faster and get leaner as a result.
Good aerobic (cardio) choices for T-frames are ones that use the large muscles of the body, particularly if you want to burn body fat. Here are some examples:
Stair Climbing, Stationary Cycling, Cross-country machine, Weighted walking, rowing machine.
Okay, your routine is a four day split. You concentrate on upper body toning on Monday and Thursday, lower body building on Tuesday and Friday. Try to do your cardio on those four days as well and include a fifth cardio workout on Saturday.
Remember when training your upper body you are going to do the two exercises listed together one right after the other with no rest in between.
*All information taken from "Shape Training, The 8-week Total Body Makeover" by Robert Kennedy and Maggie Greenwood-Robinson
