Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2025 i Muscle & Fitness Hers South Africa

“MARIA V., STOCKTON, CA “I'm a 44-year-old grandmother. I'm weigh about 68 kilos. I work out three days a week, focusing on the upper body. My goal is to lose weight and sculpt muscle all over.”  OUR EXPERT SAYS Congrats on being such an active grandmother! You're working out often enough to meet your weight loss and muscle development goals but need to focus on the quality of your training and nutrition. For workouts, try to include compound (multijoint) exercises for upper and lower body, done at a high enough intensity that you feel fully fatigued by the end of each set. Progression is critical: Every four weeks, increase the weight while hitting the rep counts outlined here. To help keep your diet on track, use a food log. I…

Reverse Tabata on the ASSAULT AIR BIKE TIME: 4 MINUTES “The Assault Air Bike is the most demanding bike of its kind,” says Noah Abbott. Try to do an eight-round reverse tabata for total calories—that's 10 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of rest. “Clients who have never done it sometimes sniff, thinking it will be too easy.” But this workout has most athletes reduced to a puddle. CrossFit Jerry Hero Workout on the TRUE FORM TREADMILL and CONCEPT2 INDOOR ROWER TIME: 21–30 MINUTES Unlike most treadmills, the True Form is not motorized, so the experience is more like actual running, says Abbott. He recommends the classic CrossFit workout “Jerry,” named to honor Sgt. Maj. Jerry Dwayne Patton of the Army, who died in 2008. It's a timed workout:…

It's Friday night in 2025 and the ritual of romance has migrated almost entirely into your palm — not the romantic kind of palm contact, but the one involving your phone screen, glowing softly in the dim light of your living room. There's no bar noise in the background, no crowd to scan for a spark, just you, a glass of wine, and a never-ending stream of faces. You swipe left. Then left again. Then right. Then you hesitate on someone's video clip — a quick montage of them laughing on a beach, stirring pasta, and holding a puppy. The app notices your pause. The app notices everything. This is the reality now: dating isn't just you choosing anymore. It's you choosing alongside an algorithm that has been trained on…

Add on these three core exercises to strengthen and tone all of your abdominal muscles. Reverse Crunch to Heels Up ▶ Lie faceup on floor with legs extended, feet lifted above hips and flexed. Keep arms at sides with palms down. ▶ Using your lower abdominals, lift your hips off the floor, bringing heels toward ceiling. Slowly lower back down and repeat for a total of 30 seconds. Hands Back with Knee Tucks ▶ Sit on the floor with legs extended, knees slightly bent. Place hands behind you, palms down below shoulders and elbows bent behind you. ▶ Lift heels and lean back, engaging abdominals. Pull knees into chest. ▶ Extend legs forward, keeping them about 45 degrees to floor. Pull legs back to chest and repeat for a total…

Tip: CHAINS ADD AN INSTABILITY THAT REQUIRES A NATURAL COUNTERBALANCE. CHAIN BARBELL SQUAT WORKS: Core, Thighs Stand with a barbell across your shoulder blades, chains hanging from both ends. Place your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart (A). Slowly lower into a squat until your thighs are slightly past parallel to the floor (B). Rise explosively from the bottom of the squat, halving the time of the descent. Perform three sets of 12, 10, and 8 reps. Tip: PRACTICE BRINGING HANDS TOGETHER BEFORE CROSSING THEM. X JUMP PUSHUP WORKS: Shoulders, Chest, Core Get in pushup position, but place your feet about 30 inches apart. Perform a pushup, then jump your legs together while staggering your hands, one palm in front of the other. Land with elbows slightly bent, not…

• MAINTAINING YOUR WEIGHT LOSS and fitness goals is one of life's greatest rewards—and challenges. And certain foods like sugar, even those found in “healthy” foods, can derail those commitments indefinitely. That's why Tosca Reno, best-selling author and founder of the Eat-Clean Diet series, wants you to nix the refined sweet stuff for good. Her philosophy: “Remove the sugar, reveal the physique.” More than 15 years ago, Reno, too, was addicted to sugar and suffering the consequences: depression and stalled weight-loss efforts. But cutting the sweet stuff from her diet turned that pattern around. Too much sugar can cause insulin spikes, drain energy, lead to cravings, and signal the body to store more fat. But replacing sugary foods with healthy carbs, protein, and fat will help slice out fat cells…

Want to cut body fat? Try cutting down on the types of food you eat. A new study in the journal PLOS ONE found that when consumers have too many options, they're more likely to eat more. But it's not just about the number of brands to choose from. “Too much variety in general has been shown to lead to overeating,” says Mitzi Dulan, R.D., a nutritionist based in Leawood, KS. Previous research from Cornell University Food and Brand Lab has found that when moviegoers were given M&M candies in 10 different colors, they ate 43% more than people offered the same number of M&Ms in seven colors. “Studies suggest that the less variety you have in your diet, the better able you are to stay on track,” notes Dulan.…

• ERIN STERN MISSED qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympics high jump by three centimeters. Undeterred, she channeled her athleticism into bodybuilding, winning her first show and starting down a path that led to two Ms. Figure Olympia titles. Now, after four years away from the IFBB Professional League stage, she's back. “I left competition for a few years because figure was evolving into something more muscular,” Stern says. “It's very difficult being a lifetime natural athlete in figure, so I decided that if I can't do it naturally, I'm not going to try.” Then, in late 2017, the IFBB Professional League introduced the Elite Pro division, which follows anti-doping rules and includes a body fitness category. Stern competed in last year's Arnold Classic South Africa, placing fourth. “Getting onstage…

THERE'S A REASON SO MANY SELFIES FEATURE A SEXY SET OF SIX-PACKS: Well-defined abs are the hallmark of fitness, a chance to show off the hard work you've put in with training and diet. And this one-month plan can help take your middle to the next level. “I'm a big fan of mixing up exercises so you never get bored and creating challenges so you always feel like you're improving,” says trainer Lacey Stone, who designed this program. Equally important is diet: “If you eat poorly, you won't see results, but if you do the routine and get your diet in order—hello, midriff!” 30-DAY SIX-PACK CHALLENGE Follow this plan for one month along with the diet tips on page 82 and watch those strong abs emerge. WEEKS 1 AND 2…

• LORNA JANE CLARKSON has been setting the pace for sexy fitspirational activewear for the past 25 years. Forever emphasizing balanced bliss, she is living out a promise to bring women food and lifestyle tips that can help them reach their fit-living goals. Hers editors swooned over this power-food-packed, satiating breakfast from her cookbook Nourish and enjoyed the healthy-living tips found in her newest book, Inspired. To speed your morning, prepare the veggies the night before, then just heat in the morning with a fresh egg. Enjoy! NOURISHING BREAKFAST SALAD PREP + COOK TIME: 35 MINUTES SERVES: 2 INGREDIENTS FOR SALAD 300 gram piece pumpkin, unpeeled, cut into ½-inch-thick slices 90 grams Swiss brown mushrooms, halved 1 large zucchini, cut diagonally into ½-inch-thick slices 1 small red bell pepper, sliced…

• THE SHOULDER is the most flexible joint in the body, but it's also one of the most injured. Blame its hypermobility (no other joint can move 360 degrees) and underlying instability. But your workout routine may also be causing trouble. “Shoulder injuries are often the result of imbalances between the chest and back muscles, particularly the pectoralis major, the infraspinatus, and deltoid muscles,” says Alvin Brown, an osteopath and clinical director of the Centre for Healing and Personal Potential in Ontario, Canada. These imbalances are often linked with tightness and inflexibility. Poor lifting technique can also cause problems. The most common shoulder injuries include tendinitis, bursitis, and tears. If you have a loss of full range of motion above 90 degrees and pain when moving your arm around, you're…

That food label you are so diligent about reading may be highly misleading, according to experts who say the numbers may be off by as much as 25%. “Current methods for determining calories are imperfect,” notes Katherine Tallmadge, R.D., a nutritionist based in Washington, D.C. More often than not, the numbers are higher than they should be, especially when it comes to protein and fiber. “We all digest foods differently, so it's impossible to say exactly how many calories you might get from these nutrients,” says Tallmadge. Ironically, processed foods seem to be more accurate with label information than high-protein, low-carb, and fiber-rich whole foods, which is helpful in knowing which foods to avoid. “I would still have faith in the food labels, as that's our only choice,” adds Tallmadge.…

STATIONARY BIKE Indoor cycling classes offer fat-blasting, calorie-scorching, leg-sculpting workouts in a competitive yet social setting. Top instructors designed these routines for the days you can't make it to class. Just bring your own beats and start pedaling! Follow the simple, effective warmup below before you start the hill and sprint workouts on the next page, advises Self, who put together all three. Use the RPE (rate of perceived exertion) scale of 1 to 10 to determine how hard you are working: 1 = easy, 5 = moderately challenging (hard to sustain for more than three minutes), 10 = extremely challenging (an effort you couldn't sustain for more than 60 seconds). Resistance is indicated at four levels: light, moderate, heavy, and very heavy. Speed is slow (40–60 rpm), moderate (70–80…

OUR MODEL: Melissa Trapani “FITNESS EMPOWERS ME. EVERY OTHER ASPECT OF MY LIFE FALLS INTO PLACE WHEN I AM TRAINING.” IT'S NOT EASY getting a body like Madonna-at 57, she's got the strength, stamina, and muscle tone of a fit woman half her age. Her intense work ethic plays a big part, but her personal trainer, Craig Smith, also gets credit for keeping her fit and energized. “Our workouts are designed to support what she does onstage, which means a mix of endurance, flexibility and mobility, stability, balance, and resistance training,” says Smith, who is also the creative director of Hard Candy Fitness, a chain of fitness studios created by Madonna in 2010. The pop icon, who kicks off her 42-city Rebel Heart worldwide tour this month, regularly follows workouts…

AVOCADO: Loaded with healthy monounsaturated fat plus vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Spread over toast, toss in a salad, or enjoy with a drizzle of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. How much: ½ per day. BERRIES: High in fiber, which hustles the food you eat through your system, plus antioxidants to help boost workout results. How much: ½ cup per day. EGGS: A great protein source with a balance of amino acids. Don't fear the yolk, Boyer says. “It's where more of the nutrients are found, plus the vitamin D there can help control appetite.” How much: One to two every other day. APPLES: A large apple has about 5 grams of fiber and is composed of nearly 85% water, both of which help you feel satiated, says Boyer.…

IFBB FIGURE PRO SUE LING YIP HIT SECRET HILL SPRINTS Why it's her fave: “Women carry more of their body fat in their legs and glutes. Hill sprints are a great way to burn more calories in less time while targeting stubborn lower-body areas. You'll achieve greater muscle separation for a tighter, more sculpted lower body.” Sue Ling's Workout Find a hill that's about 10% to 15% incline (moderately steep). Warm up for a few minutes on a flat surface. Then do the following intervals: Sprint as you run uphill for about 800 metres for 20 to 30 seconds. Rest for 30 to 60 seconds, then lightly jog back downhill to actively recover. Start out with five to six all-out hill sprints per session. Aim to up the number of…

DAY 1 BREAKFAST ½ cup old-fashioned quick oats prepared with water; 1 whole egg scrambled with ¾ cup egg whites; ½ cup berries SNACK 1 medium apple and 1 tbsp natural nut butter (such as peanut or almond) LUNCH 120g grilled chicken breast and 2 tbsp sliced avocado over a medium salad with 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar; 1 slice of toasted sprouted-grain bread (like Ezekiel) SNACK ½ cup 1% low-sodium cottage cheese; 10 almonds DINNER 120g 99% fat-free ground chicken burger served with 2–3 cups steamed broccoli or other green vegetable and 1 small sweet potato; drizzle with 2 tsp coconut oil SNACK 1 scoop vanilla whey/ casein powder blended with ice plus 1 tbsp powdered peanut butter (add instant decaf coffee and/or cinnamon if desired) DAILY TOTAL 1,540 CALORIES…

1 You don't need a lot. Fitness enthusiasts used to take creatine up to five times a day for a week. But research from Bloomsburg University suggests you don't need to load up to get results. Taking 2.3g per day for six weeks post-workout should be enough to notice stamina gains in five to seven days. 2 It's not for coffee lovers. Some research shows caffeine can negate any benefits, so many users will avoid it in any form while taking creatine. 3 It pays to take a break. Since your body adapts to creatine, try cycling off after four to six weeks, then resuming after two to four weeks. This hiatus generally isn't enough to lose any gains you've already made. 4 Creatine comes in many forms, including powders.…

THE ADULT PORTION PLATE The Portion Plate is an interactive tool for teaching consumers appropriate food portions. It's an actual plate that offers a tangible demonstration of how much food we should eat. Not only are the plate's illustrated portion areas a good guide to follow, but the makeup of a good meal is also presented. This means 1/2 of your plate should be fruits and vegetables, 1/4 of your plate whole grains and the remaining 1/4 lean protein. wantitall.co.za COOKING STAR DIGITAL SPOON SCALE Some of your favourite foods can pack a calorie punch in small doses, for example, your nut butters and healthy oils. This digital spoon scale from Soehnle is perfect for measuring smaller amounts of foods so that you don't increase your calorie intake unnecessarily. It…

You and your fit friends know the many benefits of eating clean—now a few large food manufacturers are discovering a healthy diet is also good for business and are cleaning up their products. Below, a few of our favorite developments that are making it easier for everyone to eat healthier. General Mills: Original Cheerios are now non-GMO Ben & Jerry's: Eliminated GMOs from their frozen desserts Chipotle: Restricted antibiotics in chicken and are now GMO-free Panera Bread: Using more antibiotic-free chicken Tyson: Phasing out human antibiotics in all chicken products…

• THAT ROCKET FUEL you guzzle to power you through your workout could be the reason you're feeling anxious later in the day or tossing and turning well into the night. A recent Spanish study found that while athletes who downed the equivalent of three cans of energy drinks before a sports competition improved performance between 3–7%, many also reported insomnia, feelings of nervousness, and a heightened level of stimulation. Caffeine levels in energy drinks can range from about 40 to 242 milligrams per serving, with some packing more than one serving, according to a recent Consumer Reports article. If you find yourself feeling the effects, try reading labels to cut back on the caffeine and steer clear of the stimulant at least six hours before bed. — Diana Kelly…