If you are a pear you will want to focus on exercises that will balance out the top half of your body with the bottom half of your body. You will also want to try to thin down your lower half. To achieve this, focus on aerobic activities that work out your lower body, and resistance exercises that will build your upper body. Use light weights and perform high repetitions of exercises. Some great activities include:
• walking
• cycling (with low resistance)
• elliptical training
• jumping rope
• leg lifts and dips
• push ups, chin ups, and shoulder presses
People with pear shaped bodies have a smaller upper body and larger hips and thighs. If you want to improve your pear shape, here are some exercise tips that will help create your best body ever by sculpting muscle while burning fat in all the right places.
"Pear" Intervals - In interval training, you alternate measured periods of high-intensity and lower-intensity exercise. Interval training typically burns more calories than steady-state cardio does. As a Pear is working out, their body is going to want to draw fatty acids from their upper body to begin with. You need to get your body over that hump to where it says, Okay, I've used a lot of fat here and I like to take it from the upper body, but now I'm going to have to turn to this other fat storage site. And that is really just dependent on total calories expended.
There's another benefit of interval training for Pears: enzymes. Enzymes act as keys that open certain locks in the body. You can think of fat-burning as a sort of locked door that needs to be opened by enzymes.
One study found that compared to the steady-state group, the interval group ... lost significantly more fat from these different areas. So much of the fat loss had to do with changes in the enzymes and other kinds of things that you don't see when you're exercising." In this case, the interval group actually burned fewer total calories during exercise, but the post-exercise effects of interval training made them fat-burning machines.
What should your interval training feel like? It needs to be fairly intense. On a scale from 1-10, 10 being hardest, we're talking 7-8 for the high-intensity intervals. Level five is good for the recovery intervals. Lower does not mean you just plummet down to zero--it's more of a moderate, low-moderate intensity
The following 45-minute cardio workouts use an intensity scale of 1-10, 10 being your hardest effort possible.
INDOOR CYCLE INTERVALS
Warm-up: 3 minutes at level 3-4
Interval #1: 60 seconds at level 5-6
60 seconds at level 3
Repeat above 4 times
Interval #2: 60 seconds at level 7-8
60 seconds at level 5
Repeat above 4 times
Recovery: 5 minutes at level 5
Interval #3: Option A:
60 seconds at level 7-8
60 seconds at level 5
Repeat above 4 times OR
Option B: Steady-state for 8 minutes at level 6
Interval #4: 60 seconds at level 7-8
60 seconds at level 5
Repeat above 4 times
Cool-down: 3 minutes at level 5
2 minutes at level 3
OUTDOOR JOG-RUN INTERVALS
Warm-up: Walk briskly for 3 minutes
Jog at a moderate pace for 3 minutes
Long intervals: Run at a hard pace for 3 minutes
Jog at a moderate pace for 3 minutes
Repeat 4 times
Advanced Make intervals 90 seconds each instead
option: of 3 minutes. Repeat 8 times instead of 4 times
Shorter Jog at a moderate pace for 1 minute
intervals: Run at a hard pace for 1 minute
Repeat 5 times
Cool-down: Jog at moderate pace for 2 minutes
Walk briskly for 3 minutes
PEAR'S LEG PLAN: HOME VERSION
Required equipment: bench, large exercise ball, light medicine ball,
dyna-band or other resistance band. Instead of repeating for a specific
number of reps, do as many as you can in the time allotted.
Superset A: Stationary Lunge (left leg forward):
30-60 seconds
Step-up with Knee Lift (left foot stepping on bench):
30-60 seconds Repeat with other leg
Do two to three supersets on each leg, resting briefly
between supersets.
Superset B: Lying Single Leg Bridges: 30 seconds one leg*
30 seconds other leg*
Wall Squat (with exercise ball):
30-60 seconds
Do three supersets, resting briefly between supersets.
*Lie faceup, right knee bent and right foot on floor. Arms should be by
your sides. Place exercise ball under the lower leg/ankle area of left
leg with left leg nearly straight. Bridge up, lifting your mid and low
back off the floor. Your upper back and your shoulder girdle should
support your weight. Don't place your weight on your neck. Roll ball in
directly to the left glute while maintaining bridge position. Roll out
and repeat.
Superset C: Band Drags: 30 seconds one way, 30 seconds other way*
Half Squats (coming just to parallel and squeezing
medicine ball between thighs): 30 seconds. Do two
supersets.
*Loop the band around your lower calves and stand with feet apart so
there's tension in the band. Keep your left leg stationary while moving
your right leg out to the side, stepping across the floor.
Repeat with other leg.
PEAR'S LEG PLAN: GYM VERSION
Perform 20-25 reps of each exercise, at about 50%-55% of maximum
strength. Complete the circuit 3-4 times.
Superset A: Leg Extension
Leg Press
Repeat once
Superset B: Stationary Lunge (do 10-15 reps per leg)
Leg Curl
Repeat once
Superset C: Abductor Machine
Abductor Machine
Note: Pears can experiment with other leg exercises, but keep the
weights on the lighter side and repetitions high; and continue your
cardio, focusing on interval training to fight fat long term.
It is recommend that Pears follow a circuit-type of approach. Use higher reps, multiple sets, and move continuously from one machine or exercise to the other. For example, rather than a heavy barbell squat, just use light dumb-bells or a ball against the wall. Do a minute straight of those squats and then a minute of lunges on each leg. Rest and repeat. Count time instead of reps.
Just because the weights are lighter doesn't mean your workout will be less intense. It's more of a qualitative shift that needs to occur with the workout.
Here’s an example of weekly exercise plan:
Interval training on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Train abdominals on cardio days--do crunches, bicycles and hip lifts to hit all ab muscles. Aim for about two sets of 15 reps each.
Pear's Leg Plan: Do resistance training for legs three days a week, preferably on days that you don't do interval training.
Pear's Upper Body: Do upper-body training three days per week, on same days as the leg plan. Do upper-body workout first, then finish with the leg circuit.
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