Summary: Today we have an interview with Heidi Fletcher who placed 5th in the Open Level 1 in our latest Venus Index Contest. Check out her pictures: What's amazing about this transformation is that Heidi didn't do it alone. She did the contest with her boyfriend Adam, who placed in the latest Adonis Index contest. Heidi never lifted weights before and she watched Adam when he was following the Adonis Index workouts. Then finally she decided to jump in and not only do the Venus workouts, but also join the contest as well. Adam started coaching her on how to lift the weights, how to improve her form and he was encouraging her to challenge herself more with her training. Starting out, Heidi wasn't sure how much to lift for each exercise. She never trained at the gym, prior to Venus, running was her sole form of cardio training and exercise. Heidi was always in a pretty good shape, outside of her baby weight, she naturally ate at maintenance and kept her waist line slim. She never did anything specifically to lose weight, because she never had to. However, when she saw Adam getting into shape she recalled from her background in the medical field the many benefits of lifting weights to improve overall health. More importantly the impact weightlifting had on improving bone density, especially for women. This made her even more eager to get started. Heidi mentioned several times what a joy it was to workout with Adam, who operated as her trainer and was able to coach her on how to lift properly. He trained her to know what it feels like to pushing the weights and how to safely challenge herself. Heidi experienced a different type of exhaustion from lifting weights as opposed to just running. This provided a learning curve until her body was able to acclimate to the training and she had a better understanding of how to test her limits. It's normal if you experience these similar feelings, because it takes years to know what it takes to be exhausted at each rep range. Heidi still has some mental barriers like fear of falling over with heavy weights, but this is something that she will overcome with time invested in the Venus workouts. Weight Lifting Will Not Turn You Into a Green Big Monster Most women think that weight lifting is stupid or that it will somehow turn into a big green hulk. Well, that's not true, those muscle ladies you see on stage of Mrs. Olympia are always on massive amounts of steroids and testosterone, you will never look like that, ever, even if you lift the heaviest dumbbells in the gym. What actually happens as a response to weight lifting is that your body tightens up and your curves will come up, which at a low body fat creates that desired attractive hourglass look. You need to lift weights to look good, feel healthy and to become a stronger woman, there is no other way around it. The only issue is that we don't have enough role models for this, so the general assumption is lifting weights = big bulky muscles = unattractive. Right now the only way to see what looks good is to look at certain movie stars, natural fitness models or even certain fashion models and see the real results from intense training. What you can also do, is go here into our transformation database and take a look at what our ladies have achieved with the intense Venus Index workouts. More tips from Heidi: Photoshoots are not just standing there and taking a snap shot, it's hard work and you should be prepared to take hundreds of pictures to pick one or two good ones When you are lean your look will change depending on what you eat and how much you move When you are lean you might consider fasting just for 16-18 instead of 24, and maybe more often When you get to the last 5 pounds of fat, it gets harder and even though it's still only about calories, your approach will have to change a bit Trust the VI numbers
