Before you start reading this article, go open Instagram and unfollow those FitTea profiles, gummy bear hair vitamins, detoxes, fitness girls promoting those 30-day challenges; I could go on.

These people add nothing valuable to your life rather than a bunch of booty pictures and affiliate links so they can earn money out of products that don’t work!

Also, these “celebrities” complicate normal exercises for them to look “cool.” The other day I saw a video of a fitness girl doing squats with her legs crossed, and leg pressing on the smith machine. The reason this is wrong is because there is no need to overcomplicate exercises; these exercises are difficult to progress in, and are not functional in any way.

You don’t need any of those crazy exercises or weird supplements. I’m going to let you know exactly what you need to do in the gym to get the results you wanted, the fastest way possible.

1. You're a badass.

You know what’s the main reason you always see dudes in the free weight area instead of girls? Fear. Girls are intimidated by the number of guys in the free weight area. Trust me when I tell you that it’s impressive to see a woman in the weight room, being confident, and lifting iron. Also, you will need to get comfortable with going in the weight room because that’s where the change happens.

As I mentioned above, you won’t be doing those weird exercises, so don’t worry, you won’t look ridiculous.

Forget about what people think in the gym, and forget about looking cute at the gym. You’re there to train and achieve your goals, so get ready to get down to business, wear a hat, put on your headphones and leave the selfies for later.

You can’t train with those pink dumbbells and expect to look like a goddess. Get ready to learn to love the hard-hitting exercises that will make you have the body you always wanted.

2. You won't look like a dude.

Ask any dude that’s in the gym how long they have been lifting. Yet they don’t look huge.

Lifting weights is a long process and getting “huge” takes years of good training and a dialed diet. For women, it’s harder to build muscle because they have about 10 times less testosterone than men.

Somehow, the weight room has been a forbidden place for women, but this is the place where athletic bodies, and great butts are made.

3. You should train like a man.

Wait, what? Yes, and guys should train like women. Stick with me.

There is no specific training for guys or gals, if the main goal is to build muscle and look athletic. When it comes to looking athletic, the same principle applies for women and men; the only reason dudes build muscle faster is because of physiological reasons. I’ll explain these principles later.

4. Stop being a cardio bunny.

Cardio has its place, but there is an over emphasis of the importance of cardio in women. You don’t need to do fasted cardio every day, or spend 30 minutes on the stair master or the tread mill. What if I told you that 3 sets of heavy squatting burns more calories than 40 minutes on the treadmill.

Look, this can be an article of its own, but jogging on the treadmill is not good for you. Look at it this way, the band under you is doing much of the work for you, and you’re not actually exerting any force against the ground like you would do if you run outside.

For fat loss purposes, weightlifting and calorie restriction works perfectly. Although, we shouldn’t neglect cardio completely.

Bottom line is, one or two HIIT (high intensity interval training) sessions a week, with a proper weightlifting routine, and diet is more than enough.

5. Eat up.

Don’t feel afraid of carbs, or foods that are deemed “bad.” Instead, have a balanced diet, and most importantly know what you’re eating. Most people just follow trends without knowing the bigger picture. Paleo, Ketogenic, Zone diet, etc., just stop it; eat mindfully, know what you eat, and if possible, track it.

Why track it? Simply because this is the easiest way to determine how much food will help you maintain, lose fat, or put you in a caloric surplus. Remember, less calories more fat loss; more calories less fat loss. There is no such thing as a fattening food, the only way you’ll get fat is if you eat too much.

The exact amount you need to eat varies greatly, so don’t buy into cookie cutter plans, and one size fits all. There has been a lot of controversy in a specific brand of fitness celebrities known for giving everyone the same diet plan! I’m talking about dudes and girls that have millions of people following them. How much you need to eat is going to be different and that amount will change once you start losing fat or gaining muscle.

6. Train like this.

Look, ditch those “toning” routines that require 40 reps per set. That’s nonsense. Here is what you need: heavy compound exercises.

Compound exercises are those that require a ton of muscle to perform, and more muscle needed means more calories burned. These exercises are squats, overhead press, deadlifts, rows, and bench press. That combined with progression, is all you need, and when you have a solid base on those exercises you can start focusing more on whatever you want to “improve.”

I could go on and on with the different styles to these exercises, but you can keep it simple and still improve amazingly. Back squats or front squats, barbell deadlifts or Romanian, dumbbell shoulder press or barbell shoulder press, dumbbell chest press or barbell, over hand or underhand rows. You choose!

It’s that simple, however it is very important that you learn how to perform these exercises correctly, and the way to learn is not with Instagram models, but rather from great recognized fitness personalities; YouTube tutorials, trial and error will get you where you want.

Go to the gym and have the mentality of an athlete. You’re going there to train and achieve your goals, go hard and train smart. Next time you go to the gym make sure you’re lifting more. Repeat, have patience, and be prepared to look the best you’ve ever looked.