I am sure you
have all heard the stories: lifting heavy weights makes women look like men, it
is dangerous, it's bad for your joints, and once you have muscle you can't stop
lifting weights or it will all turn into fat. Let me tell you this is all complete
bullshıt. The facts are that lifting weights does none of those awful things
and millions of women and men are missing out one
of the best forms of exercise which is most beneficial to our health,
especially as we age.
Although many people consider weight training only a means to add size,
when contrasted head-to-head against cardiovascular exercise, resistance
training comes out on top in the battle to burn the most calories. Unlike
cardio, the huge advantage to weight training is your body's ability to burn
fat during and after exercise.
"Light weights are for women and heavy weights for men"
This comment is probably one
that annoys me the most and is usually
made by men and women that clearly do not understand hypertrophy and male and
female physiology.
First of all, a heavy load will create muscle tears, rebuilding and
repairing muscle tears after your workout is what creates
muscle definition and strength. Flailing away with smaller weights over and
over will not create muscle strength.
Women produce only a fraction
of the natural muscle-building hormone testosterone that men do. It is testosterone that is responsible for masculine
traits like excess hair, deepening of voice, increase in
muscle mass. Because females have less free testosterone than males at
rest, any increase is not significant enough to actually allow for muscle
hypertrophy to the extent of a male.
Even serious female trainers with years of
experience cannot build the bulky muscle you see on male bodybuilders. Of
course any man or woman who injects themselves with testosterone or anabolic
substances will super-enhance their muscular development, but that's well
outside of what one can do naturally.
Why nutrition is so important!
Keep in mind, if you begin a weight-training
program your muscles will begin showing definition within a few weeks. If you
have a large layer of fat covering those muscles, you'll look and feel
“big." Muscle mass increase in your body may happen faster than fat loss.
That mass will take up space under the layer of fat and therefore will take
longer for that muscle definition to show through the layers of fat.
This is why nutrition is so important with any
exercise routine. Using your new weight-lifting routine as an excuse to order
extra pizza is setting yourself up for failure. In a few weeks, you will quit
because the scale will show a larger number and your clothes might be tighter,
and you'll blame it all on weight training. If your diet is in check, your body
fat will slowly reduce whilst you build muscle and the results will be that
sleek sexy defined body you have always dreamed of.
So ladies it is time for you to
put on those cute weight gloves, grab hold of some heavy weights and show those
boys just how strong you can be.
