Why Women Should Weight Training
I want to, you know, tone up.
Many of the people I talk to about fitness have a lot of major fitness misconceptions: bicep curls should be done on the squat rack, squats are bad for the knees, the more instability you put in the better, and my personal favorite – -> there are men’s workouts and women’s workouts. It amazes me that there is a vast majority of women who think they need to do 1000 reps with 2 pounds and that will make them sexy. For the guys, well that’s another story for a different post, but mostly it involves a disbelief in stretching, core work, and cardio.
I listen to many radio shows and podcasts from fitness professionals, and the variety of advice ranges from excellent, terrible, dangerous, and just plain dumb. A common theme in the questions women ask is how to lose weight without bulking up. I want to address some of the concerns and objections that women often have with weight training.
1. Objection: I know my body; As soon as I start lifting weights, I get really big really fast.
My Answer: If it is within the first 3 months that you are “increasing”, do not worry. Seriously. What is happening is that your muscles are Ripped by weight training and your body, with the intention of repairing your muscles, sends more blood to the area to fix it and carry more nutrients to the muscle. Think of sports injuries, when you turn your ankle it swells, right? Same shit. Your body is adjusting to a new input. Follow your weight program for minimum three months.
If you’ve been exercising for a while and you’re still afraid of putting on the weight you’re lifting, I’m going to share a BIG secret with you. This objection is often followed by something like this: “I don’t want to look like one of those bodybuilders.” This is frustrating for me. Do you know how much WORK those girls put him in? Do you know how much focus they have? You have to be high to think that without so much determination you are going to gain muscle mass.
First of all, women don’t have enough testosterone to get really bulky. It is no secret that many bodybuilders use steroids, even women. For 2, it takes YEARS to get this big naturally. If you constantly exercise and are crazy motivated to be bigger than you could arrive in a year or two. Otherwise, you should stop thinking that you are going to get “bulky.”
2. Objection: I don’t want to do weight training, I just want to lose weight.
My Answer: Are you serious? There will be two massive reasons you need to lift weights.
1. The more muscle you have in your body, the more fat you will burn. Without going too deep, 1 pound of muscle will burn an extra 50 calories every day without you doing anything extra. So if your goal is to lose weight, the more muscle you have in your body, the more calories you burn. doing nothing. If you don’t lift a weight and only do cardio, you are destroying your overall results.
Oh and PS, a pound of muscle is denser than a pound of fat, which means it’s smaller for the same weight. Get it?
2. Posture. A slim, hunched girl is not as attractive as a woman with more muscles who is adequately proportionate to her posture. Cardio does any for your overall appearance in addition to fat loss. If you want to stay healthy longer than necessary to exercise your muscles, increase your size and improve not only your appearance, but also the way you hold and move. Cardio does none of that.
Objection 3: Lifting weights makes me look fatter.
My Answer: If you have more than 20 pounds to lose, then yes, lift weights. could they make you look fatter for a while. Let’s go back to my last answer, you burn more calories with more muscle. What does that mean? You lose weight faster! Live! So it may seem like you are gaining weight for the first 2 or 3 months, but most of all, you will reach your goals at least 10 times faster.
Oh, and here’s why you can trust me on this one, plus the fact that I’ve helped countless people lose weight: Would I like people who say they read my blog to walk around looking fat? That’s right, I want you to look sexy.
-Kian