Women And Weight Training

Our society loves beauty. The most beautiful bodies are
symmetrical, lean and firm. So why are most women starving
themselves and spending hours on cardio machines trying to be
skinny? Lack of knowledge! Most women don’t understand the
importance of weight training and how it can help shape their
bodies into fat burning machines. The more strong active muscles
you have the more fat your body will burn. Remember, muscle
burns fat!!

I hear women say that they are afraid to weight train because
they don’t want to get “big and bulky”. Women who weight train
won’t increase their muscle size much, just their muscle’s
density and strength. So forget about that “bulking up” fear.
As a woman ages, she begins to loose more muscle because after
puberty your essential muscle growth is over and your muscle
starts to deteriorate. The act of pregnancy further accelerates
your muscle loss because the amount of protein your baby needs
to develop requires the baby to steal protein (muscle) from you!
Furthermore, pre-menopausal, menopausal and post menopausal
women have lower hormone levels causing accelerated muscle loss.
Weight training with a proper nutrition plan will help re-build
your lost muscle.

So why is muscle so important? Muscle is the driving force
behind your metabolism. The more muscle you have, the more fat
and calories you will burn. A good metabolism doesn’t happen by
accident, yes genetics play a part in metabolism, but your
life’s choices affect your metabolism as well. Some keys to a
good metabolism are: weight training, a nutritious diet, an
active lifestyle and a consistency in each.

We are often programmed to think we have to weigh a certain
amount to be happy. We say to ourselves “If only I could weigh
what I did in high school”. You need to get rid of that scale
mentality. Who cares how much you weigh. The most athletic
bodies are often considered overweight if you place them on the
standard height/weight chart or BMI chart. How is that possible
you ask? Because muscle is so dense that it weighs much more
than fat. Muscle also holds about 60% more water than fat tissue
causing muscular people to weigh much more than their “skinny
fat” counterparts. Since muscle weighs more than fat, don’t
think that you have to be a certain weight. What you should be
most concerned about is your muscle mass % and your body fat%,
your body composition. How much muscle and fat is on your body?
Or are you firm and tight? To be “lean” you need to have a high
percentage of muscle and a lower amount of body fat. That way
you can see those sexy muscles your fat is hiding.

So how do you go about getting those muscles you ask?? Weight
train! There are 3 larger main muscles that our bodies are
comprised of, your legs, back and chest. Metabolism will be
affected most if these 3 muscle groups are emphasized since
they comprise the majority of the muscle mass on our bodies.

Let’s talk about the area that all women are concerned about
the most, legs and your butt. Leg muscles are the biggest
strongest muscles of our body. The majority of women don’t
realize how strong and powerful their legs can be without
getting bulky. I know that most women have a fear of lifting
with their legs because they often carry a higher amount of fat
in their legs and therefore fear adding bulk to their lower
half through strength training. As women we don’t have the
levels of testosterone necessary to build big bulky muscles as
men do, so don’t think that if you lift with your legs you will
make them significantly bigger. Initially yes, a small amount
of muscle growth will occur and before you
start loose your fat on top of this muscle, you may notice a
slight size increase, but this is temporary. Shortly thereafter,
you will notice your legs start to gain new
shape, firmness and a leaner appearance. All of which is
caused by these muscles becoming more active and therefore
burning more fat.

Oh my favorite, the back! Most women are absolutely unaware of
the huge potential fat burning muscles they have on their back.
Our backs are full of muscles. There are tons of them holding
our spine, ribs and shoulders in place. These muscles are very
important to our health. How often do we hear about back and
neck pain? I truly believe that weak back muscles cause much of
the pain. Lifting with your back requires proper form and
extreme focus on the muscles you are working.

Finally, our chest muscles. I am talking about your pectorals,
the muscles all women need to embrace. Pregnancy and
breast-feeding do horrible things to a woman’s breasts. The
looks of a woman’s breast goes beyond the mammary tissue, it
lies underneath in the pectoral muscles. Pregnancy can rob our
bodies of muscle which means the muscle that once lifted our
breast now is gone and it too needs to be rebuilt. If you want
to give yourself a natural breast lift and boost your
metabolism, build up your chest.

You must find a way to challenge your muscles. Lifting the same
weight every time you perform an exercise will maintain what
muscle you have, but not change them. I don’t know many people
that like spending an hours at the gym every week to stay
exactly the same. We all crave to improve ourselves, so we must
challenge our muscles by lifting weights that are challenging.
There is nothing complicated about this, make sure you find
yourself slightly challenged by your lifting program.

Lastly change it up! If your muscles get used to the same thing
over and over again they will get bored just like you do.
Boredom causes your muscle to not respond just as it causes you
to not want to do your boring workout. Don’t be afraid to
change, try some new exercises, change the number of sets and
reps of your exercises, increase or decrease your rest time
between sets and workouts and change the order of your
exercises. Remember muscle burns fat.

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