Women And Weight Training

Our society loves beauty. The most beautiful bodies arensymmetrical, lean and firm. So why are most women starvingnthemselves and spending hours on cardio machines trying to benskinny? Lack of knowledge! Most women don’t understand thenimportance of weight training and how it can help shape theirnbodies into fat burning machines. The more strong active musclesnyou have the more fat your body will burn. Remember, musclenburns fat!!

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

So why is muscle so important? Muscle is the driving forcenbehind your metabolism. The more muscle you have, the more fatnand calories you will burn. A good metabolism doesn’t happen bynaccident, yes genetics play a part in metabolism, but yournlife’s choices affect your metabolism as well. Some keys to angood metabolism are: weight training, a nutritious diet, annactive lifestyle and a consistency in each.

We are often programmed to think we have to weigh a certainnamount to be happy. We say to ourselves “If only I could weighnwhat I did in high school”. You need to get rid of that scalenmentality. Who cares how much you weigh. The most athleticnbodies are often considered overweight if you place them on thenstandard height/weight chart or BMI chart. How is that possiblenyou ask? Because muscle is so dense that it weighs much morenthan fat. Muscle also holds about 60% more water than fat tissuencausing muscular people to weigh much more than their “skinnynfat” counterparts. Since muscle weighs more than fat, don’tnthink that you have to be a certain weight. What you should benmost concerned about is your muscle mass % and your body fat%,nyour 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 highnpercentage of muscle and a lower amount of body fat. That waynyou can see those sexy muscles your fat is hiding.

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

Let’s talk about the area that all women are concerned about nthe most, legs and your butt. Leg muscles are the biggestnstrongest muscles of our body. The majority of women don’tnrealize how strong and powerful their legs can be withoutngetting bulky. I know that most women have a fear of liftingnwith their legs because they often carry a higher amount of fatnin their legs and therefore fear adding bulk to their lowernhalf through strength training. As women we don’t have thenlevels of testosterone necessary to build big bulky muscles asnmen do, so don’t think that if you lift with your legs you willnmake them significantly bigger. Initially yes, a small amountnof muscle growth will occur and before you nstart loose your fat on top of this muscle, you may notice anslight size increase, but this is temporary. Shortly thereafter,nyou will notice your legs start to gain new nshape, firmness and a leaner appearance. All of which is ncaused by these muscles becoming more active and thereforenburning more fat.

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

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

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

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