Women’s opinions are divided by this controversial topic.
I met many ladies in my past experience in the gym that told me “Oh, don’t make me lift weights! I don’t want to have big muscles” others that confessed to me that they didn’t want to look like a man…
Fair enough! Nobody wants to make the ‘women-kind’ looking like a crowd of Arnold Schwarzeneggers. Not me at least.
I am a big promoter and fan of femininity. The woman is woman and needs to look like one with some curves, maybe not too many, but not too skinny as well.
Super skinny models are good in pictures and for selling in magazines, in real life we want to be attractive, healthy and toned.
You might be thinking, “Well, but I am fit already with my 3 classes of Zumba a week and my daily run”.
Cardiovascular activity is good for fat burning, but only to a certain extent.
Eventually, if not accompanied by resistance training, your body will start “eating” your muscle tissues and takes you to your plateau where you can’t burn any more fat and you won’t look THAT firm or toned…
So why weight lifting?
Resistance (or weight lifting) workouts help you lose weight when it is done in conjunction with a healthy diet regime. Lifting weights increases the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), as your body demands more oxygen, and keeps it raised for a period of time after the activity is completed.
It ALSO develops muscles, but don’t worry this doesn’t mean you’ll look as big as Mike Tyson.
Women don’t have enough testosterone within the body to become “big”. In order “to gain” you should do heavy lifting training every day for prolonged sessions and modify your diet in order to include many more kcal a day.
We want to build muscles because muscles BURN FAT, even at rest!
Studies prove that a pound of muscles (0.5 kg) can burn up to 20 calories a day.
In order to burn fat, build muscle, shape your body and lose weight, you should lift weights 3 times a week and also pay attention to your diet. Keep doing your 3 classes of Zumba and your runs! Doing resistance and cardiovascular training in conjunction can help you attain a lean, muscular and sculpted body.
Always remember to lift more weights than your muscles are used to.
You should increase the amount of weights you lift once your body gets used to a particular set of weights. You should ensure that the amount of weights you lift enable you to complete the last rep with difficulty. Make changes in your weight lifting regime on a regular basis is essential.
If the body adapts to a certain weight no changes will happen!
Make sure thou that these changes happen slowly in order to prevent stressing your body too much and risk getting injured.
Choose a variety of exercises and rep ranges that target different muscle groups. For example you could do one day upper body and the next day legs, or split the sessions into muscle groups: i.e. legs and abs, chest and back, shoulders and arms…
You should ensure that you do not work the same muscle groups continuously, and you should rest your body on certain days so that you give to your muscle the time to recover and grow.
Remember also that it is important to warm up before a weight session and properly stretch after.
What are your thoughts on weight lifting? Let me know by commenting below.
