The Importance Of Weight Training For Women
48348
Health & Fitness > Muscle Building
Oct 12, 2007
pptwhite
The Importance Of Weight Training For Women
The benefits of lifting weights, also known as weight training, strength training or resistance training, include stronger muscles, a stronger heart, a leaner physique, and a body better able to support your everyday needs and activities. However despite its many benefits women, still tend to shy away from this beneficial form of exercise because of a misplaced fear that they will "bulk" up and become like an overly muscular body builder. It seems to be many a man's dream to have big, bulky muscles. So why is it that men, whose bodies naturally contain much greater amounts of testosterone and growth hormones, can lift weights, yet never achieve those "Terminator" like muscles? Well, unless they are supplementing with dangerous and unhealthful steroids or similar substances, most men do not naturally bulk up by lifting weights, and neither will most women. The idea that women get big, ugly muscles from weight training is a misconception. The fact of the matter is that women must lift weights in order to achieve the lean, sculpted bodies they desire. If a woman does happen to have the genetic disposition to bulk up quickly, there are easy ways to alter a workout to prevent too much muscle gain, while still increasing strength and rapidly burning fat. The idea that weightlifting causes insanely huge muscle buildup is largely a creation of the media. It's true that some female weightlifters take steroids, and these hormones do make them look very masculine, and women who take performance-enhancing drugs should expect to develop deeper voices and more masculine bodies, because these are the known side-effects, after all anabolic steroids contain elevated amounts of testosterone, the male hormone. The average woman who weight trains, however, will simply achieve a slim, healthy body without adding unwanted muscle mass. In fact, this is how boxers, wrestlers, and other athletes who need a lot of strength without a lot of extra weight (muscle mass) train to stay in shape. The process of weight training involves controlled lifting and working out with weights. Two basic terms related to weightlifting are "reps" and "sets". A rep describes the complete act of raising and lowering a weight during a single act of exercise. A set describes the number of times a particular rep is performed. For example, when a person does five reps of a squat, they squat down and stand up five times, continuously, before stopping and either moving on to another exercise or finishing their workout. Those five squats would equal one set. A balanced weight-training session will include several sets of different exercises. A more advanced weight-training method would be to perform exercises of only 6 or fewer reps, per exercise. This would make the time under tension very short and primarily train your nervous system, which would allow you to gain strength without building much muscle. This technique should be done using the maximal weight you can lift without losing perfect form for no more than 6 repetitions. Doing more than 6 reps allows for greater muscle development, presumably something women generally do not want to achieve. Another method that has been around for a long time is performing as many repetitions as possible, with the idea of toning your muscles. Well, like a lot of uninformed ideas, this concept is false. You will build stamina and endurance within a muscle through multiple repetitions, but it will not shape or tone your muscles. If your goal is to build stamina without gaining muscle mass, perform anywhere from 15 to 30-plus repetitions of a single exercise. These two solid principles will help you benefit from weight training without bulking up. Although, as stated in the beginning, chances are that no matter how much weight you lift, you will never have the problem of building too much muscle mass. It is always possible for you to gain fat, and with it a little additional muscle, so you will feel bigger, but remember, that is mostly the result of the fat, and I guarantee that once you lose the fat, you also will lose the feeling of bulkiness. Ladies, I encourage you: Let go of your preconceived ideas about weight training. Do not fear it. Embrace your weightlifting potential! Your body and overall health will benefit so much more from it than from spending hours on the treadmill.
Scott White is owner of the corporations Personal Trainer | Personal Training Video Production Arizona and a href="http://www.jetcharterarizona.com">Jet Charter
send email to pptwhite
Write a Review
Add to My Favorite
Refer it to Friend
Report Article
Other links owned by this user
An explantation as to how search engines work and how information about your website is gathered so that it can be properly ranked according to its source material.
Category:
As one of the hottest new supplements on the market today, coral calcium is not entirely good for your health. Learn the truth about it.
Category:
Just because a celebrity endorses a diet does not mean that it is healthy for you. Celebrities often endorse products for the paycheck, not because the product works, so research a product or service before you buy it, don't just take Paris Hilton's word.
Category:
Several of the more important aspects to website marketing are discussed to help you increse traffic and the profitability of your website.
Category:
A few examples as to how you can create an instant rapport with someone, such as making eye contact, respecting other's personal space and avoiding personal questions are discussed when meeting new people and winning them over.
Category:
Weight training will help women to build muscles while losing weight, without worrying about over developing their muscles.
Category:
Adding several different forms of exercise to your workouts will give you the variety you need to stay motivated, a few suggestions include, jogging, weight lifting, pilates and martial arts.
Category:
Podcasts are a great marketing tool to promote your website, bringing in more visitors, while increasing your website profile and ranking with the search engines.
Category:
Holistic health explores the relationship between the mind, body and spirit and how these three components work together to create total body health and wellness.
Category:
Blogs are the fastest growing medium on the interent today and by incorporating a blog into your website you will maximize the amount of traffic you receive as well as catching the eye of the major search engines like Google and Yahoo.
Category:
Other links at Health & Fitness > Muscle Building
Body building has been causing a lot of waves within the past few years.
Category:
Bodyweight exercise can be used by itself or in conjunction with other resistance training to build strong, lean, athletic bodies. Learn how to use bodyweight calisthenics for the best results you can see, feel and use.
Category:
Basic calisthenics have been used for centuries to build strong, lean, athletic bodies without equipment. Unfortunately, they are often overlooked today. Find out how to make bodyweight exercise an important part of your workout program.
Category:
The more work you put into something, the better results you will achieve. This has always been a widely accepted truth that applies to many areas of life. The harder you study, the better grades you will achieve. The more time you spend fine-tuning
Category:
Body Building concentrates on increasing the body muscles and the body mass. There are ten quick tips that can be followed to build the body mass. These tips help to increase the anabolism in the body and to create a positive nitrogen balance.
Category:
Site Sponsor
Directory Statistics
Articles: 68285
Categories: 501
Yahoo Entertainment
