Why Women Should Lift Weights

A lot of women are scared of lifting weights. Now I don’t want to generalize – I know that there are loads of women out there who love lifting weights – but the vast majority of women that I have come into contact with all seem to have a fear of it. I have a lot of young ladies in the Fit Club that love doing cardio and kickboxing and Dancersize and Zumba and yoga, but one look towards resistance training and they shy away. They think that it will make them big and bulky and that it will make them look manly. So here I just want to dispel a couple of the myths around weight lifting for women, and why it should be a key part of any woman’s program if you are looking to lose weight and stay fit.

Putting on Muscle is Hard

No one has ever hit the gym and woken up the next day looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. It just doesn’t happen. That is because putting on muscle, just like losing fat, is hard and takes a lot of time and effort. This is especially true for women. You may think that you put on muscle really easily, but you don’t. This is especially true for women because you do not have high enough levels of the hormone testosterone to support serious levels of muscle growth. Even if you look at powerful, strong female athletes like sprinters, although they may look big and muscly, that is due to extremely intense training over months and years. No matter what kind of genetics you’ve got, you won’t develop that kind of physique after a few sessions in the gym, unless you’re doing something to load up on testosterone.

It Burns Fat

Unlike traditional cardio training, weight training burns calories long after you have finished. If you sit on a bike for an hour you may burn more calories than you would in a resistance session, but the minute that you step off the bike, this calorie burning will sputter and stop. By contrast, the ‘Afterburn Effect’ of weight training is significant and lasts for a long time after you’ve finished, sometimes up to over 24 hours depending on the type and intensity of your session, which will work wonders for your waistline.

It Gets You Toned

One of the problems with traditional cardio training is that although it will help you to lose fat, it will not help to shape up your ‘problem areas’. If for example you weigh 150 pounds, and most of your weight is collected around your thighs, if all you do is cardio, you might lose 50 pounds, but still have stubborn fat around your thigh area.

You will be at a healthy weight, but you might not have the body that you want. Now weight lifting is not a miracle cure for these stubborn areas of fat, but weight training will more likely give you that toned and sculpted look that is so sought after, but is almost impossible to achieve with traditional cardio training.

It Prevents Osteoporosis

One of the big problems women experience is degeneration of their bones starting around menopause. Numerous studies have found that resistance training helps prevent the loss of bone mass. Evidently some of the hormones that are produced as a result of intense effort workouts like weight lifting helps strengthen bones and prevents decay. That is massive for women past 40.

So there we go – just a few reasons why you should include weight training into your training program if you are looking to lose weight and tone up. Lose any of preconceptions that you might have, and I promise you’ll be amazed by the results.