Monday, July 13, 2009
OK I'll try to keep this brief, but this is a subject I tend to fly off the handle over. It just irks me when I hear women--in the same breathe--complain about how much they want to get in shape, but they won't lift weights because they don't want to get "big." Now that's just silly! What in the world gives women the idea that our bodies can come even close to producing the amount of the hormone necessary to build "bulky" muscles--testosterone? Calm down ladies! You will not bulk up and certainly won't get bigger by incorporating resistance training into your fitness plan. It's quite the opposite.
So how, then, do the women displayed on pages of bodybuilding magazines look that way? Glad you asked....
In order to build the kind of muscle you see these manly women sporting--no pun intended--you need to take 'stuff.' These ladies have done anything and everything to pack on the muscle; things like extremely high calorie diets, extremely heavy weight lifting--the kind where you need 2 spotters just to bust out a single repetition, STEROIDS (and the like--which are ILLEGAL by the way). Oh, and worst of all, many actually inject themselves with male hormones!!! No lie! Now I really don't know what would drive a woman to take it that far, but if you don't plan to do any of the above, you're safe.
Including weight training in your fitness regimen will not only help you achieve your goals faster; it will help shape your muscles. Furthermore, lifting very light weights that produce little or no resistance does nothing for you. Muscle responds to resistance, and if it's too light, then there's no reason for the body to change. Women who concentrate only on cardio will have a very hard time achieving the look that they want. Now this doesn't mean stop doing your cardio. Balancing weight training, cardiovascular training and proper diet is the key to success. If you have all three ingredients, you can't be stopped baby!
So how, then, do the women displayed on pages of bodybuilding magazines look that way? Glad you asked....
In order to build the kind of muscle you see these manly women sporting--no pun intended--you need to take 'stuff.' These ladies have done anything and everything to pack on the muscle; things like extremely high calorie diets, extremely heavy weight lifting--the kind where you need 2 spotters just to bust out a single repetition, STEROIDS (and the like--which are ILLEGAL by the way). Oh, and worst of all, many actually inject themselves with male hormones!!! No lie! Now I really don't know what would drive a woman to take it that far, but if you don't plan to do any of the above, you're safe.
Including weight training in your fitness regimen will not only help you achieve your goals faster; it will help shape your muscles. Furthermore, lifting very light weights that produce little or no resistance does nothing for you. Muscle responds to resistance, and if it's too light, then there's no reason for the body to change. Women who concentrate only on cardio will have a very hard time achieving the look that they want. Now this doesn't mean stop doing your cardio. Balancing weight training, cardiovascular training and proper diet is the key to success. If you have all three ingredients, you can't be stopped baby!
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