Heres the first part of a two part blog on weight lifting for women, and why you should have this as an integral part of your program, if you want real results. Part two will follow tomorrow evening: Weight lifting throughout the years has long been associated with men, and with size. As a result, this has often discouraged many a female to stay away from weight lifting, and strength training in general. In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in female participation in varying areas of sport, and fitness that used to be heavily male dominant. Many females now have a better understanding of what is necessary for optimal health, and well-being, and resistance training has come in to sharp focus. That said, females do have certain characteristics that need to be taken into consideration such as pregnancy, menstruation, and body composition. Females, though, can, and do, benefit heavily from weight lifting, and the results that it can bring, if it is applied properly, and safely. We need to take into consideration structural, hormonal, and lean body weight differences, but women should not fear weight lifting. They should embrace it. We’re gonna use this blog to ‘de-mystify’ weight lifting for females. A very simple formula can be applied: Lifting weights = More muscle More muscle = Increased metabolism Increased metabolism = Weight loss Simples! The formula above hits the nail on the head for nearly everybody who is looking to improve their health and fitness. To change their body composition. We all want to look good, and feel better about ourselves. We want to be the the ‘Rolls Royce’ version of us. A study by Borgen & Cobin, 1987, found that weight training decreases body fat, whilst increasing fat free weight in women. Pretty obvious. But, even though countless studies have found it to be beneficial to women, many still avoid it out of the fear of having to walk sideways out of the same door that they came through an hour before! Many studies have also found that strength gains do occur without muscle hypertrophy (growth). A study by Staron et al, 1990, found that after completing a 20 week program of resistance training for the lower body, female participants showed a decrease in body fat, but no change in thigh circumference. In simple terms, it means that for the average female it has a positive effect on body composition leading to a reduction in body fat with an increase in strength, but without the change in size. Strong not skinny. Check in tomorrow evening for part two :)
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 20:00:00 +0000