Woman probably are traditionally opposed or resistant to weight training programs. This opposition is based on a few, “Myths” such as the fear of getting bigger and looking masculine. In addition the general media, when making reference to exercise, almost always means, aerobic training, and not progressive weight resistance training. As a result, most woman exercise by doing aerobic and cardio, treadmills, bikes, spinning etc. Which is wonderful, but the entire anaerobic, you know muscular development coupled with aerobic work, creates a strong, fit, lean, toned and most of all a healthy body.
So If I want to get you motivated, so you start to think about and then engage in some serious, weight resistant training I have to convince you of the advantages . of doing this. The advantages are both physiological and psychological, and they include.
Improved Health
Aerobic exercise has many health benefits, but within the last few years research into weight training for woman, have documented many of the same health improvements for woman. Weight training is now associated with lower resting heart rate, reductions in blood pressure, improved cholesterol profiles, increased glucose tolerance, and reduced intra-abdominal fat.
Preservation Of Function
Aging is associated with an increase risk of disease and loss of function. Most of this functional loss is do to reductions in muscular strength, endurance and flexibility. After age 50 muscle strength is lost at the rate of 12% to 14% per decade. To combat this fact, strength training is vital, For some woman, strength gains of more than 30% and muscle mass increases of 12% have been gained within two months of a well thought out program. It kinda means, if you work at it, that 20 years of muscle loss can be re gained in only 8 weeks, an almost unbelievable fact. Further studies have shown that resistance trained older adults had cross sectional area of muscle identical to a 28 year old.
Preservation of Bone Mass
Osteoporosis is a concern for many post menopausal American Woman. there are many risk factors but, anywhere from 15% to 30% of bone mass can be lost during this period. Unfortunately research to date has shown that exercise and medications do not regress osteoporosis, they only slow down the loss of bone mass.
Weight Control
Almost all American woman list, “Weight Control” as the primary reason for exercising, take a look at the cardio room in any gym, you have to wait for a treadmill. What you need to know is that performing weight training versus moderate aerobic exercise. Moderate aerobic exercise has a metabolic cost of 5-7 calories per minute for a woman of average fitness. Moderate to vigorous strength training has a metabolic cost of 5-8 calories per minute. This means woman will experience a similar caloric burn with either aerobic or weight training, but with a major difference: Moderate aerobic activity primarily recruits slow twitch muscle fibers, so when you stop exercising, your metabolic rate returns to normal very quickly. Weight training is performed at a higher intensity and recruits both slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers, so the metabolic rate stays elevated much longer, which means you burn more calories after weight training than aerobic training. You burn calories for up to 12 or more hours after you stop working out. But on top of that weight training increases lean body mass. Muscle mass accounts for about 22% of the metabolic rate, so the more muscle you have the more fat your burn.
President Obama’s Health Reform Bills now in the Congress
The new health reform bills should concentrate on preventative medicine, and the best preventative medicine in the world is simply exercise not only for woman, but for almost every one. A well thought out exercise protocol would reduce accidents, disease, ageing. We can only imagine the amount of money that could be saved via this path.
Psychological benefits:
The results of a study on college age woman who participated in strength training at least twice a week for 12 weeks found that:
- 97% indicated they felt healthier and more fit
- 51% indicated improvements in their body image
- 85% indicated an improved attitude toward themselves
All types of exercise have been shown to reduce depression, stress and anxiety. So what’s stopping you from some serious weight training? Maybe some myths you have heard of along the way. Now is the time to: Separate the facts from fiction.
“I don’t want to get big… or less feminine”
You need to understand most woman simply do not have the necessary quantities of the male hormone testosterone to build muscles like a man. (In very rare cases, some woman do have the potential for above average muscle gain.) So if you are one in a million….who knows you may like what you can become.
“My friend started lifting weights and she gained weight”
That can be a good thing, yes it can……muscle weighs more, by volume, that fat does. A pound of fat takes up 1.1 liters of space, a pound of muscle takes up only .9 liters of space. A pound of fat takes up 18% more space than a pound of muscle. BUT your overall body composition changes and your size changes, and you look and feel better, and then guess what…. You too will lose weight.
“Will my muscles turn to fat if I stop training?”
Muscle and fat are two entirely different types of tissue and one can never become or turn into the other. Muscle is muscle, and fat is fat. When you stop training, daily caloric expenditure decreases, and over a period of time your BMR will slow down. If you don’t eat less you will gain weight. The simple solution to this problem, is don’t stop…it’s good for you forever.
“In order to lose fat, don’t I need to burn fat?”
No you don’t. If you diet and restrict the calories you intake, you will lose weight, and some of that weight will be fat and some of it will be muscle. If you don’t do intensive strength weight training, and you do go on a calorie restrictive diet, you will lose about 5 lbs of muscle, for every 20 lbs of weight. If you do work at high intensity weight training, you will lose less muscle, get stronger, feel better, and look great.
“Since most woman can’t gain tons of muscle, can I gain strength?”
Strength and muscle size though related, are different concepts. Strength is neurological. Woman gain strength at the same rate as men. During the first 8 weeks of a strength training program the dramatic increases in strength are due to neurological improvement, not muscle hypertrophy or size increases. The amount of size a woman can gain, once again is limited to testosterone and genetics., but you can continue to gain strength.
In Conclusion
Team up with a certified fitness professional to work with you, and design a program for you as an individual. One that will increase you strength, cardio stamina, muscle, fat reduction, increase your resting metabolic rate, reduce the chance of many diseases, create balance and flexibility, and work core functions, so that every day physical activity becomes something you do without effort. The rewards are endless, and there is no time like right now to give me a call at 954 695 7178 to show you how you can do and be whatever it is you care to if you have the professional guidance, and the motivation and drive that it takes to build a more beautiful and healthy you…