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Dispelling Myths that Discourage Women from Weight Lifting
Have you ever asked yourself why so many women are not aggressive in the weightlifting exercise? If you have, then this is the answer, the myths about effects of weight lifting on women. This article will show you that the myths aren't true and also explain why lifting weights using barbells and dumbbells are the best workout possible for women.
The first myth to be dispelled is that lifting weights makes a woman muscle-bound. This myth does a lot of discouragement to women since women by nature want to be tender and feminine. Therefore whatever it is that will provide a reverse for this is just but an enemy. That is why, I start by stating that, while strength training will help you build muscle, women simply don't have enough testosterone, a key hormone for building muscle, to become muscle-bound and appear masculine.
Therefore any argument aimed at threatening women towards muscularity lacks a logical base. The holders of such an argument should know that the muscle women are able to build when lifting weights will only improve their appearance and femininity. They will appear more attractive than when they were not doing so.
The second myth states that if women lift weights, they should do high reps to tone their muscles. Most strength training workouts for women prescribe only 2-3 sets of 12 or more repetitions. While higher repetitions have their place in a woman's workout, they do little to improve her appearance. If looking and feeling your best is your goal, which is always the case, then most of your workouts should utilize sets of low to moderate repetitions (5-8) for multiple sets.
At the same time performing 3-5 sets of 5-8 reps is especially beneficial when dieting, as it is the best rep range to use to ensure you hold onto your muscle. Remember the more muscle you can hold onto when dieting, helps you burn fat faster and keep it off once you achieve your weight loss goals. Sets of 12-15 reps will only make you look and feel worse during your diet and must be avoided as much as possible.
Women are also misled that they should only use machines instead of dumbbells and barbells. It is true that training with machines has its place, such as helping you learn the basics of strength training, workouts using free weights such as barbells and dumbbell, are the way to go. Free weight training produces greater benefits than training with a machine. There are so many reasons to support this, with the most important being the fact that it enables you to perform exercises that train many large muscle groups at once. This implies that you burn more calories for every single set you perform and will get better results faster.
The following example further illustrates this, doing a set of barbell or dumbbell squats trains your calves, quads, hamstrings, lower back, and abs. If you compare this to a popular machine exercise for legs such as leg extensions which targets only your quadriceps and no other area, you will find that barbell or dumbbell are the best. More benefits of barbell and dumbbell based workouts is that they are superior to machines for improving your strength, balance, and bone density. These are some benefits which become especially important as you get older, since being stronger and maintaining balance will help you better perform daily tasks and decrease the risk of injury from falls. Increasing bone density on the other hand will help decrease your risk of osteoperosis and its related complications.
The final myth is that a woman must lose weight first before she could lift weight. This is a myth which just exists because women often become discouraged when they diet and lift weights since the weight loss that occurs isn't reflected on the scale. It should be known that the weight lost is body fat, not the muscle you need in order to stay healthy. Lifting weights while dieting will help a woman keep the muscle she has and ensuring that the weight lost is body fat. Facts behind this states that combining aerobic exercise, dieting, and strength training leads to greater losses of body fat and weight than when you only diet or diet and do aerobic exercise.
Now that women have realized that these are just baseless myths, they should take weightlifting as part of their training and the result will be so great.
About the Author Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com |
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