MYTHS about weight training in Women
- Women can’t get as strong.
Women have a potential for developing muscular fitness that often remains untapped. In fact, the average woman gains strength at a slightly faster rate that the average man does.
- Strength training de-feminizes women.
The potential benefits of strength training like functional, physical, mental and health is just as appropriate and available to women as they are to men.
- Liftingweights will cause women to develop relatively large muscles.
In reality, women don’t have the genetic potential to develop large muscles because; they don’t have enough testosterone hormones, which is needed for the development of muscle bulk.
- Strength training will make a woman muscle-bound.
Muscle-bound is a term that connotes lack of flexibility. Not only will proper strength training not make a woman less flexible, in most cases, it will make her more flexible.
- A woman’s muscles will turn to fat when she stops training.
Muscles cannot turn into fat. Muscles simply don’t have the physiological capacity to change from one type of tissue to another. Muscles have the property of “use it or lose it.” If a woman doesn’t use a particular muscle, that muscle will literally waste away (atrophy).
- Strength training increases a woman’s need for vitamins.
The vitamin needs of a physically active woman are generally no greater than those of a sedentary one. Because vitamins do not contribute significantly to a woman’s body structure and do not provide her with a direct source of energy, a woman who engages in strength training receives no benefit from taking an excessive dose of vitamin supplements. Eating a variety of healthful foods will ensure that a woman’s intake of vitamins is adequate.
- Strength training is for young women.
It’s never too late for a woman to enhance the quality of her life by improving her level of muscular fitness. Proper strength training has numerous benefits to women of all ages and fitness levels, including the fact that it can help extend a woman’s functional life span.
WOMEN & STRENGTH TRAINING
Here are the reasons why women must do weight training
You’ll Lose more Fat
If you think cardio is the key to reducing belly fat then you must read the following article, In the research conducted few months back in Australia the dieters were divided into two groups—no other exercise except aerobic exercise only and weight training—they all lost around 21 pounds, but the women doing weight training shed three more kilos of fat than those who didn’t pump iron. The weight training loss was almost pure fat; the others lost fat and muscle.
Other research on dieters who don’t lift shows that, on average, 75 percent of their weight loss is from fat, while 25 percent is from muscle. Muscle loss may drop your scale weight, but it doesn’t improve your reflection in the mirror and it makes you more likely to gain back the flab you lost. However, if you weight train as you diet, you’ll protect your hard-earned muscle and burn more fat.
Your Clothes Will Fit Better
Research shows that between the ages of 30 and 50, you’ll likely lose 12/15 percent of your body’s total muscle. Worse yet, it’s likely to be replaced by fat over time, says a study. And that increases your waist size, because one pound of fat takes up 18 percent more space than one pound of muscle.
Burn More Calories
Weight training increases the number of calories you burn because after each strength workout, your muscles need energy to repair their fibers. In fact, metabolisms increased remained for 39 hours afterward. They also burned a greater percentage of calories from fat compared with those who didn’t lift.
Lifting gives you a better burn during exercise too: Doing a circuit of eight exercises (which takes about ten minutes) can burn 150 to 220 calories. That’s about what you’d burn if you ran at a 10-mile-per-hour pace for the same duration.
Diet Will Improve
Exercise helps your brain stick to a diet plan. Research shows that those who didn’t follow a 4/5 -hours-a-week training regimen ate more than their allotted 1,500 calories a day. Diet and exercise likely remind you to stay on track, aiding your weight-loss goals.
Can Handle Stress Better
The fittest people exhibit lower levels of stress hormones than those who were the least fit. After a stressful situation, the blood pressure levels of people with the most muscle returned to normal faster than the levels of those with the least muscle.
Can Be Happier
Walking or Yoga isn’t the only kind of exercise. Researchers found that people who performed three weight training workouts a week for six months significantly improved their scores on measures of anger and overall mood.
Build Stronger Bones
As you age, considerable reduction of bone mass takes place, which increases your likelihood of getting fractures. But 12 / 16 weeks of resistance training increased hip bone density and elevated blood levels of osteocalcin—a marker of bone growth–by 19 percent.
Get In to Shape Faster
The term cardio shouldn’t describe only aerobic exercise, circuit training with weights raises your heart rate 15 beats per minute higher than if you ran at 60 to 70 percent of your max heart rate. This approach strengthens muscles and provides cardiovascular benefits similar to those of aerobic exercise—so you save time without sacrificing results.
Your Heart Will Be Healthier
People who did three total-body weight training sessions a week for two months decreased their diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) that’s enough to reduce the risk of a stroke by 40 percent and the chance of a heart attack by 15 percent.
You’ll Live Longer
Total body strength is linked to lower risks of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.
MAHENDRA GOKHALE
CSCS, CSCC (AUS)
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