Should Women Stick To Cardio Exercise And Stay Away From Lifting Weights?

By Russ Hollywood


Should women lift weights in the gym? This is one of the most commonly asked questions in fitness circles and today you will find the answer. You'll also find out what supplements to take if you are a lady trying to build a lean, toned physique.

The world of exercise and fitness has moved forward incredibly quickly over the last twenty years. Every year there are new developments in sports supplements and training methods, as well as new scientific research on previously unproven theories. It's barely the same world we lived in just 20 yeas ago. Yet despite all of this, there are many people who still have the same mentality which was floating around health clubs and gyms two decades ago.

They'll tell you that you should stay away from protein powder because it will damage your kidneys. They'll lead to you believe you need to spend two hours per day on a treadmill to lose weight. They'll also have you believing that ladies need to stick to lifting pink, fluffy dumbbells for hundreds of repetitions to tone up. One thing is common in these individuals, and that is a lack of results. []

For some reason, huge amounts of exercise enthusiasts are unaware that many of the age old theories and myths surrounding weight loss and muscle building have been scientifically researched and now have either evidence to back them up or evidence to disprove them. Sadly, most people still stick to advice like the things you can read above, which date back decades and have no academic foundations.

If you have always steered clear of the free weights section at your local gym, get ready for a minor shock. Training with weights is actually great for you! This applies both to women who want to get learner and also those who are prioritizing fat loss. Resistance training is crucial and can dramatically increase your results.

What about the old wives tales? Won't you end up getting huge muscles like a bodybuilding competitor?

No. If it were that easy to obtain a bodybuilding physique then most of the men you'd see walking down the street would look like The Rock or Sylvester Stallone! Lifting weights will improve your strength and tone your muscles in a way that cardiovascular exercise simply can not. If you aspire to achieve the lean look demonstrated on athletes such as Jessica Ennis at the recent London Olympics, then lifting is very important.

You certainly do not need to worry about getting big and muscular, because the female body does not have the testosterone levels to create a bulky physique without the outside influence of supplements. For this reason, you also don't need to be afraid of aiming for relatively low repetitions in your sets. You'll often hear that women should do sets consisting of 25 or more reps, but this is old advice which has been proven incorrect.

There is no need to be scared of big movements such as the bench press and squat. In fact, these are the type of multiple joint exercises which will provide you with stunning results if you perform them regularly.

A good supplement plan is very simple. It's easy to over complicate the whole procedure here and end up eating pills with breakfast, lunch and dinner. The truth is when you have a solid diet in place you do not need an endless array of additional products. Ensure you get a top whey protein, but everything else is optional. If your goal is to build more lean muscle than you have right now then you should also look towards adding a creatine monohydrate and glutamine product to that list.

Knowing what supplements to take can become tricky due to the amount of hype out there, so the best advice is to simply get a solid diet in place and then keep things simple. Not only do you now know the answer to the age old question 'Should women lift weights or not?', you are now in a position to help others get to the bottom of this popular fitness myth.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment