The misconceptions about girls and weights in training can be so far away from the truth that the probability of Chris Hemsworth landing on your doorstep with a special edition jumbo box of Rafaello bonbons tonight is far more plausible.
Although most of these misconceptions are unisex, there are some that concern women much more than men. So Ladies First! The myth we are busting in this article concerns weight training for women.
„If I start lifting, I’ll become a bodybuilder“ – myth #1 among women [as though it’s something bad?! ?].
There is no woman on Earth who did or did not set foot in a gym, that hasn’t ever had that thought in her mind. This is the eternal stereotype of lifting enlarging your muscles to an unimaginable size. And then you suddenly start looking like an experienced heavy-lifter or at least a bodybuilder from the Mister Olympia contest. Do you believe that?
How come you will NOT become „a bodybuilder“, and you will not get huge muscles from lifting alone:
No testosterone, no muscles.
Women have testosterone concentration but about 1/10th of the amount in men’s bodies, which is critical for building muscles. Also, ladies have higher levels of the other two hormones, opposite to testosterone – estrogen, and progesterone.
The usual training patterns aiming at the strength and muscle mass are not typical for a lady’s gym routine.
Muscle growth workouts are just not the type of thing a girl usually does in the gym. These workouts include heavyweights. That is more than 80% of the maximum strength per exercise. Series of 6-10 repeats, and long beaks, often reaching 2 min.
It’s not the relation between girls and weights, it’s food that is causing the variations in the body weight, and that refers to the body volume as well.
I use the word “body”, because:
Volume, coming from too much eating, usually is due to fat and water retention, rather than muscles.
BONUS: girls and weights in training helps fighting osteoporosis.
It helps the bones and ligaments and the links among them. It delays the processes of aging, as well as reduces bone density decrease.
Wrong statements about girls and weights in training for women?
“Women should not lift anything heavier than 2 kg”.
The truth is that women can lift unexpectedly heavy weights and at the same time the speed of growth of their clean muscle mass will remain considerably slower than it is with men.
This is due to the specifics of their physiology and to the fact that – compared to men – ladies produce much less testosterone. This means that if you add 2 workouts with weights in your weekly plan, you will increase your clean muscle mass, but not so much its volume.
Also, weights training can lead to the production of somatotropin (the growth hormone) in the female body. Be aware that it increases dramatically the metabolism of fats and is considered to be one of the leading factors in delaying the processes of aging. Quite a piece of good news indeed!
“Women should not lift weights in order not to become bulky!”
I cannot imagine anyone else has heard this more times than me. Over the years this has remained one of the main reasons for ladies to refrain from heavier weights, and sometimes from weights at all!
The photos of bodybuilding models and athletes with muscular bodies are the reason for this notion. However, you should be aware that it takes years of training and a determined nutritional and supplements plan for you to grow to the size of a Hulk woman.
To put it in other words: you need at least 5-6 workouts a week, focused on weights and a lot of feeding to get to such a size. Adding a training day or two of weights workouts will not “bloat you”, but will only tighten your muscles better and help you lose the excess fat.
A combination of light weights and lots of repetitions is the ideal way to tone your muscles.
Тhis can hardly be further away from the truth! The reason is that this way of training – similar to aerobic activities – is focused on endurance and muscle type 1 – slow muscle fibers.
To build and shape your muscles it is necessary to activate type 2 muscles, and that is achieved with explosive movements and heavier weights.
If you do 15 repetitions from a certain exercise, but you can easily do another 5 or 10 reps, then you are quite far from activating these muscle fibers, as well as from your optimal lifting weight. Lightweights can be used to make your muscles more defined. However, that refers only to the cases where you workout by the point of failure or you transition from heavier to the lighter weight, again for the same purpose.
How should I train with weights, in order to tone my muscles and lose weight?
- Split the muscle groups into different days and train one main muscle group and one small one per day. If you are training the whole body and two muscle groups at the same time, then give them a break of at least 2 days afterward. Big muscle groups (legs, back, pecs) need 72 hours to recover after weights training.
- Start with the bigger muscle groups. In order to build your workout properly, it is important to have priority muscle groups and to train them in the right order. For example, if you want to train your back and your biceps in the same workout, it is not recommended to start with the biceps. This may hinder your proper and full focus on the muscles of the back.
- Train with optimal weights, not with light ones. If you do between 10 and 15 reps, then have the last 2-3 feel like real last ones you can do, and not like you could do another 10. That would mean you are activating the fast muscle fibers, as well as a higher % of the muscle fiber. This way you will make your training more efficient.
- In a weight, workout do between 6 and 10 exercises. The purpose of that is to have the necessary volume of the workout without it being too long and having the body enter another energy supply protocol.
- Make breaks of about 1 min to 1 min and ½ in order to recover, but not dilute the density of the workout.
Girls and weights training – bestefficient solutions
At Bestefficient I have developed programs, suitable for both moderate workouts, as well as heavier weights training. If you want to make one more step in the right direction, have in mind that such a plan is half of the success.
Most important: girls and weights in training are one of the most underestimated combinations of building perfect shape. It intensifies the processes of tightening and weight loss. Last, but not least – improves their health indicators in the long run. Do weights training both for your health and looks.
