Should Women Lift Weights?

Many women seem to avoid training with weights or resistance machines and often choose the less effective, less time efficient and overall less “bang for the buck” form of exercise; cardio.

Why do so many women avoid training with weights? It might be due to the common, false, erroneous and ridiculous belief that women will “bulk up”.

Let me put it this way… many Men are trying VERY hard to put on muscle mass by using every single advantage they can find (which mostly don’t work) including weight gainers, meal prepping, protein shakes and countless hours in the gym with just a few pounds of muscle to show for it. So, what makes women so lucky that a little weight training can cause them to bulk up so easily!? The truth is, women will have a very HARD time bulking up from weight training due to hormonal and structural differences from men.

Weight training is in fact the best approach towards achieving the lean and toned physique that many women desire.

See, cardio is not a very effective form of exercise. It does not burn much fat (it burns NO fat unless you are eating a calorie restricted diet), it doesn’t build much muscle and if done long enough it will wear away your joint tissue down to the bone.

The KEY to all aspects of fitness is stimulating the muscle.

What is more effective; walking, jogging or sprinting? If you said sprinting you are obviously correct. Why is that? It is because sprinting produces a deeper level of fatigue with a higher level of intensity through a more powerful muscle contraction. Running as fast as you can will engage your fastest twitch muscle fibers which is most responsible for growth, strength and has a profound effect on improving your metabolism.

A higher level of intensity will also mobilize more carbohydrate within your muscles and burn more body fat with the aid of adrenaline. Adrenaline helps to quickly mobilize fat and carbs for energy through something called an amplification cascade. So as long as you are training hard and intensely, no matter what form of exercise you do, you will be reaping the most fat burning benefit from that exercise.

But, the purpose of exercise is not to burn calories or burn fat; despite the uninformed claims of the fitness industry. The purpose of exercise is to maintain or build lean muscle tissue while fat is lost through a calorie restricted diet. Muscle is the most metabolic expensive tissue in the human body; meaning it uses and requires a lot of caloric energy. The amount of muscle you have plays a large role in the “speed” of your metabolism. Therefore, preserving and adding muscle tissue will have a profound effect on attaining a lean and toned physique.

Traditional “cardio” exercises do not build or maintain muscle tissue. They will actually cause you to lose muscle over time if done too frequently. Combine a calorie restricted diet with hours of cardio and you’ll most likely see no results and make it even harder to lose body at in the future.

Resistance training has also been shown to drastically increase bone density as well. Since osteoporosis affects over 55% percent of men and women age 50 and older, weight training should be in your arsenal or osteoporosis defense.

Resistance training is the most effective way to improve all aspects of health whether you are a man or a woman and is the most effective exercise approach when it comes to fat loss, improvements in strength and mobility, metabolic improvements and a laundry list of other benefits. So whether you’re old or young, male or female, tall or short, skinny or heavy… train with resistance or weights!