Why Women Should Do Weight Training

I want to, you know, tone up.

A lot of the people I talk to about fitness have a lot of major fitness misconceptions: bicep curls should be done in the squat rack, squats are bad for your knees, the more instability you introduce the better, and my personal favourite: -> there are workouts for men and workouts for women. It amazes me that there is a vast majority of women out there who think they need to do 1000 reps with 2lbs and that will make them sexy. For the guys, well, that’s another story for a different post, but mostly it involves a disbelief in stretching, core work, and cardio.

I listen to a lot of radio shows and podcasts from fitness professionals, and the advice ranges from great, to terrible, to dangerous, to just plain silly. A common theme in the questions women ask is about how to lose weight without bulking up. I want to address some of the concerns and objections that women often have with weight training.

1. Objection: I know my body; As soon as I start lifting weights, I get really big really fast.

My Answer: If it’s within the first 3 months that you’re “bulking up” then don’t worry about it. Really. What happens is that your muscles are being turn through weight training and your body, with the intention of repairing your muscles, sends more blood to the area to fix it and deliver more nutrients to the muscle. Think about sports injuries, when you sprain your ankle it swells up, right? The same shit. Your body is adjusting to a new input. Continue with your weight program for a minimum of three months.

If you’ve been working out for a while and you’re still afraid to increase the weight you’re lifting, I’m going to share a BIG secret with you. This objection is often followed by something like this: “I don’t want to look like one of those bodybuilders.” This is frustrating for me. Do you know how much WORK those chicks put into it? Do you know how much focus they have? You have to be high to think that without such determination you are going to bulk up.

For 1, women don’t have enough testosterone to get really bulky. It’s no secret that many bodybuilders use steroids, including women. For 2, it takes YEARS to grow naturally. If you train consistently and are insanely motivated to be bigger than you maybe get there in a year or two. Otherwise you must stop thinking that you are going to get “bulky”.

2. Objection: I don’t want to do weight training, I just want to lose weight.

My answer: Are you serious? there will be two massive reasons why you need to lift weights.

1. The more muscle you have on your body, the more fat you will burn. Without going too deep, 1 pound of muscle will burn an extra 50 calories every day without you doing anything extra. So if your goal is to lose weight, the more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you’ll burn. doing nothing. If you don’t lift a single weight and only do cardio you are destruction your overall results.

Oh, and PS, a pound of muscle is denser than a pound of fat, which means it’s smaller for the same weight. Get it?

2. Posture. A stooped and thin girl is not as attractive as a woman with more muscles and well proportioned with her posture. cardio does any for your overall appearance plus fat loss. If you want to stay healthy longer than you need to exercise your muscles, get bigger and improve not only how you look, but how you hold and move. Cardio does none of that.

Objection 3: Lifting weights makes me look fatter

My answer: if you have more than 20 pounds to lose then yes, lift weights. maybe make you look fatter for a while. Let’s go back to my last answer, you burn more calories with more muscle. What does that mean? You lose weight faster! Live! So it may seem like you’re gaining weight for the first 2-3 months, but overall you’ll reach your goals at least 10 times faster.

Oh, and here’s why you can trust me besides the fact that I’ve helped countless people lose weight: Would I want people who say they read my blog to look fat? That’s right, I want you to look sexy.

-kian