Ok ladies… and gents, but mostly ladies, let’s stop the nonsense and start being sensible. It is time to get off that cardio equipment and hit the weights. Yes, I said it, get OFF the treadmill and pick up some dumbbells! Why? Because that is the key to achieving the look that I believe you are going for. Strength training is the key to building lean muscle mass. Weightlifting, strength training, resistance training and bodybuilding may all sound the same however they are slightly different upon close examination. Some are broader than others and include the others in a categorical sense but overall they are very similar.
Me being a critical thinker, it would be hard for me to put faith into something that I didn't know much about or something that seemed, well a little crazy. And that may be what you are thinking now, “No cardio?, yeah she's crazy!". Well actually it's just the opposite. I know this type of article has been done many times over, however, I wish to present the topic with a slightly different approach. I'm not going to preach to you about how much better weight training and resistance training is over cardio, even though it is, I am going to provide you with the knowledge and let you decide for yourself.
For starters, it will be beneficial to begin with a few definitive explanations of terms. Surprisingly, simple definitions often clear up lots of misconceptions not only in relation to exercise and sport, but in all aspects of the world. Clarity is key. Weight lifting, described by the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary is “a system of conditioning involving lifting weights especially for strength and endurance”. The government’s Center for Disease Control actually recommends at least 2 days of muscle-strengthening activity training the large muscle groups for adults for strictly health benefits. So why haven’t you done this already? If you say you do cardio for health reasons, well you should weight lift too. If you say you do cardio for appearance reasons, well once again you should weight lift too.
So, you say you don’t to develop big muscles and look like a man. Well there’s good news and bad news for you today. The good news is that will never happen and the bad news is that you are just now finding this out. Let me explain from a physiological standpoint why this cannot happen. In simple terms, weight lifting challenges the muscles causing them to adapt to overcome the load that you have placed on them. By adapting they can be subject to such forces you have placed on them without failing continually. This is why you can progressively lift heavier weights with resistance training. This adaptation in the muscle is called muscular hypertrophy. Muscular hypertrophy is the increase in muscle cell size. Increase in size you say? Yes, increase in size, however, this increase in size is NOT going to make you look large like a man. Muscle hypertrophy in women (in joint with clean eating which will be discussed in later blogs) will generally give the “toned body” look. And these muscle cells can only become so large. In most all human beings with the exception of a very few elite athletes, the formation of new muscle cells, or hyperplasia, does not occur. You are born with what you have and the type iss usually also determined as well, fast or slow twitch, and there’s really no changing these either. There is no chance of you developing large enough muscles to look manly unless you take steroids ladies. Steroids induce muscular hyperplasia. This is what can cause the bulky “manly” muscles many women refer to, NOT the weightlifting itself.
It is shocking to me that most women are more concerned with looking to big or manly from lifting weights than the all of the health benefits they can get from doing so. That being said let me address and lift a few of the benefits of lifting weights and like I said you decide for yourself whether you want to stay on the dreadmill, I mean treadmill, or start pushing around some weight! According to the American College of Sports Medicine and from personal experience there are physical and mental benefits to strength training. To start, the reduction in body fat that strength training leads to in joint with proper diet, can lead to many, many other benefits. With strength training long-term people benefit from reduced blood pressure, reduced discomfort from back pain, increased bone mineral density, reduced risk for many cardiovascular and systemic diseases, reduction of fatigue and decreased depression. These few examples are like 5% of all the benefits that strength training offers. I will cite an article at the end of this blog for people who are further interested in the topic and please email me with any questions or if you are looking for further information on the topic because like I said this is only a tip of the iceberg, but I hope it prompts you to think about what you are doing from a fitness standpoint and strive to optimize your fitness program!
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