Females and Weight Lifting

As a personal trainer I hear it all the time, I don't want to lift.  It will make me bulky or I only want to tone so can we use 3 lb weights?  or Can I elongate my muscles?

Okay, so let me be honest here.  These are some of the most frustrating questions that I get asked.  And what is even more frustrating is when people don't believe me.  But there's a lot of misinformation out there so bear with me as I set the record straight.  Lifting will not make you bulky.  In fact, lifting is what will give you a lean, toned, sexy body.  Continue reading and I will explain the logic/science behind this.

Image via bodybuilding.com

Women simply don't have the hormones that will allow them to massively bulk up.  Testosterone is the main reason that men have so much more muscle than women.  Chemically speaking, women do not possess enough testosterone to bulk up.  We (women) have 15-20 times less testosterone than men which means that biologically speaking we cannot gain the same amount of muscle mass than men can.  

If you're worried about looking a female body builder, keep in mind that those women are pumped full of supplements and steroids to give them that appearance.  It does not come easy and trust me, it is not natural.

In addition, bulking up is calorie dependent.  As I just mentioned, gaining muscle (especially for women) is hard.  You need to be eating a lot of calories to start gaining weight and most women don't consume enough calories needed to bulk up.  (In fact, female bodybuilders and figure competitors actually go through a period called bulking where they up their calories in order to gain muscle.  And you know what, they eat a lot.)  Anyway, basically speaking, if you eat more calories than you burn, you'll gain weight.  If you eat less calories than you burn, you'll lose weight.  Many females attribute weight gain to lifting weights when in reality it's caused by diet.

Okay so enough of me trying to convince you that lifting won't make you bulky.  If you don't trust me, there's acutally more reasons that women won't bulk up from lifting weights that has to do with nutrition, hormones, lifting volume, etc.  Read more about it here.

Image via shape.com

Now let's take a look at some of the benefits of lifting heavy weights...

You'll lose body fat.  According to bodybuilding.com "Heavier weight offers women a higher metabolic rate. Since you work against a high degree of resistance with heavy weights, you create tiny muscular tears throughout the body. You will expend a greater number of calories post-workout to repair those tiny tears, thus increasing your overall calorie requirements."

In other words, if you lift, you'll burn more calories in the day.  Sure, you may burn a lot of calories when you're on the treadmill, but once you finish a cardio session, the calorie burning effect stops.  If you build lean muscle, your body will keep burning fat all day long.

Lifting weights also reduces your risk of osteoperosis, arthritis, heart disease, diabetes and even depression.  Read more about the benefits of lifting heavy here or here or here. 

So if you want to get started lifting weights bodybuilding.com has a wonderful resource that allows you to search for exercises by body part.  It looks like this:

This was my go-to site to look up exercises when I started lifting.  They give you great descriptions of the exercises so you don't have to walk around the gym confused about what to do!  I suggest initially starting out using lighter weights for a few weeks until you get the lifts correct (form, etc) and then starting to lift heavier.  At this point, I'd recommend 4-6 sets of 6-12 reps.

If you're just starting out lifting, I also suggest that you create some sort of lifting split so that you have a plan to workout certain muscles on certain days.  A very common split consists of four days: back and biceps, chest and triceps, legs, and shoulder.  And of course you can work your abs on the other days or at the end of your workouts!

I hope this helps clarify some myths about lifting weights and inspires you all to get into the gym and LIFT HEAVY!