“Strength Training” for The slynkey girls.Rather than using the term ‘weight training’, as it sounds like you need to be a weight lifter to do this, I prefer to use the term ‘Strength training’.
Have you ever heard people say that it’s only for men or you have to be training for a sport to do strength training? A common saying used by a lot of my female clients is “I don’t need to do strength training because I don’t want to get big & bulky like a man” Well lets get rid of this myth right now! This is so far from the truth.
It has been proven that Strength based training or exercises actually burn more fat and increase muscle than just long boring hours or cardio regimes. Long, moderate & boring cardio causes you to retain more fat and decreases muscle tone. Muscle helps increase your metabolism, so why risk losing your body’s most efficient way to burn fat?
Your good friend, ‘muscles’ burn 3 times as many calories than your enemy, fat. SO…this means the less muscle you have the less calories you will burn, therefore retaining more fat.
Women further benefit from Strength training because of the increase in resting metabolism created by strength training. Rest assured, that the majority of women are genetically unable to create large muscles because they lack sufficient hormones or body structure to do so. Women are told to lift very light weights. This recommendation is often interpreted to the extreme, and women perform many repetitions with 3 or 5 kg weights.
Unfortunately, without sufficient load (weight), the muscle will not change, and the goal of "tone" and "shape" cannot be achieved. A change in the shape or tone of a muscle is created in the same way that size is created, with hard work and consistency! In order to shape or tone your muscle, you must lift a weight that is heavy enough to create muscle fatigue (also known as failure).
By Jason Tiatia - Qualified & REPS registered Fitness Professional @En forme Fitness Studio
