So ladies, what can weight training do for you? Weight
training will give you near-perfect symmetry and put curves
and definition in all the right places. Muscle is firm and
toned, not soft and mushy. Muscle gives you strength,
health, vitality and a beautiful body. Also, weight
training will decrease your chance of injuries in everyday
life and recreational activities. Weight training improves
work, sleep, endurance, sex and many other areas of your
life.
Myth #1: Women Must Train Differently Then Men
BUSTED: Training for ladies shouldn't differ that much from
men's training. Women have the same number of muscles and
they contact in the same fashion. The only difference
between men and women are hormones.
Men naturally have higher levels of testosterone, a
muscle-building hormone, while women are constantly
fighting the estrogen issue, a fat storing hormone. Now I'm
not saying that just because you are female and have higher
levels of estrogen you are doomed to gain weight. What I'm
saying is that we can use what you have to your advantage.
Regular weight training will build lean body mass. The more
body lean body mass you acquire, the higher you raise your
metabolism. An increased metabolism results in more
calories burned per minute. Sounds interesting? Read on....
Myth #2: Muscle Weighs More Than Fat
BUSTED: A statement I hear a lot is that muscle weighs more
than fat. The fact of the matter is that a pound of muscle
and a pound of fat weigh the same, a pound. A pound of
muscle is more dense and takes up less space than a pound
of fat does.
Muscle allows you to eat more food without getting fat
because muscle is the only body material that is
metabolically active. Once you put muscle on your body you
will burn an additional twenty to thirty calories an hour.
Bodybuilders actually burn fifty to seventy-five additional
calories per hour.
Myth #3: Muscle Turns to Fat
BUSTED: A misconception that I hear many women saying is
that they don't want to workout because if they stop the
muscle will turn to fat. Now, let's analyze this statement.
People begin resistance training program in order to rid
the body of fat, not to gain it. Muscle can't turn into fat
any more than fat can turn to muscle. Muscle (metabolically
active) and fat (metabolically inactive) are two completely
different tissues responsible for their own functions. Just
as your heart and liver are two different organs performing
completely different functions, the same goes for muscle
and fat. Now I ask you, can your heart turn into your
liver, or vise versa? If there were any truth to the above
statement there would be a lot of people out there with
great muscle potential, if you catch my drift.
An explanation to the above myth is that some bodybuilders
do gain extra weight off-season in preparation for the up
coming competitive season. Many veterans of bodybuilding
gain weight when they get older or retire, how does that
differ from the average American?
There is a biological reason for the weight gain. The
metabolism slows down as we age, meaning the body needs
fewer calories per day to maintain itself. The downfall is
that most people, including bodybuilders, don't reduce
their caloric intake to compensate for this slowdown and
the end result is fat gain.
Another explanation is that bodybuilders, in hard training,
develop enormous appetites and need the extra calories for
muscle growth and repair. If the intake stays the same when
training volume is reduced or ceased, the unburned calories
get stored as fat; again, this is no different than the
average American.
Stop Making Excuses
Simply put, stop making excuses. Not exercising is far more
harmful to your body, image, and health than working out.
Exercising and nutrition is a learned lifestyle, if you are
not consistent with it you will decrease muscle and
increase fat, but muscle definitely will never turn into
fat.
----------------------------------------------------
Karen Sessions has been in the fitness industry since 1988.
She is a nationally qualified bodybuilder and holds two
personal training certifications. She has written 6 ebooks
on fitness and has helped hundreds of clients transform
their bodies.
http://www.iron-dolls.com
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