A lot of women are discouraged to engage in weight training because of unfounded myths. These myths have overridden the fact that weight training offers a lot of advantages to any individual regardless of gender.
Benefits of Weight Training
Weigh training has a lot of benefits that you can enjoy. Its major benefits though are what you need to know. Weight training will not only increase your strength and stamina, but will also improve your ability to perform physical and mental tasks in your daily life.
Physically speaking, it will improve your density, it will enhance the development of a fat-free body mass, and it will increase the strength of your connective tissue, muscles and tendons. These are the primary benefits that you will be able to enjoy if you perform regular weight training.
Weight Training Myths That Need to be Ditched
Don’t let these myths prevent you from reaping the benefits of weight training:
1. You will bulk up.
It is best if you will hear it from the trainer of Katy Perry, Megan Fox and Rihanna. “One concern I still hear from women is that they’re going to gain too much muscle,” says Harley Pasternak, trainer for famous women celebrities.
“But you need three things to add bulk: testosterone (which is why men get bigger muscles), extra calories (if you want to build a bigger house, you need extra wood and concrete) and high-volume training (meaning you target one large muscle group, working it to exhaustion with 20 to 30 sets of exercises a day),” explains Harry.
Lose the thought that lifting weights will turn you into a Dave Batista, star of the “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Therefore, if you want to be healthier and stronger, don’t limit yourself to super lightweights. “To force your muscles to rebuild and repair, which is when growth and toning occur, you need a resistance that fatigues the muscle within about 90 seconds per set,” says Wayne Westcott, PhD, fitness research director and professor at Quincy College in Quincy, Mass.
2. Weight lifting is not as effective as running in burning more calories.
It is really amazing to see the amount of calories that you burn in the console of the treadmill that you use in stationary running. Three hundred calories burned in a half an hour workout is really fantastic.
Unfortunately, there is no such thing while you are lifting weights. You can’t see a direct feedback because resistance weights have no console that you can read. However, that doesn’t mean that you are not burning the same calories while you are straining to lift those weights.
A study revealed that women who did as little as 15 minutes of weight training burned more than 100 calories the day after their workout, compared to what they did when they did not lift weights.
In fact, as you get stronger because of weight training, you can use your muscles more effectively, which will result in burning more calories if you will mix it with cardio exercises.
3. Weight training is hard to do.
This myth is a result of lack of knowledge regarding weight training. From childhood, women naturally shy away from strengthening their muscles, unlike men who are naturally predisposed to the idea.
One lady said that when she began going to the gym, she avoided the weight room like the plague. She said she didn’t know which weights to use, how to use them, or which muscle groups in which she could work together.
Actually, a beginner should not have this problem if she joins a gym like Gold’s Gym or Snap Fitness. It is normal for these gyms to employ physical trainers who are there specifically to guide beginners in whatever form of exercise they want to engage in.
But as a rule, you need to start using your body weight as resistance. Curtis Williams, director of the Under Armour Performance Center has a good advice to beginners.
“Hold off until you can execute the moves properly, then begin adding weight in 5-pound increments,” explains Curtis. “When the weight feels easy, it’s time to increase. Keep in mind that your last two or three reps should be fairly challenging,” he adds.
4. All eyes will be on me.
Most women who start lifting weights experience what is called social physique anxiety. They picture themselves as being on the spot light, while all the lights in the room are shut off.
Katie Rickel, a clinical psychologist at Structure House in Durham, NC has this to say: “The reality, however, is that most people are focused on their own form—not on you. To ease insecurity, it helps to be prepared. ”
In weight lifting, you have to be focused on what you are doing to avoid accidents. So, they will not be looking at you. They will be looking after their own safety.