Girls: Why You Should Get Into Weights!

You might have noticed whilst at the gym that it’s predominantly men pumping iron in the weights section, whilst women mainly stick to the cardio machines.  The reason for this is that men typically want to bulk up by building muscle, whilst women tend to be focused on losing weight and developing a toned physique.

Photo by: Jason Stitt/Fotolia.com

Many women will find it difficult to successfully attain this goal by following only a regimen of cardio. Whilst cardio helps increase fitness and can certainly lead to loss of weight, it’s not useful for developing and toning the body. Women who engage in cardio with the expectation of improving their physique may then increase the amount of exercise they are doing, when they aren’t achieving results, performing cardio 5 or 6 times a week until eventually motivation drops. This can lead to a temporary and even permanent lay-off from the gym.

We’d love to see more women get into weight training, because we believe it would help them achieve their desired physique – as everyone who makes the effort to spend time in the gym deserves to do. Here are a few reasons why we’d encourage women to train with weights.

–          Energy spent in session is increased by cardio – and weights will do the same, but with the added benefit of muscle breakdown. Once you’ve left the gym, calories that you consume will be used by the body to repair muscle tissue. As the calories that you consume will be used for muscle repair, fewer will be stored as fat – meaning you’ll lose weight.

 

–          Intense weight training will release powerful endorphins in your body. Endorphins are chemicals that make you feel good, by giving you a feeling of euphoria and self-satisfaction after a workout. Why not give yourself an extra boost before the workout with some pre workout from Supplements Direct. Not only will weight training make you feel good, but the natural high experienced will also make you more likely to return to the gym for more – a win-win situation!

 

–          By training the muscles, you’re going to develop a toned and attractively shapely figure. Muscles underlie the shapely contours that form the female figure, and even if you do not have exceptionally low body fat, a little muscular development will enhance your curves and give you a figure that you’ll be delighted with.

It’s important to point out that lifting weights will not lead to a manly physique, something about which women worry when they’re beginning a weight training program. This is because females have only a very low level of testosterone in the body, which is the hormone that’s responsible for muscular development. To develop a masculine physique a female would generally have to be taking some sort of banned substance in addition to an intensive weights regimen – instead, your body will achieve a toned and feminine appearance.

If you’re interested in finding out more about female weight training, there are plenty of online guides available – the information collected at the Women’s Fitness website is particularly useful. Check out their resources, and begin developing the body you’ve always dreamed of!

This is a guest post written by Brit Peacock, a keen weight trainer currently blogging for fitness equipment retailer Powerhouse Fitness.