‘Won’t I bulk up?’
‘I don’t want to look like a man’
I can absolutely understand their concern, I don’t want to
look like a man either, but the fact is that that will never happen. Heres why;
- Men have different physiology than women.
What does that mean? Men have different hormones; they have
much higher levels of testosterone, which enables them to build more muscle.
You’ll notice a prepubescent boy is rarely abnormally muscular, even if they’re
super active. Once they hit puberty however, and the testosterone kicks in,
they begin gaining noticeable size. Women do not have these high levels of testosterone;
therefore, it’s harder for them to build more muscle. Women on the other hand
have more oestrogen than men, so luckily for us, we store fat! Although
annoying at times, this does have an evolutionary purpose. We do need some fat
for conception, pregnancy and so on.
- Not everyone who trains with weights ends up looking like this
 |
Gaining muscle is not easy. If you walk into the gym, it’s
highly likely that there are quite a number of ordinary looking guys walking
around. And it’s also highly probable that they have been training for years to
gain muscle. Can you tell? People who look like the above photo, or even just
ordinary muscular guys train hard, with that goal in mind. They work at it, day
in day out. It doesn’t just happen after 4 weeks of going to the gym. It’s the
same for you. It is highly unlikely that you will ever do the type of training
that is required to get that kind of muscle development, unless you so desire
of course, even then, for a woman, its harder. There are also different types
of training for different goals. Lets take a look at different female muscular
types for the sake of comparison
| Olympic weight lifter |
 |
| Female body builder |
| Figure competitor - Image from Female Muscle |
| Sports Model - Image from Bleacherreport.com (I tried finding an imagine with legs for comparison but apparently not many sports or bikini models have them) |
 |
| Normal gym goer - nice transformation. You can see more definition in her arms, chest and abs and she's slimmed down through the middle. Congrats. Image from Physically Fit website |
So, as you can see, different goals, different training, different results. Which one suits you?
- Genetics
Some people can train day in, day out, focusing on nothing but wanting to look huge and their bodies will
struggle. Ask the weedy guy in the Body Building shop buying 10kgs of Mass Gainer. If you’re someone who’s always been super thin, tall and lanky,
skinny fat (you know, you’re skinny but everything jiggles anyway), you’re in
that group that will always struggle to be muscular. It is doable with the right training and diet, but not if you just casually attend the gym. You probably have a friend who is naturally quite solid, or maybe you
are. They put muscle on pretty easily, but even so will never be huge. It’s our genes, its our
predisposition, its who we are.
If our lovely fitness model continues to train and eat the
way she is currently doing, it wont matter if she trains for 20 years, she wont
look like our wonderful body builder example. And vice versa, if our fantastic body builder example keeps eating and training like she currently is, she will never look like our awesome fitness model. That’s great news
for you! Why? Because now you have no reason not to incorporate weights or
resistance exercise into your life! Great huh.
Benefits of Resistance training
Now that we’ve dispelled the fear of manliness, lets look at some of the
ways that resistance training can benefit you.
- Improved muscle strength and tone – strength is just handy to have, but muscle tone if like a gift from god. No more chicken wing upper arms. No more butt on the back of your thighs… can I hear an Amen?
- Weight management and weight loss by improving metabolism – Exercise is obviously good for weight management in general, but the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. It is therefore easier to maintain your weight loss. This is because of your basal metabolic rate, or BMR. Your BMR is the amount of calories your body burns every day without you doing anything. It’s the energy used to keep your heart pumping and your lungs moving, for example. As long as you’re alive, you will burn these calories daily. Muscle tissues burn calories too, therefore the more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn.
- Prevention and control of health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis
- Improved mobility and balance – When we’re younger, I think a lot of us take mobility and balance for granted, however if you think forward into your later years, they’re damn important.
- Improved posture – your musculature keeps all your bones in proper alignment. When the muscles are weak, the bones move around a little more than they should. For example, weak back muscles can contribute to your thoracic and cervical spine (the part of the spine that runs between your shoulder blades to the base of your skull) rounding, giving your that stooped over look. Strong muscles help to hold everything firmly in place
- Decreased risk of injury – you’re less likely to fall or drop things. Because you have increased joint and muscle mobility, you’re less likely to pull muscles trying to lift things beyond your capability.
- Increased bone density and strength – This is a huge one. Having osteoporosis in my family, I can tell you its important to avoid it! The thing about your bones is that they’re used to taking a certain amount of load. They’re used to things putting pressure on them and they need to be able to withstand that pressure, otherwise we’d turn to jelly. Therefore your bones adapt to changes in the pressure or load put on them. The heavier the load they have to carry, the stronger they get to be able to handle that load. This is called remodelling. Lifting weights causes your bones to store more calcium and minerals, to be stronger, less fragile for that heavy weight you’re going to lift.
- Increased muscle-to-fat ratio – One of the biggest things with my weight loss clients, was the poor muscle to fat ratio. They almost all had very little muscle and lots of fat. They idea is to get this ratio back into balance and that is done by resistance training.
The list really goes on and on. Resistance training is
necessary.
Common Questions
Do i need to go to the gym?
Essentially no, you do not need to join a gym in order to do resistance training, although if you're really unsure or you have injuries, I would advise either joining the gym or hiring a personal trainer.
Essentially though in the beginning, you can do all the resistance training you need at home.There are plenty of exercises you can do in your lounge room with minimal equipment and time, and plenty of resources available to help you do it.
The biggest difference between training at home and training at the gym is the equipment. Gyms have a variety of machines designed to help you do specific exercises and allow you to use heavier weights. At home, it is unlikely that you have weight lifting machinery in your lounge room, so your choices of equpiment are
- Your own body weight
- dumbells and barbells
- resistance bands
- exercise ball
- kettle bell
- chairs and tables
- towels (strategically placed for balance or muscle focus)
- workout DVD's
- YouTube clips and online resources
You can also find a variety of useful equipment at your local sporting store and if you want to exercise at home it will be worth a look.
Is one type of equipment better?
Not really, particularly in the beginning. When you first start out you will get a great workout just using the simple equipment above. The longer you train howver, the stronger you become and eventually you will need to graduate to machinary purely because your hands wont be able to hold the heavier dumbells anymore!
Both home training and gym training can be dangerous if done incorrectly, so make sure that you are doing the exercises correctly and if it feels wrong or is painful, stop. Always wear shoes too, a dumbell dropped on a bear toe hurts.
Resources
Check online
Obviously you could always keep track of my blog where I post a weekly workout and all the nutritional information you could ever need (shameless plug), join me on facebook (First Be Healthy.) or find me on Google+ (Christine Poile)
Otherwise...
Fitnessmagazine.com is a great site that has some simple, easy to follow home workouts your could try. Its perfect for the beginner
Muscle and Fitness Hers is for the woman wanting to build a little more muscle, say, to look like our fitness model for example. I personally love this site, and the magazine by the same name that you can buy here in Australia at your newsagent. muscleandfitnesshers.com
Bodybuilding.com is a great website for the brave woman who is definately over her fear of appearing manly. Like I've said numerous times, it wont happen, however the pictues of the men and women on this site are much more muscular, so don't freak out and remember, no fear. Alot of these people are professional figure and bodybuilding competitors, giving advice on training to gain more muscle. Click on the womens section and look at the amazing bodies. They also have a fantastic transformation section for the average joanne too, you can join and keep track of your own progress.
Read a magazine
Watch out when you're buying magazines, there are alot of really stupid ones out there that contain more advertisements than articles, their articles are just silly or they're very out there in their thinking. Steer clear of the weight loss ones too. You can do better. There are 2 magazines I love and have been reading for years. I have no hesitation in recommending them, they've never let me down.
Muscle and Fitness Hers which I've already mentioned is a great workout guide.
Oxygen Magazine has been around for a while but in recent years has been getting better and better. They're very sensible and talk about good food and the healthy fit lifestyle.
In case you haven't noticed, I personally think all types of muscular women are amazing. I dont want to look like a bodybuilder, but I've always thought one day I would like to do a figure competition. I think the unbelievable amount of focus, drive and discipline involved in reaching your peak in any sporting arena is commendable. If you wish to look like the powerful bodybuilder, go right ahead. IF you're prepared to do what it takes then you can get there, I dont want to make it sound like its impossible. You will get there. There is just a certain amount of work involved that most of us will never do to get that result, tis all im sayin. And if you decide that you do want to achieve any of these levels, let me know, I'll support you all the way!
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