My latest piece for On Target Publications Magazine discusses all the health benefits for women from performing resistance training. Unfortunately there is still this widespread stigma that women who lift weights will get bulky and too masculine looking. Society still dictates that to be 'attractive' one must be a delicate flower and that muscles are less feminine.
I want to debunk this ridiculous myth once and for all. I have been training as an athlete my whole life and have spent a vast majority of my time exerting huge amount of forces through body weight exercises such as rope climbs, pull ups or explosive box jumps, as well as lifting weight with more than my body weight such as deadlifts. Although there is no denying that I am muscular, I still only weigh 60kg (130 pounds.) I am not an incredible hulk-ess and I don't weigh 100kg (220 pounds) as common thought would have you believe from the life time of training that I have undertaken.
If you are feeling too bulky, there are other factors that can contribute to feeling like you have thicker thighs such as higher levels of body fat which may be attributed to a poor diet.
So ladies, relinquish the fear that weight lifting makes you too bulky, get into the gym and enjoy the myriad of health benefits that resistance training has to offer, such as:
- increased metabolism, and ability to burn fat
- increased strength
- better posture to prevent injuries
-increases sense of wellbeing and better mood including, a decreased feeling so depression, reduced stress, increased sleep, increased self esteem
- reduced risk of heart disease, increased cardio vascular health and increased circulation
- increased libido.
There are all great reasons to add some weights, or bodyweight strength circuit to your program.
