Why Women should Lift Weights

Whenever I was at the gym doing strength training, I noticed the area was usually only filled by men. Most women spend most of their time in the gym on cardio machines. Well, I know most women shunned from lifting weights because they believe that they will bulk up like a beast! This is a common misconception that I heard till today from most of my female friends. Please understand, compared to men, women have 10 to 30 times less of testosterone, the key hormone responsible for muscle growth. Therefore, women don't gain size easily from strength training. You would need great great effort and tons of steroids, anabolic supplements and other crap injecting to your body in order to move even one step towards the look of that professional ugly bodybuilding women you see in magazines and on TV.

It is also unbelievable that I still hear till this day from many of male friends the reason for them not doing weight training is because they afraid if they don’t keep up with the training once started, their muscles will turn into sagging flesh or fat! Hmm….how could muscle transform into fat??? Muscle and fat are two different tissues in our body, and they cannot transform from one into another!!!.

One of the main reasons I lift weights and enduring the pain is to shape my upper body and burn fat. Exercises like jogging or running on treadmills or hiking doesn't help to shape your body and give you the tone and definition that you want. Below are photos of female celebrities that really get me into working out with weights.

Cameron Diaz

Sarah Jessica Parker, the star in "Sex and the City"

Evangeline Lily in "The Lost"

Linda Hamilton in "Terminator 2"



Michelle Yeoh

Our local celebrity, Hannah Tan

Whatever your reasons for avoiding the weights, if you are a woman, here are some of the reasons why you need to lift weights:

1. You Will Lose Body Fat.
   As your lean muscle increases so does your resting metabolism, and you burn more calories all day long, even at rest!

2. You Will Be Physically Stronger.
   For majority of women today living a modern lifestyle increase of strength is very useful. This will make you far less dependent upon others for assistance in daily living. Just think about lifting your kids, groceries, laundry and all other everyday activity you will perform with far less effort with strength level increase. When your maximum strength is increased, daily tasks and routine exercise will be far less likely to cause injury.

3. You Decrease Your Risk Of Osteoporosis
Research has found that weight training can increase spinal bone mineral density by 13 percent in six months. This, coupled with an adequate amount of dietary calcium, can be a women's best defense against osteoporosis.

4. You Will Reduce Your Risk Of Injury and Arthritis.
   Strength training not only builds stronger muscles, but also builds stronger connective tissues and strengthens joints. This helps to reduce the risk of injury and arthritis.

This is the dumbell that I used when I first started. It is only 2kg each. It is still useful for toning up but not able to give me the muscle definition that I want.

This is the barbell that I lift at home. This is much heavier than the dumbell above as you can add on weights to it. And this is definitely more effective in building muscles. To stimulate muscle growth, you need to really exert the maximum force till your body not able to take it anymore.

So, start lifting weights, girls and stop worrying that you will bulk up like a beast because women do not have the genetic capability to develop large, bulky muscles like men do.