Why Are women Wary of lifting weights?

I have been training with weights for the past twenty years.

And some of the best leanest female physiques I have seen in the gym (not that they caught me looking) were from the women who were not afraid to lift heavy weights.




The fact is there is some urban myth amongst women that if you so much as look at a weight you will become heavy and muscular and masculine looking.

This could not be further from the truth.

The female bodybuilders who compete in the muscle category have to train everyday and take numerous supplements and hormones to achieve that look which 99% of average women could never achieve.
The fact is the benefits of including a weight program once or twice a week into your training regime are vast.

Despite the universally acknowledged health benefits of resistance training (and there are scores, from reducing blood pressure to warding off arthritis and strengthening bones, muscle, and connective tissue), of the 12.7 million women who belonged to a commercial health club last year, only about half used weight machines and only one-third lifted free weights, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA). Although those numbers are up slightly from four years ago,but they're still low.
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That's why experts want to get the message out that weight training -- even just two times a week -- is an essential part of the total wellness package. "We need to make it clearer that for both optimal health and fitness benefits, women especially need to do a combo of aerobic and strength training on a regular basis," says Dixie Stanforth, a lecturer in kinesiology at the University of Texas. Here, surprising new research on how weight training can change your body, boost your mood, even keep you looking younger.

How Strength Training Fights Aging, Boosts Mood, and Burns Fat
There are literally hundreds of studies published each year expounding on the payoffs of resistance training. Researcher William Kraemer, PhD, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, has authored dozens touting the benefits for women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Some of the benefits, like improving muscle tone, bone density, athletic performance, and strength (about 30 to 50 percent more after three to six months of training), are obvious.
But there are a few surprises: Resistance training helps women fight the aging process by maintaining lean muscle tissue. Women who regularly lift weights have better self-esteem and get sick less often. Others have found weight training improves the way the body processes sugar, reducing the risk of diabetes.

For women who want to lose weight or prevent weight gain (and most of us fall into one camp or the other), strength training is key: In our mid-30s, we begin to lose 5 to 10 percent of muscle strength each decade. Since muscle burns an estimated three times more calories than fat, adding two to four pounds of muscle can translate into an extra 100 calories burned each day. A high-intensity strength routine has been shown to bump metabolism by 20 percent for several hours post-workout.

Couple weight training with cardio and the benefits are exponential. One study found that women who did 25 minutes of step classes plus a total-body resistance routine for 12 weeks significantly reduced their resting heart rate, body-fat percentage, and blood pressure, and increased their strength and endurance significantly more than those who only did aerobics.

Finally, there's the reality that when you have more strength, many of the daily demands of life -- from picking up a child to carrying armloads of groceries -- are simply easier.
In fact in conclusion I would go so far as to say every woman who wants a tight toned body should give weight training a try.
The results may surprise you and trust me you will not end up looking like a she hulk.

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