It is a common misconception that training with weights can make women appear over muscled leaving them with the kind of look that many men would aspire to.
One of the principal points to understand is that body muscle is denser than fat and therefore heavier.
Under exercised, muscles will become flabby and less dense and the fatty tissue will increase.
This applies to both men and women.
However, regular training with hand weights will improve muscle consistency and the fatty tissue will diminish.
Lean muscle requires more energy in the form of calories, than fatty tissue. Therefore the more lean muscle you have, less of the calories in your regular diet will convert to fat, resulting in a leaner fitter body.
Although the majority of women want to avoid the risk of becoming big and muscular, it is unlikely that many will have the genetic tendency to develop prominent muscles.
There is no doubt that such routines are of benefit, but this writers opinion is that an intensive weight training program will show quicker and better results, will be very much less time consuming and adds an element of self motivation.
Medical theory suggests that muscle fibers progressively come into play as the intensity of effort increases.
That is to say that the smaller ’slow twitch’ fibers are used for low intensity efforts and as the effort increases so more ‘fast twitch’ muscle fibers become activated.
In practice, this means that low intensity aerobic and toning type routines are not effectively working the muscle tissue in depth.
These superficial training routines are producing modest results at a greater expenditure of time and a recovery period.
Lets look at a better alternative.
As an example we will take the curl.
This is the most basic of all exercises using weights and it focuses on the biceps. Very few women, and for that matter maybe not so many men, want excessively large biceps with prominent veins standing out but, as they say, all things in moderation.
The Curl
Hold and raise (concentric) a barbell, dumbbell or a machine weight with the arms tucked into the sides.
The object is to repeat the movement with a weight of say 25 lbs in a movement up to the shoulders in a slow and methodical manner and then lower (eccentric) in the same way, repeating the movement 4 or 5 times.
Ideally the upward, concentric, movement should take about 5-7 seconds, hold for a second, and the lower, eccentric, movement controlled to take 3-4 seconds.
Bearing in mind that this is an example you may find that after 5 repetitions you are exerting maximum intensity, which is the aim, and that you cannot continue any longer.
Now you are getting the real benefit as all the muscles fibers are being used.
After a time you will feel that you can achieve 6 movements, just exceeding your previous maximum effort.
By which time you will have given yourself a tremendously beneficial workout in a little over one minute.
As a next step you could consider raising the weight from 25lbs to 27 lbs., it depends on how you feel and what you are trying to achieve.
Just think about getting all those muscle fibers working.
Use this illustration to apply a routine using the same principals to other muscle areas of the body.
Thighs and bottom are the obvious choices for attention.
All can be worked with weights, just bear in mind that intensity is paramount followed by controlled repetition and gradual progression.
This type of exercise program is best recognized as a maximum effort routine and, as in life, maximum effort usually results in greatest rewards
Ladies, unless you go to extremes and have rare genes, you can achieve a great looking body, feel wonderfully fit and energetic and have more time to yourself outside the gym by following this kind of weight training program
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