Attaining a quality healthy lifestyle and decreasing the risk of several diseases, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) suggests fitness enthusiasts do resistance training 2 to 3 times every week along with 8 to 12 repetitions of 78 to 10 workout training targeting muscle groups. On the other hand, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that merely 20 percent of women are involved in resistance training two or more times weekly.
In a comparative study of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 35000 healthy women with women who are not involved in strength training, experience less risk of type 2 diabetes (30%) and cardiovascular disease (17%).
Apart from these, weightlifting adds life to women’s health in the following ways:
- Help you to get a toned figure
- Improved athletic performance
- Improve body posture
- Control full body weight
- Improved strength
- Less Back Pain, Injury, and Arthritis
- Strengthen joints and bones
- Elevate your mood
- Increases muscle strength
MYTHS RELATED TO WOMEN WEIGHTLIFTING
Myth #1: Lifting heavy weights gives a ‘bulky’ appearance
It is the inherent belief of the females to avoid weight rooms and be encouraged to be active in feminine physical activities e.g., dance aerobics. The majority of the women have a mindset that if they invest time in powerlifting or strength training, it makes them bulky and give manly look. But, this is wrong and impossible for women to look like a man because women’s body composition is different than a man. Women don’t have enough testosterone to frame big muscles. If you talk about ‘bulky appearance’, weightlifting does not add mass to your body but excess body fat gives you a bulk appearance. Weightlifting helps you to get a toned, sleek, and fit figure. It is popular physical gym activity to burn calories at a faster rate. It controls your overall body weight adds attractiveness. Plus, It demands high-intense long duration training sessions. Lifting 2 to 3 times a week doesn’t make you a bodybuilder lady. If you want to attain muscularity like an athlete or bodybuilder, follow a strict diet and sweat for hours in the weight rooms.
Myth #2: Every woman who wants to lose weight should only do Cardio at the gym
An article published in the International Journal of Exercise Science acknowledged that women resist weightlifting because it is a general tendency of the majority of women is to spend most of their workout hours on cardiovascular machines rather than lifting weights as they believe that cardiovascular exercise great for losing weight. It is an effective physical exercise to burns calories than weight lifting. But, weightlifting is also helping much to get you a perfect figure and curb extra body fat. Your metabolism may stay higher for a longer time after lifting weights than cardio. This is the reason why people likely involved themselves in both gym activities weightlifting and cardio. Thus, if you want to bring productive improvement in the body composition and cover every aspect of your health then include weights and cardio.
AREAS WOMEN SHOULD FOCUS IN WEIGHT LIFTING
Body Recomposition
Body recomposition is a physical activity and diet sobriety that insists on the weightage of gaining muscle and burning calories at a similar time. This process brings changes in your body composition that includes fat and fat-free mass (bone, water, and muscle). It is the crucial factor that defines how healthy and fit you are. That’s why health professionals recommend people should focus more on body composition than losing body weight and also suggest their clients take photos of themselves at the starting of their fitness journey and then continue to take photos days after day or week after week to do a comparison at the end to monitor the results. This is one of the best motivational tricks to encourage them to attain higher fitness goals in the weight room area.
SET A GOAL & BEGIN THE TRAINING
People will judge you but who cares? Set your fitness goal, make a strict dieting schedule, plan activities daily, get the right guidance from a fitness guide and achieve the target. It is not like if someone is thinking about her future as a fitness model or trainer, then you should also do a similar workout schedule like her. Be your own body boss and begin the training!
