Woman
and Weights?
Before I get started, let me just
check my calendar. Hold on.
Yup, sure enough, it is actually
the 21st century. Why is that so hard to believe? Because
I can't get through even a single day without a woman asking
me a question I've heard no less than 18,000 times before.
No, not that question, the question of "if I lift
weights will I get big?"
 It's
such an old and tiresome theme, one that I would have thought
would have been put to rest long ago, but alas, minsinformation
and rumors abound. Here's the reality. Women, by nature, have
a predominance of estrogen and their endogenous testosterone
has its limitations which means, man sized muscle is not going
to result from weight training. Hormonally, the internal environment
in a female body just isn't going to cause biceps to swell
to 22 inches.
I know where the fear and the rumors
come from. There are some women who do carry an abundance
of muscle. Some of these women naturally have higher levels
of testosterone and they might appear more muscular even if
they never lifted weights at all. Others are athletes putting
their bodies under excessive workloads and committing to nutrition
that can be counter the limitations of their hormonal make-up.
Third, there are those women who are chemically enhanced.
In plain English that means, they use steroids which alter
the hormonal balance to amplify any of those features that
might be considered "male."
 I
wrote an
article about a woman who used excessive dosages of steroids
and spelled out not only the side effects, but the emotional
turmoil the drugs created. Unfortunately, I believe they also
had another effect. They convinced women who might have witnessed
this massive woman in the supermarket, in the street, or in
a shopping mall that "weights make women big." Weights
+ testosterone (steroids) + excessive caloric intake + intense
training can make women big, but if you're not chemically
enhanced . . . don't worry about it!
You want to be toned? Getting toned
simply means you're holding on to muscle (or possibly adidng
some) and losing fat. Weights are a vital part of that process.
 When
I share the 8 Basic Exercises,
I'm referring to movements that aid both men and women in
their quests for fitness. When I release a program,
that program is effective both for men and for women. When
I share a fat burning strategy,
that strategy has freedom to cross over the gender barrier
without restriction. There are some differences beyond the
obvious. Women are usually slower to lose lower body fat than
men. Women often have either a genetic or a developed preference
for endurance exercise while men gravitate toward the strength
& growth type training. Despite the differences, if fitness,
tone, and function are the goals, the same synergy that applies
to men seeking physical change applies to women!
Suggested
Pages:
Listen
to the audio track
sharing
the information you need to take control of your body!
Then find out the specifics of [ Supportive
Eating ]
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