Why Women Need to Work Out with Weights

A pet peeve of mine is when I hear ladies say that they don’t want to work out with weights because they don’t want to look like a bodybuilder.  My brother has been bodybuilding for many years now and he now trains bodybuilders, fitness models, figure models, etc.  at his studio.  When he hears this he cringes, then usually tells the person that they don’t have the genetics, tenacity or knowledge to ever look like a bodybuilder, which is usually true for the ones who say this.  With the exception of a few genetic freaks, most people who have tried to put noticeable amounts of muscle on their frame know just how hard the process is.  Let’s discuss a bit more in depth why women tend to avoid working out with weights, why they need to work out with weights.

Why Women Avoid the Weights

I always point out that if you look at the ladies with the best bodies at your local gym, with few exceptions, they all use weights.  Given, after the first few weeks of weight training (the point at which most people give up and stop working out with weights), you may notice your muscles grow a bit because your body is recruiting and activating muscle fiber that have been sedentary for most or all of your life.  And if you are already overweight and you haven’t lost much fat yet, you may get a little more “bulky” at first.  The major misconception is thinking that this will continue as you keep working out.  Or some women, who are naturally blessed with nice bodies, believe that they will end up looking like a body builder if they train with weights, citing a few women at the gym who they see lifting heavy weights.  The fact is that women who do bodybuild or powerlift diet and train in very specific ways and usually also have the genetics of a bodybuilder.  They train in ways that would probably be counterintuitive to most people, often lifting weights less often than many of the women who lift weights in the gym.

Why Women Need to Work Out with Weights

Muscle is more dense than fat is by far.  This being the case, at the same body weight if you have a higher muscle to fat ratio you will look slimmer.  More so than just looking slimmer, you will develop a shape and tone to your body that absolutely can’t get from the treadmill or elliptical.  I see women in the gym all the time who do cardio only and they tend to be slender, but they look soft and not in shape.  Often, they even look unhealthy because they are starving their bodies with ridiculous diets and burning additional calories during the cardio, ultimately catabolizing their muscle tissue.  Your body will actually burn muscle in addition to fat for energy when it needs it and this also causes another issue.  Your metabolic rate is higher if you have more muscle.  So burning muscle will cause your loss in fat to be less sustainable because your metabolic rate slows.  That is why many people will lose fat with a strict diet and cardio, but soon after they get too busy to work out as frequently as they were, they quickly put the fat back on.  That is also why you will see rail thin ladies trying their hardest to burn that last bit of fat off doing cardio, but they can’t do it.

People who were overweight most of their lives tend to look the worst after this sort of behavior because they often naturally have larger frames and more skin.  When you burn most of the fat and muscle off of such a frame, you’re left with very little other than this frame, which now shows through more than ever.   With no muscle to fill in the gaps and give your body a healthy looking structure, this can look awkward.  You will see the hip bones, but no glutes; a thinner core and legs, but they have no muscle tone.  If you have small shoulders, arms and chest, this will exaggerates the “pear-shaped” look as well.  If weight training and a healthy, high-protein diet are incorporated into the workout, this can be avoided.

What about women who naturally have nice bodies?  Some women have nice bodies by nature, but weight training still will significantly improve posture and increase the tone of any body.  For example, I see women all the time who have large breasts, but because of a lack of back strength, they slump forward, which is not attractive and can lead to more serious problems later in life.  Joints and bones also get tougher with weight training, which can decrease likelihood of injuries and even increase bone density, even preventing osteoporosis, which is a common problem as people, especially women, age.

If this isn’t enough reason to train with weights, how about a healthy sex-drive?  Weight training increases the amount of testosterone produced by the body (in both men and women), which will increase your sex drive and overall vitality.  Who wouldn’t want that?  If you have been married for a while, this benefit can have significant positive effects on your marital happiness!

Conclusion

Everyone who works out should incorporate some weight training into their workouts.  I’m not recommending any specific workout to you, but I am stressing the need to work out with weights.  To sustain the increased work load, you can eat less salad and more of the high protein foods that you actually enjoy.  You will not look like a bodybuilder or get bulky if you train with weights unless you really know what you’re doing.  As I mentioned earlier, it is much harder to bulk up than people think.  After a few months of weight training and a healthy diet, your frame will tighten up and look more toned and attractive than it ever has.  The increase in muscle mass, joint and bone health will have long lasting benefits, preventing injury and even osteoporosis.  And a healthy sex life is important, especially for married couples, and energy and vitality are important for everyone in this fast paced world.  Give it a try!  What do you have to lose but your gut and a lack of self-esteem?