8:29 AM
Mick Turner
It seems obesity has become an accepted part of life. And, yet, despite this acceptance we see women going to the gym day in and day out and spending quite a bit of their life on the treadmill. While this helps to burn off some of the calories you will be consuming or have consumed during the day, there seems to be a hesitation when it comes to weight lifting and it seems women would choose to spend their time on the treadmill or elliptical machine rather than spend time with resistance training. But why? I believe it’s partially to do with fitness magazines that seem to endorse cardio training as a preference over resistance training. And while some activity is better than no activity, aerobic training cannot beat resistance training for the goals of fat loss, slowing down of the aging process, and combating osteoporosis.
While aerobic exercise is often touted as targeting fat loss, this can be a bit misleading as intensity, duration, and caloric consumption can be changing factors that unless you’re calculating METs, you can get quite wrong on guessing or just believing what the treadmill is telling you in calories burned. What is often not said is how resistance ramps up metabolism and this leads to an overall caloric burn situation in which, depending on intensity and duration, can last up to 48 hours. No amount of treadmill work is going to increase your caloric expenditure in such an intense way. With an increase in metabolism comes a nice boost in energy levels. Resistance training also leads to an increase in muscle tone. An increase in muscle tone is often referred to as ‘toning’ (the term toning is a misnomer).
Osteoporosis is not an uncommon occurrence in the female gender. It is well known but it seems not often said that weight bearing exercise helps to increase the density of bone and helps to stave off osteoporosis. Speaking of staving off age-related issues, growth hormone is released during resistance training. The nice thing about this is growth hormone helps in immune function, helps keep energy levels elevated, and slows the aging process. So while aging may not be our friend, resistance training can fight off some of the negatives of aging.
Having been around women of all ages for most of my life and a good part of my life spent around the subject of diet and exercise, I often hear the concern of hypertrophy (or muscle growth) and that woman are afraid that they will look like a bodybuilder. It should be clarified that women lack the amount of testosterone in their body to make this happen. And for that amount of muscle growth and accumulation to occur takes years and decades of planned training and a very large surplus of calories.
There also seems to be a lot of confusion on intensity. Intensity is defined as the closeness to ones one rep maximum. Obviously heavy lifting is going to be subjective to who is talking about the subject but there is no reason why women need to lift light weights for high repetitions. I think of light weights as those pink and purple dumbbells that seem to be so popular in fitness magazines geared towards women. A good repetition range would be in the 8-12 area. Keep in mind that the muscle does not recognize whether you are lifting a dumbbell, a barbell, a sandbag, or using a machine. And for those women that feel intimidated to venture into the seemingly male-dominated free weight area, machines are a very viable method. Not to mention that when using machines they are nearly fool proof and, for the most part, very safe to use.
A last thought on the pink and purple dumbbells—I find them insulting. I think when we see women in fitness magazines using and endorsing such light weights, it is undermining the strength of women. Unless there is a true physical limitation or a serious under training that keeps the female gender from picking up some chrome dumbbells or pushing something heavier than the first plate on a machine, there is no reason to portray women as not having the strength to get involved in strength training. Progress is the key here and this is only achieved by increasing resistance. I believe women should embrace their inner confidence, get strong, and get lean in the process. I can’t think of any woman that wouldn’t raise their hand if I asked, “Who wants to feel stronger, exude more confidence, and look better?”
I trust you’ll be raising your hand?
While aerobic exercise is often touted as targeting fat loss, this can be a bit misleading as intensity, duration, and caloric consumption can be changing factors that unless you’re calculating METs, you can get quite wrong on guessing or just believing what the treadmill is telling you in calories burned. What is often not said is how resistance ramps up metabolism and this leads to an overall caloric burn situation in which, depending on intensity and duration, can last up to 48 hours. No amount of treadmill work is going to increase your caloric expenditure in such an intense way. With an increase in metabolism comes a nice boost in energy levels. Resistance training also leads to an increase in muscle tone. An increase in muscle tone is often referred to as ‘toning’ (the term toning is a misnomer).
Osteoporosis is not an uncommon occurrence in the female gender. It is well known but it seems not often said that weight bearing exercise helps to increase the density of bone and helps to stave off osteoporosis. Speaking of staving off age-related issues, growth hormone is released during resistance training. The nice thing about this is growth hormone helps in immune function, helps keep energy levels elevated, and slows the aging process. So while aging may not be our friend, resistance training can fight off some of the negatives of aging.
Having been around women of all ages for most of my life and a good part of my life spent around the subject of diet and exercise, I often hear the concern of hypertrophy (or muscle growth) and that woman are afraid that they will look like a bodybuilder. It should be clarified that women lack the amount of testosterone in their body to make this happen. And for that amount of muscle growth and accumulation to occur takes years and decades of planned training and a very large surplus of calories.
There also seems to be a lot of confusion on intensity. Intensity is defined as the closeness to ones one rep maximum. Obviously heavy lifting is going to be subjective to who is talking about the subject but there is no reason why women need to lift light weights for high repetitions. I think of light weights as those pink and purple dumbbells that seem to be so popular in fitness magazines geared towards women. A good repetition range would be in the 8-12 area. Keep in mind that the muscle does not recognize whether you are lifting a dumbbell, a barbell, a sandbag, or using a machine. And for those women that feel intimidated to venture into the seemingly male-dominated free weight area, machines are a very viable method. Not to mention that when using machines they are nearly fool proof and, for the most part, very safe to use.
A last thought on the pink and purple dumbbells—I find them insulting. I think when we see women in fitness magazines using and endorsing such light weights, it is undermining the strength of women. Unless there is a true physical limitation or a serious under training that keeps the female gender from picking up some chrome dumbbells or pushing something heavier than the first plate on a machine, there is no reason to portray women as not having the strength to get involved in strength training. Progress is the key here and this is only achieved by increasing resistance. I believe women should embrace their inner confidence, get strong, and get lean in the process. I can’t think of any woman that wouldn’t raise their hand if I asked, “Who wants to feel stronger, exude more confidence, and look better?”
I trust you’ll be raising your hand?
Author:
Joshua Morgan
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