Many women have this innate fear of lifting weights that I completely understand—when I first began to lift with my high school basketball team, my first real experience with lifting weights, I was uncomfortable with the concept. I didn’t want to work out alongside men much stronger than me; surely they would mock me for lifting light weights and wonder why I thought I had the right to be in the weight room. I also didn’t want to bulk up—I didn’t want man arms! Something about lifting just felt inherently manly to me and was not something I wanted to take part in.
However, after I started weight training, I grew to really like it. I loved the feeling of my sore muscles the next day after and, over time, noticed subtle changes in my body. My arms and shoulders didn’t get huge, they just felt strong.
Weightlifting has been proven to be an awesome workout for women and men alike, and scientists report that by lifting weights your body burns more fat and less muscle than through aerobic exercise (think: running, biking, etc). While many women think that the only way to burn calories quick is to get their butts on the treadmill, studies show that “doing a circuit of eight moves (which takes about eight minutes) can expend 159 to 231 calories. That’s about what you’d burn if you ran at a 10-mile-per-hour pace for the same duration.” (1)
One of the many benefits of frequenting the weight room.
If you’re worried that lifting will make you huge, don’t be. Unless you’re an Olympic weightlifter, it’s biologically impossible for women to bulk up from casual weightlifting—generally speaking, women have testosterone levels that are 15 to 20 times lower than those of men and testosterone is the key to getting “jacked”. Chances are, lifting weights will make your muscles look more toned, not significantly bigger.
Adding in a weight workout to your routine can benefit you so much! Remember that you don’t have to bench 100 lbs to see results—a simple free-weight workout is easy to learn and great for beginners. Just make sure that you know how to properly do all your exercises and/or work the machines you’re using, because if you lift incorrectly you can easily pull a muscle.
For some ideas, here are some simple free weight workouts you can incorporate into your normal routine:
STRONG is the new skinny, ladies!
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