Believe it or not ladies, there is a whole other realm past the treadmills; a realm where iron is pumped and testosterone flows. Biceps bulge out of wife-beaters and red faces grimace under baseball caps as boys prove that they’re men. However, if you want that stubborn thigh-fat to budge, you MUST brave this ‘masculine’ realm, (and I mean venturing further than the machines where you ‘push your legs in and out’….) The journey to a lean physique is an arduous one, but if you really want to “tone up” then you shouldn’t avoid a trip to the weights room- DON’T BE AFRAID! Your health and fitness team at HCX will help show you the way.
90% of the girls I asked said the most common fear of lifting weights as a girl (other than the rugby team in the weights room), is that we’ll end up looking like those gym-junkies we’re trying so hard to impress. Allow me to dispel these common misconceptions and stigmas which surround girls lifting weights:
Firstly, if you incorporate some squats and bench presses into your workout, you will not become a Jodie Marsh lookalike overnight. Women do not, and cannot build as much muscle as men. This is because we do not naturally accommodate the high levels of testosterone necessary to ‘bulk up’. Female body builders do not look the way they do by accident; they have often taken steroids (which mimic the effect testosterone has on the body) to achieve high levels of muscularity.
In order to obtain the firm figure that so many of us girls crave, it is necessary to expand your gym repertoire and lift some weights. Muscles respond to resistance, so if the resistance is too light, there is no reason for your body to change. (This means that you’re better off carrying shopping bags up cardiac hill than bicep curling 2kg in front of the mirror in the core room…) If you can’t feel the exercise working, it probably isn’t.
Weights or resistance training, when done correctly, will allow your body to continue burning calories throughout the day. This is called the ‘afterburn effect’ and is best achieved through high intensity weights intervals- and that means heavy weights ladies. Your metabolic rate is determined by your lean body mass (LBM) which is everything that makes up your body other than fat. This is roughly 15% muscle, 80% organ and 5% bone. Although your basic metabolic rate – as it is determined by these ratios- is very difficult to change, if you effectively trigger the afterburn effect you will burn calories at a higher rate for up to 24 hours after your workout. Research has shown that the average woman who strength trains twice a week will gain nearly 2lb of muscle and lose around 3.5lb of fat*. This means that although your net weight-loss will not be huge, you will appear leaner and fitter.
Instead of aimless cardio which has very little effect on your actual body shape, resistance and weight training will help tone and tighten muscles in the places you want. What is important if you really want to look toned and fit, is changing your body composition– that its, your ratio of body-fat to muscle. A woman weighing 11stone could be a size 10 or a size 14 depending on their body fat to muscle ratio. Research has also shown that strength training increases bone density, helping to prevent osteoporosis later on in life.
Having questioned some male friends on the subject of “girls in the weights room,” the main (and surprising) response focused on the noticeable change in atmosphere amongst the men present when girls dare to use the squat rack: “generally we’re more bothered about trying to impress you than worrying about what you’re actually doing.” All the boys asked, however, said they were most attracted to girls with an athletic, toned physique (think Nicole Scherzinger, not Nicole Richie.) This, ladies, is only achieved through weights training.
Lifting weights requires good technique however, so it is vital that you ask the gym instructor to show you how it’s done- or maybe drag along friend who knows what they’re doing, if asking an instructor is “too cringe”. Lifting weights badly is dangerous, but this is in no way a reason not to lift weights at all; so before you all jump up, grab your protein shakes, weight-belts and head off to the sports park, make sure you know what you’re doing first.
The boys did lay down some ground rules, however, to a female invasion of the weights room:
“No giggling allowed, don’t bench more than us” and finally… “Don’t make it too obvious you’re just there to check us out!” (as if…)
*Wayne Wescott PhD, Massachusetts