Will Weight Training Bulk Me Up?
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I hear that, and I'm sure you do too, from many women that strength training will bulk them up. And while it's true that the main effect of weight training is building or maintaining muscle, research shows that moderately heavy, low repetition training increases a woman's metabolic rate more than light weight, high-repetition training. There is some truth to the rumor. I'm going to generalize just a tad here and say that some women have a disposition to having strong leg muscles. Generally quads and glutes. Now if these muscles are trained with heavy, deep squats and heavy leg presses etc. There may be a certain amount of muscle growth. Because these muscle groups are generally strong ones for women. We all have strong and weak muscle groups and the strong ones can have a tendency to grow and the weak ones don't grow no matter what we throw at them. There's no doubt that every woman needs some form of resistance training in her workout program. Science also tells us that gaining mass is a function of intensity and volume of training. So if a woman reduces her lifting volume, she can continue to train at a high intensity and reap the strength and metabolism boosting benefits without the fear of developing the dreaded "bulk." Unfortunately, practically every female fitness magazine article is based on the high repetition, high volume, "toning-type" approach. So it's no wonder women aren't happy with their strength training advice, especially when they are given generalized routines by default. So what is the answer? What's the next stage in the evolution of female fitness programs? I believe the best way to give a female client a well-rounded fitness and fat loss program is to reach a middle ground. Your options for fat loss aren't just high repetition workouts, 60 minutes of cardio or a spin class. It's far more scientific than that. After you've established the correct workout structure. Which comes from knowing which bodyparts can be trained using heavy, low repetition training and which bodyparts require slightly lighter or differing types of exercise. Only then can we achieve the total body re-shaping. Women have differing body shapes: spoon (straight up and down - skinny), pear (bigger lower body than top), hour glass (pretty proportional top and bottom), apple (pretty round all over). Women also have differing body types: ectomorph (skinny - hard to gain weight), mesomorph (good genetics to gain lean muscle), endomorph (disposition to gaining excess bodyfat) Women also can have different skeletal structure: big, medium or small boned. Then there are hormonal differences, lifestyle differences etc. But I won't get into these now. Most women are a combination of the above. They may not be a total spoon, but have spoon tendencies or they may not be a complete ectomorph, but have moved from ectomorph to endomorph as they have aged. Again I cannot say that someone is exactly one type. It's normally a combination and/or and evolving towards certain types. It is therefore critical to assess each individuals body differently and prescribe the correct exercise regime accordingly. What changes peoples body is a specific, systematic and evolving program which is done very consistently. As well consistently great eating habits. |
