Women Who Lift - The Secret to Toning

How Should Women Train in The Gym?

Women in the weight room, not something you are a big fan of?  Perhaps you find it intimidating? Or you feel lifting weights is for the men and you should just stick to some nice cardio?

Everything above is valid and is a universal perception held by most females.  I do not blame you and will not sit here and call you an idiot for thinking this way.  The gym is largely dominated by the men, particularly when it comes to the weights.  You look around and see muscles, grunting, weights slamming and sweat – and that one guy who takes selfies more than he lifts.  I must apologise on behalf of men everywhere as I can be one of those guys, except the grunting and excessive selfie-taking.  So what is it that drives you away really?

Often when I ask women what they want in the gym, the answer I hear most is “I want to be toned and lean” or “I want to be toned and I also want a booty”.  Ok, makes sense.  These are physical appearances that we all love and appreciate and let me say this now – IT IS ACHIEVABLE! But, we must know exactly what to do and why we are doing it.  Let’s not be that person spinning their wheel every time they come into the gym.  Weight training is the single best stimulus we can expose ourselves to in the gym.  It gives us a good work out, it conditions our heart and our muscles, it burns WAY more calories than traditional low intensity cardio and well it makes us feel darn good.  I don’t blame you for thinking that weight training will make you big and muscle-bound.  But, I have written this small piece just to give you a quick insight as to why it is the best thing for you if you are a female and reading this.

So you are wondering what it actually is that makes ladies “big” and “bulky”.  Sufficient testosterone circulating in the body! The good news however, is that you don’t have this.  So that’s the end of that.  You needn’t be concerned.

The dominant female sex hormone in your body is Oestrogen.  The dominant male sex hormone is Testosterone.  Testosterone affects muscle mass by increasing muscle protein synthesis, which influences how muscles respond to exercise.  Muscle protein synthesis is the rebuilding and repair of muscle tissue in the body due to stresses placed on the body – weight training.  With woman, this response is present, however it is a lot slower due to lack of testosterone.  This is why men find it a little easier to gain muscle mass.  However, even at this, look around at the gym and you’ll notice a few faces you’ve seen for a long time, how big are they?  Chances are they won’t be huge, they’ll have some muscle and look lean but not massive. Men, including myself, have an extremely hard time gaining muscle and we train hard and eat a lot of food.    So lifting weights will not make you big, its physically impossible.

Getting “Toned”

There is a harsh truth I want to lay on you.  There is no such thing as a “toning” exercise or movement.  You can’t pick a body part and decide to tone it.  They way toning works, is the appearance of muscle mass on the body.  Yes, muscle mass is vital.  When women have a nice healthy level of body fat along with some muscle, our muscle gives off that toned appearance that women everywhere so seek. A muscle can do two things.  It can either grow in size, or it can reduce in size.  Similarly, fat cells work the same.  Fat cells empty our they fill up.  You can’t physically tone a muscle or tone fat.  A nice amount of muscle and healthy level of body fat is all that you need.  But even at this, maintain muscle for a female is incredibly difficult, so the idea of getting too big still baffles me – though I do sympathise with females as they have just been misinformed so I kind of get where you are coming from.

Have food that includes lots of protein, which is essential for growth and repair of muscle tissue.  Include carbohydrates in your diet, they fuel your workouts and ensure you get the best stimulus.  Guess what then happens? You grow new muscle, slowly but surely, and you appear more toned.  It’s as simple as that, but the process isn’t.  it just takes time – but you will get there.  Finally, dietary fats.  Fats don’t make you fat, and I am glad people are starting to understand this.  Over the last decade we have shifted away from this idea and this is great news.  Fats are crucial for hormone production, testosterone is the more prominent sex-hormone which is enhanced, which means muscle growth happens.  Females having some testosterone is important as it means you can grow muscle, which goes back to my point on toning.  So eat your fats, otherwise everything that leads to this “toned” appearance will be extremely difficult to achieve.

Some Key Benefits

Moving away from the topic of toning, I want to point out a few key benefits that are associated with resistance training, some of which I have already outlined above;

• Stronger bones. As you age, bone loss will take place, you can slow it down by lifting burn more.  weights and increasing bone density.  It will slow the process.

• Reduced risk of diabetes, heart-disease, obesity and even depression.

• Improved balance and coordination.

• Better blood glucose control. Strength training will make your body a little more sensitive to insulin.  When you lift weights, glucose is used by body to power your training, as well as excess sugar leaving the body.  In doing so, your muscle cells can absorb the fuel more efficiently thus making you a little more insulin sensitive as opposed to insulin resistant.

• Better blood glucose control means – carbohydrate tolerance will increase overtime. Just what you wanted to hear!

• Body composition. The big one of course.  The more muscle you have, the more calories burned during training AND even at rest.  Yes, AT REST DOING NOTHING!  This in turn will be helpful when you achieve a calorie deficit to lose body fat.

So there you have it.  Lift heavy weights, provided you are able to, and your body will thank you for it.  I have scratched the surface with this topic of women and lifting weights.  I intend to cover what exercises can be most useful and how to actually go about building a great pair of legs, or a booty or just general fat loss.  In the meantime, do watch this space!