Weight lifting for women is growing in popularity, but many women still mistakenly avoid lifting weights.
The benefits of weight lifting (also known as weight training or strength training) are impressive. Weight lifting builds and maintains lean muscle mass, it increases bone strength and density, it strengthens the immune system, and it helps prevent health problems such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and arthritis.
Weight lifting is also a very effective way to reduce body fat because of the short-term and long-term metabolism boost it provides.
Weight lifting provides a short-term metabolism boost because an intense weight lifting workout is one of the best ways to increase Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC).
EPOC, commonly known as the afterburn effect, refers to how many additional calories your body will have to burn in order to repair, recover and return back to the way it was before the workout took place.
Weight lifting also provides a long-term metabolism boost because it builds and maintains lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass is metabolically active tissue, which means that the more lean muscle mass you have the higher your metabolism will be. The higher your metabolism, the more calories your body burns to maintain itself.
With all of these benefits of weight lifting, why aren't more women lifting weights? The main reason why is because many women are afraid that they'll develop big, bulky muscles if they lift weights. This is a common exercise myth, and it's simply not true.
The reality is that women don't have enough of the hormone testosterone (a key hormone for building muscle) to develop big, bulky muscles. Without using steroids to unnaturally alter their testosterone levels, it's not possible for women to develop big, bulky muscles.
More women need to realize that weight lifting is not going to give them a big, bulky body, it's going to give them a strong, firm, toned body, which is the type of body so many women want. As a matter of fact, no other type of exercise can reshape your body and improve your physical appearance like weight lifting can.
The bottom line is that if you're a woman and weight lifting is not a part of your fitness program, it should be. Weight lifting for women is going to keep growing in popularity as more women discover just how beneficial weight lifting is.
If you're a woman who is looking for a good program that will help you incorporate weight lifting into your workout routine, check out Full Body Licious. It's a comprehensive fitness program developed for women by a woman, and it includes plenty of weight lifting exercises. To learn more about Full Body Licious, Click Here.
Weight Lifting for Women > Exercise Articles
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