So as a trainer I’ve heard a lot of different reasons and myths circling around why women shouldn’t be lifting heavy. More often than not you’ll hear how women usually stick to light weight and high reps, doing endless amounts of cardio or HIIT training, and even doing group classes coupled with low calorie intake. Don’t get me wrong all of those things are great when incorporated correctly but some common reasons behind only doing those things are misleading.

While cardio burns more calories than resistance training during your workout, lifting weights torches more fat overall. In a study published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, women who completed an hour-long strength-training workout burned an average of 100 more calories in the 24 hours afterward than those who skipped the weights.

Common things I hear and I’m sure you have as well.

• -Looking like a man, adding to much muscle mass, becoming “bulky”(basically hindering their feminine appearance)

• Eating more will make me fat

• -Intimidation of the weight room

• -Being stared at

• -Simply not knowing what to do

Well let’s debunk the myth of women looking “manly” if they choose to do resistance training and lift heavy. First things first, women don’t produce nearly as much testosterone for them to put on enough muscle mass to look like men. So ladies you have nothing to worry about. Second is most women under eat which puts them in a calorie deficit which can be good but only if you’re eating at your baseline first. So big thing here is that most under eat and over train which is going to slow down your metabolism which will impede any results. I know it’s scary to hear and seems like it wouldn’t make sense but my goto thing here is to increase calories to help speed up the metabolism as we train medium to heavy loads. So with this combination you’ll actually see the person get stronger, eat more, and usually get leaner…. of course done correctly.

Common thing I hear with goals is that women are looking to get “toned”. But this doesn’t mean you need to do endless amounts of cardio and thousands of reps with super light weight. In fact if you were to lift heavier what ends up happening is that you’ll put on lean muscle which in turn will increase your metabolism speeding things up so that you burn more calories. Having more muscle creates a higher demand for energy which also means you’ll be burning more calories at rest. Now that being said do women have to train any different than men? No, they can follow the same program but of course the program it’s self can vary from individual to individual based off what’s best for that person.

Because muscle is denser than fat, it squeezes the same amount of weight into less space. That means the more muscle you build, the tighter your body will be. A poor diet and lack of exercise, as opposed to a weight-training program, create the appearance of bulk.

Benefits of heavy resistance training

• Burns calories and fat

• Build muscle mass

• Increase in strength (mentally and physically)

• Creates more definition and shape to your body composition (lean muscle)

• Increase balance,stability

• Decrease weakness, instability, compensations

• Increase bone density

• Increase metabolism

• Increase in confidence

• Daily activities will be easier

• Increase athletic performance

• Reduce risk to injuries, disease, pain and arthritis

• Improved energy and attitude

• You’ll be able to eat more!! (who doesn’t want to be able to eat more and not gain body fat)