Fitness experts James King gives his top tips on why weight training is good for women
Wednesday 01 August 2012
Although treadmills, aerobics classes and weightlifting machines still have a place in a woman's world (and will contribute to increasing your metabolism), more and more women are taking advantage of the fat-loss results weight training can bring!
Around 99.9% of the women I have had the pleasure of working with get that look of horror when I mention weight training because a large number of women have been misinformed by ridiculous rumours about training with weights.
"Weightlifting makes women bigger, puts them at risk of injury and makes them look less feminine" so they were told. Nonsense!
There are simply too many benefits to lifting weights for women not to include a weightlifting workout in their quest for the perfect body.
Burning 500 calories a day doing nothing being one of them!
Here is the science... As we get older we lose around 10% of our lean muscle every 10 years. The problem here is that each pound of muscle burns around 50 calories per day.
Therefore, increasing your lean muscle mass by around 10 pounds means you can times this 10 pounds of muscle by 50 calories a day - that's 500 calories blasted away each day! So by increasing your lean muscle mass by 10 pounds you essentially increase your metabolic rate by 500 calories a day.
Over a week this adds up to 3500 calories which equates to 1 pound of fat. So effectively you will burn one pound of fat a week doing absolutely nothing! Sounds too good to be true, but this really does work.
I personally swear by this method and use it with all my clients. You really don’t have to worry about building a ghastly masculine figure. The female body simply can’t produce enough testosterone to build any serious muscle mass, instead your muscle will increase in density.
You will have more muscle fibres per muscle group and these newly built muscle fibres consume those extra calories.
Get started with weight training
The four key exercises you should start with are:
* The squat
Bend through your knees with a bar on your back until your hips come lower than parallel. Once your hip joint is lower than your knee joint you Squat up again.
* The standing military press
Grip a barbell slightly wider than shoulder width apart from each other and slightly bend your knees. Place the barbell on your collar bone and lift it over your head by locking your arms.
Lower the bar down to the collarbone slowly as you inhale. Lift the bar back up to the starting position as you exhale.
* Lunges
Stand with right foot forward, left foot back about 3 feet apart. Hold weights in each hand and bend the knees to lower the body towards the floor. Keep the front knee behind the toes and be sure to lower straight down rather than forward. Keep the torso straight and abs in as you push through the front heel and back to starting position.
* Upright rows
Grasp a barbell with an overhand grip that is slightly less than shoulder width. The bar should be resting on the top of your thighs with your arms extended and a slight bend in your elbows.
Now exhale and use the sides of your shoulders to lift the bar, raising your elbows up and to the side. Keep the bar close to your body as you raise it. Continue to lift the bar until it nearly touches your chin. Lower the bar back down slowly to the starting position. Inhale as you perform this portion of the movement.
It is important to give your body (especially your muscles) a chance to repair. For this reason, weightlifting should be done at least twice a week, and rarely should it be done on consecutive days if possible.
In terms of weight, repetitions and sets, consider doing 2-3 sets, with 8-12 repetitions each.
Want to find out more? Head to www.jameskingperformance.com
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