You will only get bulk at Costco. Ladies……go ahead and lift!

You will only get bulk at Costco.  Ladies……go ahead and lift!

Do you worry that your time at the gym will leave you looking like a female Arnold?  Do you  worry about bringing home the bulk from the gym as well as Costco?    Would you like to get into lifting more weights, but don’t for fear of your  big guns ripping your shirt? 

Well……worry no more.  Unless your goal is to compete at weight lifting competitions, you can explore weight lifting to your heart’s content and keep that beautiful figure you have.

Weight lifting should be a part of every woman’s routine. Why?   Resistance training is the best way to achieve and keep that toned physique.  Lifting huge weights won’t make you look like Arnold.   Women are not set up for that. Our hormones work very differently then men’s hormones.   A female produces a tiny fraction of the testosterone that a male does.  Since testosterone is the main determinant of the ability to grow in size and strength, it only makes sense that someone with much lower levels (women) will never achieve the same size as someone with much more of it (men). 

Of course, there are outliers – the occasional female who has slightly more testosterone than the average woman, but they’re few and far between.  These are usually girls who are typically drawn more so to athletics and training, and thus have more muscular bodies as a result.

 Another good reason to lift the weights is that numerous studies demonstrate strength training's ability to increase bone mass, especially spinal bone mass. According to Keeton, a research study by Ontario's McMaster University found that a year-long strength training program increased the spinal bone mass of postmenopausal women by nine percent. Furthermore, women who do not participate in strength training actually experience a decrease in bone density.

So get out there and lift !

Lisa Clyne is a certified NASM fitness instructor.