Part 1: Women, Weight Lifting, & Weight Loss - Myth vs. Fact

As a personal trainer, I often get questions from women who are concerned with their [lack of] muscle tone.  They are usually in the gym several days per week, but are not seeing their muscles change.  The motivation is present, but the results are lacking. 

I usually find that somewhere in a woman's journey towards weight loss, she has noticed two things.  First, she notices that she is losing weight (the intended goal); second, she notices that even though she has lost the desired amount of weight, the actual shape of her body has not changed.  In other words, she is just a thinner version of her old self.  For some women, this is enough, but for others, they desire that toned, muscular physique.

The key to changing your physique as a woman is to invest time in the weight room actually lifting weights, in addition to maintaining your cardiovascular fitness.  I sometimes have women who push back against this idea, most often out of fear that certain myths concerning women and weight lifting are true.  The following are some of the most common myths I hear:

1. Myth: I'm afraid that if I lift weights regularly, I will "bulk up."  Fact: A woman lacks the needed amount of testosterone to truly "bulk up" from lifting weights.

Don't worry!  Unless you are taking a banned substance to help you out in the weight room, you will not bulk up like a man does.

2. Myth: If I devote some of my time to weight lifting instead of devoting all of it to cardio, I'll gain weight back.  Fact: The combination of weight lifting and cardio actually INCREASES the amount of weight a woman can lose and keep off.

The combination of cardio and weight lifting helps increase the amount of calories you spend in a single session of exercise, thereby helping you to burn more fat in the long run and keep it off.

3. Myth:  There are only certain parts of my body that I'm concerned about toning, so I don't need to worry about toning my entire body.  Fact: It is impossible to "spot tone" parts of the body; toning the entire body keeps your musculature balanced and injury free.

I talk with women all the time who really want to spend time toning their tummy and inner thighs, and that's about all they want to do.  This will not work; if you only strength train a few parts of your body, your muscles will become imbalanced, leading to an injury.  Also, and for reasons that are too deep to explore in this blog entry, training all the muscles of your body will benefit each individual muscle.  Even if a particular muscle group is not being specifically worked, it is still acting as a stabilizing muscle for other exercises.

If you're curious about what you can do to gain muscle tone, stay tuned for Part 2: Women, Weight Lifting, & Weight Loss - How do I do it? coming next week.  You always want to have a plan when you hit the weights; if you don't have a goal in mind, you'll never know if you're making progress towards it.  I want to help you find that goal and make a plan of action!