Don't Be Afraid of the Free Weights

 Our gym seems to have a funny way of splitting up couples. Husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends walk through the front door together , and then they go their separate ways. The men head for the back of the gym, straight for the free weights, where they spend the next hour or so pumping iron and building muscle. It’s straight for the cardio equipment for the women. They tend to spend the same hour or so sweating away on the elliptical trainers or tread mills.

Besides myself, I’ve seen one other woman in the free-weight section of our gym. Why? Women are generally afraid that weight training will make them “bulk up”. They are afraid pumping iron will make them look like the overly muscular female bodybuilders. You know, the freakish women with large biceps and deep voices? The ones most men wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley? Most of those super-muscular women got their bulk with the assistance of anabolic steroids. Women cannot naturally produce as much testosterone as men, and therefore aren’t able to gain huge amounts of muscle mass just by lifting weights at the local gym.

By only plugging away on the cardio equipment, a woman is doing her body a huge disservice. By only doing cardio (especially at a low to moderate, steady pace), the body burns both fat AND muscle tissue for fuel. Lifting weights helps prevent the loss of muscle tissue that occurs during most cardio workouts. Consistent weight training also helps increase the body’s resting metabolic rate since muscle requires more calories to maintain than fat. Basically, weight training will help a woman achieve a lean toned body. What woman doesn’t desire that?

So don’t be afraid to head on back to the free-weight section of the gym right along with your husband or boyfriend. Hitting the weights won’t make you look bulky, it will only help you on your way to having a more beautiful feminine body.

For some guidelines on scheduling your weight training and cardio workouts, check out Keith’s article, “When Do I Do Cardio? When Do I Lift Weights?”