Will weight training make me masculine and bulky?
The myths about women's weight training and female bodybuilding do not everseem to go away. With this article, we'd like to share the factsregarding weight training and female bodybuilding.
Women's Weight Training Myth #1 -Weight training makes you bulky and masculine.
Due to the fact that women do not, and cannot, naturally produce asmuch testosterone (one of the main hormones responsible for increasingmuscle size) as males do, it is impossible for a woman to gain hugeamounts of muscle mass by merely touching some weights. Unfortunately,the image that may come to your mind is that of professional femalebodybuilders. Most of these women, unfortunately, use anabolic steroids(synthetic testosterone) along with other drugs in order to achievethat high degree of muscularity.
In addition, most also have good genetics coupled with an unbelievablework ethic that enable them to gain muscle quickly when they spendhours in the gym lifting very heavy weights. Believe me when I say thatthey do not look like that by accident. Women who conduct weighttraining without the use of steroids get the firm and fitcellulite-free looking body that you see in most fitness/figure showsthese days.
Women's Weight Training Myth #2 - Exercise increases your chest size.
Sorry girls. Women’s breasts are composed mostly of fatty tissue.Therefore, it is impossible to increase breast size through weighttraining. As a matter of fact, if you go below 12 percent body fat,your breast size will decrease. Weight training does increase the sizeof the back, so this misconception probably comes from confusing anincrease in back size with an increase in cup size. The only way toincrease your breast size is by gaining fat or getting breast implants.
Women's Weight Training Myth #3 - Weight training makes you stiff and musclebound.
If you perform all exercises through their full range of motion,flexibility will increase. Exercises like flyes, stiff-leggeddeadlifts, dumbbell presses, and chin-ups stretch the muscle in thebottom range of the movement. Therefore, by performing these exercisescorrectly, your stretching capabilities will increase.
Women's Weight Training Myth #4 - If you stop weight training your muscles turn into fat.
This is like saying that gold can turn into brass. Muscle and fat aretwo totally different types of tissue. What happens many times is thatwhen people decide to go off their weight training programs they startlosing muscle due to inactivity (use it or lose it) and they alsousually drop the diet as well. Therefore bad eating habits combinedwith the fact that their metabolism is lower due to inactivity, andlower degrees of muscle mass, give the impression that the subject’smuscle is being turned into fat while in reality what is happening isthat muscle is being lost and fat is being accumulated.
Women's Weight Training Myth #5 - Weight training turns fat into muscle.
More alchemy. This is the equivalent of saying that you can turn anymetal into gold; don't we wish! The way a body transformation occurs isby gaining muscle through weight training and losing fat throughaerobics and diet simultaneously. Again, muscle and fat are verydifferent types of tissue. We cannot turn one into the other.