Fitness Facts
Misconceptions
For years, weight training and bodybuilding were considered primarily a male activity, women were afraid of being big and bulky. For most women that is impossible. A persistent myth inhibited women from training hard; that heavy lifting would produce bulging muscles and that it would make women less feminine. Women who did train generally did light weights and high repetitions. Things are changing and more women are realizing that being fit means more that step classes and aerobics.
Facts
Anything traditionally considered a good health practice for men applies equally for women.
Weight training is the fastest, easiest and best way to improve the shape, tone and strength of the body, female and male.
It is physiologically very difficult, if not impossible, for women to develop the huge, bulging muscles of men (without anabolic steroids).
Lean muscle gives a woman curves and shape. When women lose fat and gain muscle mass, the feminine physique emerges.
Elements of Fitness
- Strength
- Muscular Endurance
- Cardiovascular Endurance
- Flexibility
Weight training is the fastest, easiest and best way to improve the shape, tone and strength of your body. Running, biking, and using the elliptical are excellent cardiovascular conditioners and burn calories, but they can't compare to weight training to develop shape and definition.
When you start a weight training program- and stick with it- you will begin to notice changes within a few weeks. Even if you don't show it on the scale, your clothes will start to fit better and you will start to feel better. Remember that muscle weighs more than fat and as you gain muscle and burn off fat, your mirror and clothes will tell you more than the scale.
As your abdominal muscles become stronger, your stomach will become flatter and your back stronger. Flabby areas in the arms and legs will decrease being replaced by firm toned muscles.
Flexibility comes from stretching the muscle out after is has been worked, It is very important that after contracting the muscle we stretch it back out so as not to get short tight muscles, often seen it bodybuilders. It is equally important that the muscle be warmed up before inflicting a heavy load.
I compare weight training to a piece of spaghetti, if you take it out of the box and try to bend it, it will break, but if you place it in a pot of warm water it will become flexible and bend, your muscle is the same in order for it not to break (or tear) you need to warm it up first. Therefore, the warm up and cool down are equally important to an all around fitness program.
See the types of fitness programs we offer here that will help you get in the best shape you ever have been!
