Women and weight training

When talking with women about fitness, I usually hear the following statements:” I do not want muscles like a man..! Or, " .... I do not do weights because then I look like a man!!!...and then they stay away from the weight room and join musical lessons of step, G.A.G (legs, abdomen, gluteus); Pilates, Aerobic Spinning, Movida, etc...

Of course, all lessons yield good toning results and psycho-physical well-being, but they have a big problem: THEY ARE NOT TARGETED OR PERSONALIZED.

The instructor designs a class in such a way that should be adaptable to a variety of people with different ages and physical morphology. The women taking these classes have different characteristics, and even different degree of training; so, how can you do a properly targeted job if you have to deal simultaneously with the18 or 20 years old girl, and with the 30 or 40 years old (or even more) lady?

This suggests, then, that group classes can help toning and losing weight, because there is an expenditure of energy that burns calories, as well as being fun and give an adrenaline rush, but, in reality, their usefulness is limited.

Women should understand and believe that if you want to build a great physique, toned and feminine, in addition to proper nutrition, they should exercise 3 to 5 times in weight rooms, combining targeted anaerobic and aerobic workouts, because building muscle tone and burning fat is not enough to burn calories, but must understand how to burn these calories.

Remember that to lose weight by burning fat, you must speed up the metabolism, and this is achieved by:

1. Diet

2. Exercise: Anaerobic training with overload exercise speeds up resting metabolism much more than the aerobic exercise. Aerobic training for fat burning purposes should be kept constant for a period exceeding 20’ at a steady pace of 60% - 70% of our VO2Max, and preferably done at the end of the training session when the glycogen reserves are already exhausted, and therefore directly activating lipolysis.

So musical exercise lessons or general toning may be fine for those who are a little lazy, or for those who do not like the hard training of the weight room, as an accompaniment to the exercise room equipment sessions for discharge of tension, or entertainment, but " unfortunately, "if our goal is to build a hard body the secret is:

WEIGHT ROOM TRAINING COMBINED WITH A PROPER DIET!!!

The weight room should not be considered as an environment full of orcs, or weight lifting women that look like men, transformed by the use of performance-enhancing drugs, but simply a room with the tools by which we can do everything, from athletic training, to fitness, to wellness, to aesthetics rehabilitation, and build muscular masculine bodies as well as very sexy feminine physiques; most important is to do it in a healthy way, without using performance-enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids, and other drugs.

Depending on the physical structure and on the goals, we can categorize the type and frequency of the recommended workout:

• Long-limbed women: training sessions consisting of weights concluded with an aerobic workout, 3 to 5 times a week

• Overweight women: training sessions consisting of 2 sessions of weights and 3 of aerobic workout, 3 to 5 times per week

• Shapely women: 3 to 5 aerobic sessions per week followed by the anaerobic workout

• Sportswomen: 4 to 5 weekly anaerobic sessions concluded with aerobic workout

The number of sessions can vary from 2, 3 to 5, and obviously depends on the results, on the motivation and the degree of training of the subject, and is structured differently depending on the frequency and, above all, depending on the physical structure we are working with.

The subdivisions of the parts of the body to be exercised depends on how often you go to the gym.

I suggest more frequent sessions with more muscular subdivisions that can vary from 2 to one muscle group per workout.

If you go 3 times in the weight room, nothing forbids us to do aerobic workout in the other days, or just to make musical exercises that are an excellent side to our training.

We believe that the magazines are filled with articles and theories that have increasingly emphasized the risk of overtraining, but in reality only accomplishing an increase in sales by telling what the readers wanted to hear, rather than the truth, because there is a long way to go before entering the phase of muscle catabolism and, thus, overtraining. So do not worry if you do decide to go to the gym every day, obviously taking into account the state of your training and performance, but “unfortunately", before results are real, tangible and lasting, you have to work hard.

Let us take it stepwise!

We start with 3 sessions before arriving to 5, if time permits, after 3 - 4 months, or even after 6 months, because, by so doing, our body gradually gets used to work and we will not suffer from a feeling of tiredness and exhaustion! Physical stress has repercussions on our mind that can make us lose interest in going to the gym!!!!!!

In this article we decided to make it clear to women that the weight room is essential to build a feminine and sexy body, and that the training for that purpose must follow certain rules, for the legs, and for the trunk, and that there are groups of muscle that need to be trained in a certain way, and other that need a different way of training.

Surely, in a woman, training for the legs must be fundamental, but the trunk must also be properly trained, trying to focus on the points that distinguish a female body: shoulders, triceps and back, and, of course legs, buttocks, abdomen, and not totally ignore pectorals and biceps that will be trained in a very soft manner.

I believe that a woman's body should be structured with a very fine and harmonious trunk consisting of a broad back, with round shoulders, but not too wide (the trapezius is a man’s muscle, and really looks bad in a woman, because it would make her look too masculine), a fine arm consisting of firm and well defined triceps, and very slim biceps, not thick and round like a man, and a hard upper chest.

Narrow waist and hips, abdomen flat and defined, but not too much; a carved and rock hard abdomen is too masculine.

Firm legs with muscles that are not excessively defined but, but long.

Hard, high, and round buttocks; round but very soft calf.

All this can only be done only in a weight room, taking into account:

• CONSISTENCY

• DETERMINATION

• GOOD NUTRITION

• HARD WORK

Obviously women who decide to have another structure, or a sportier and more muscular one, should not be take these rules into account, but must look at other factors, and will have to work differently and even harder, and their result will be stronger and less feminine.

In conclusion, for a woman who wants to build a female sexy body, is necessary minimum of 3 to 4 sessions per week; for those who want more tangible and lasting results and truly have the time and determination to reach this goal, 5 sessions per week are necessary.

A standard weight training session in the gym must be followed with an abdomen and buttocks workout, and concluded with a fat-burning aerobic routine (60% - 70% of VO2Max).

Our Training could then be made up as follows:

• Warmup 5’- 10'

• Weight 20' - 30'

• Abdomen + Buttocks 10 '

• Aerobic 20' - 30' (60% - 70% VO2Max)

Total Length 60 ' - 80'

VO2Max Women = (200 minus age) / 100 x 60 or 70 = % VO2Max to maintain constant

We would finally give a last bit of advice on the technical execution of the exercises:

FLEXION AND EXTENTION MOVEMENTS MUST ALWAYS BE CONTROLLED AND COMPLETE.

WHEN TRAINING YOU MUST RECRUIT THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF MUSCLE FIBERS IN EVERY MOVEMENT AND NOT SIMPLY RAISE OR MOVE THE WEIGHTS!!!

GOOD TRAINING MEANS MAINTAIN THE RIGHT TECHNIQUE AND NOT JUST LIFT THE WEIGHTS!

In future articles we will talk about the exercises to do at the gym and workout methods needed to build a women's sexy physique and at the same time take into consideration each individual muscle.