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Myths About Weight Training for Women
By JAY MONDICK
Now, more than ever, women need to pump iron!
Myth: Weight training makes women more masculine.
Women who train for strength or muscular gains will never acquire the degree of muscle mass associated with men who lift weights simply
because women have less of the muscle building hormone testosterone. In fact, the typical male has ten times the level of testosterone of a
female.
True strength gains are often associated with increased body weight, but this does not necessarily mean there is always an increase in
size. A woman's body fat is likely to decrease while muscle tissue will increase, causing her overall body weight to increase or stay the same. "Consider that underneath the very shapely curve of a woman's body lies a
muscle. Thus, weight training is a good thing!"
Myth: Women cannot excel in overhead lifting, chin-ups, and push-ups.
The fact is women can make significant improvements in upper body strength if they decide to work on it. "As far as chin-ups are concerned,
that is an exercise where women are actually closest to men when trained properly."
One reason women generally do not excel in tests of upper body strength is that men, and boys as well, tend to perform more manual labor
than women. Who climbs the tree to do the trimming, pulls down the broken fence, and wheelbarrows in the new sod? Sure girls and women chip
in with the chores, but usually much of the manual labor is done by the men. So it's not so much a physiological issue as a cultural one.
(No offense Becky P. and Anetta.)
Myth: Women should not squat because it widens the hips.
This is a myth that can be traced to Vince Giroada, a legendary bodybuilding guru who trained physique champions and movie stars. Giroada
said that squats would widen the hips and detract from the aesthetic V-taper that body builders like. Nonsense. According to Poliquin,
there is no scientific or empirical evidence to corroborate the belief that squats widen the hips. "When the gluteus maximus develops it
grows back, not out because neither the insertion nor the origin is at the hip. If squats did widen the hips, Olympic lifters who devote as
much as 25% of their training volume to squats would be build like mailboxes."
Myth: Aerobic training is more effective for women in helping them lose fat.
Females carry more fat and store it more efficiently than men, making it harder for women to maintain a lean athletic body. All that aside,
the low level of resistance used in aerobic training does not elicit the hormonal response that would bring about positive body composition
changes.
In contrast, by increasing muscle mass and stimulating the release of natural bio-chemicals such as growth hormone, weight training will
make a woman's metabolism (the rate at which a person burns calories) and will help her burn fat and stay lean, perhaps ever more
effectively than with aerobics. Another problem with aerobics is that it produces cortisol, which has the effect of decreasing muscle mass
and consequently metabolism.
Many women believe that in order to stay lean they must perform aerobics. The fact is, weight training can be just as effective as aerobic
training to lose fat. It is possible to over train so much with aerobics that the body actually gains fat. One study found that the aerobic
instructors who taught the most classes had the highest body fat levels.
Another interesting phenomenon is that some types of aerobic training can increase fat storage in the hips and thighs. The body adapts to
spinning exercise by storing intramuscular and subcutaneous fat in the hip and thigh areas.
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