Strength training for women the key to a toned figure
Even if for a long time, men no longer had the monopoly of weights and dumbbells in the gyms, bodybuilding and strength training still have a deterrent effect on women… The fear of developing large muscles such as men and losing their feminine curves is still pervasive and dissuades women who want to lose weight from doing strength training and using heavy weights. Many stars of cinema, music or sport lead by example. They post their training victories or their favorite exercises on social networks. With the complete strength training guide, we want to help you overcome the fear of weights and strength training for women. Indeed: in the quest for the dream body, strength training is an indispensable partner.
As a woman, can I lose weight through strength training?
Let’s start at the beginning: to lose weight, you need a calorie deficit. With your training, you facilitate the weight loss process by increasing your caloric expenditure and ensuring the maintenance of muscles. If you’re doing extra strength exercises, you’re signaling to your body that you still need your muscles. This prevents your body from breaking them down. You’re not losing muscle. Result: you lose weight and have a well-shaped body.
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Why endurance training (cardio) is not enough
In gyms, women often forgo free weights and in favor of cardio machines. But the key to getting a toned, sculpted body is still strength training.
Muscle mass represents almost a quarter of our daily energy metabolism (22% to be exact). Muscles are therefore the best weapon to fight excess pounds and cellulite. Expending extra calories, even at rest, muscles increase basal metabolism. This results in sustained fat burning.
Strength training not only builds your muscle mass, it also maintains your muscles. Simple endurance training combined with a low-calorie diet can create a caloric deficit and therefore long-term weight loss, but also muscle wasting.It becomes more and more difficult to create a sufficient calorie deficit and to burn fat.The yo-yo effect threatens the period following weight loss.
It helps to preserve the muscles, to sculpt them and boosts the burning of fat. Cardio is a useful complement to strength training. It helps to further reduce the number of calories, increases performance capacity and strengthens the cardiovascular system.
No risk of being too muscular
When doing strength training with dumbbells, women are afraid of building bulky muscles like men. However, their obsession is totally unfounded because from a biological point of view, women are not programmed like men. Even though it has the same muscle structure, it normally produces much less testosterone , a hormone strongly linked to building muscle. This also has other implications in the area of muscle building, strength and body fat. That is why in women the muscles do not become voluminous , but draw a firm silhouette, with aesthetic contours.