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Guest post - Women and Muscle

Posted: 31/01/2010 at 06:00pm by Guest contributor, Angelique Kronebusch

I love lifting weights. I love the feeling I get when I can push harder or lift heavier. I also love the changes I see when I put on more muscle. I enjoy weight training so much I wish that I never had to do cardio, but I know that cardio is important so of course I still do it. You can never accuse me of being the typical cardio girl in the gym.

When I get a new female client about 90% of them are afraid to put on a little muscle and always tell me that they just want to “tone” and not get “bulky”. I still cannot believe women still use these words.

Tone? What does that mean anyways? To me that word means tightening up your body and the only way to do that is to lift weights. I also really dislike the word “bulky”. This is my favorite thing to say to my female clients, “do I look bulky to you?” They always say no of course and I let them know I look the way I do because I am not afraid to lift more than 5 pounds. Heck I am not afraid to lift more than 20 pounds. Of course I am not going to make most of my clients lift a crazy amount of weight straight away because I have been weight training for 9 years, but if you look at a picture of me I am definitely not the “bulky” kind of girl.

Basically if you want to “tone” and lean up you have to lift weights in your workout routine. The more muscle mass you have, the leaner your body will eventually look. Also what is great about having more muscle is that you can burn food like crazy! I love food and of course I eat clean, and I can eat 1800 calories in the day without worrying about gaining weight.

Weight training is also beneficial to women in so many ways. Weight training raises your basal metabolic rate which causes you to burn more calories throughout the day, even in your sleep. Weight training also helps build strong bones which reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis. Your metabolism naturally declines after the age of 25 and building more muscle mass can help reverse this. Also weight training improves posture. If you build a strong back, you will stand up straight. I have noticed this about myself over the years.

These are just a few examples of why weight training is so great and why I love it so much. So take time off that treadmill and hit the weights. Do a circuit hitting all the major muscle groups 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps, it does not have to take a long time. Do not be afraid to lift more than 5 pounds, your body will thank you later.


Angelique Kronebusch

Angelique's Personal Training website

Follow Angelique on Twitter @MsFitBC now!

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