by The Fit Girl Reporter on
July 5, 2016

Strength Training Can Change Your Physique

Anytime you pick up something heavy your muscles get stronger but not bigger. There is a huge misconception that if women lift weights like men, we will get bulky.

Strength training will actually give a more powerful weight loss effect than cardio. Just two weight training sessions a week can reduce overall body fat at about 3% within 10-12 weeks without cutting a single calorie. This is as much as 3 inches off the waist and hips.

Gaining muscle can make it seem like you’ve gained weight on the scale when you actually look slimmer than before. This is because muscle is more dense and swells with water retention. More muscle also speeds up your metabolism. Your muscles are broken down when you strength train, they are rebuilt within 24-48 hours your metabolism is operating in a more rapid method even when you or doing nothing or even sleeping. More muscle equals higher resting metabolism.

 

Benefits

Weight training does more than strengthen your muscles, it also strengthens your bones, lowers your blood pressure and reverses the aging in your metabolism, which starts around age 30. Keeping your metabolism elevated for as long as possible will help keep you in top shape and let you eat like a teen.

Ignore the Scale

The hardest part for most women is not to track their results through a scale with weight training. Muscle does NOT weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound whether it’s fat, muscle, bone or feathers. Muscle is denser than fat and the scale can’t measure amount of body fat. Instant weight loss shown on a scale usually comes from water loss. When a women trains hard and hasn’t seen the number on the scale change very much, it is because she has built muscle, not actually gained body fat. The best way to recognize a high strung workout is to pay attention to your muscles the next day; if they’re very sore, you’re probably experiencing water-weight gain. This rarity is called delayed onset muscle soreness, and the extra fluid can add 3 or 4 pounds to your weight.

Strength training can to weight gain over time, but think of this as “good” weight.

 

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