As women we have been led to believe that exercising with weights makes us bulky or manly. Truth is.. It’s not possible if you don’t train at least twice a day with heavy weights and if you don’t double your calorie intake😉
A thesis done by Vanya Sakazova from the Kajaanin Amatikkorkeakoulo University of Applied Science, discusses the various physiological, dietary and hormonal factors involved in resistance training. We have the misperception, and are so exposed to these strong woman on social media and it scares us away.
That being said, the perks of strength training far outweighs the benefits of solely doing cardio. You don’t have to lift the heaviest weights. All you have to do is;
1. Know what you want to achieve. In the case of wanting to lose weight and gain some muscle. You will have to use lighter weights and do more repititions, in other words you would use a 4kg dumbell and do around 8-12 repititions of each exercise. Alternating the days you do not gym with jogging, cycling or rowing.
2. Eat the right foods and note that if you want to maintain your weight you have to eat the same amount of calories everyday and if you want to lose weight, depending on how much you need to lose you will have to have less calories than the maintenance calories. If you do not know how to work it out and you are scared of using the internet, go to a Registered Dietitian, they can really help you work out which foods you can eat too especially if you have risk factors for illnesses e.g. Diabetes and Hypertension.
3. Stay committed. This may prove to be the most difficult. It’s always exciting to start something new that may just change your life for good. Then on the other hand it may get boring or a bit difficult and thay’s where the real test comes in. Stay committed and you achieve your goals, don’t and you won’t achieve them PLUS you will be dissapointed in yourself.. I don’t know about you but I bate dissapointing myself. So make sure you use ways to motivate yourself everyday.
If you want to paste motivational quotes on your fridge or write on your mirror.. Do it!!
4. The thing about Resistance training is the first few weeks are rough. It is crucial to make sure that you have enough protein. This helps with muscle recovery, because during weight training your muscles get micro tears and that’s why people who gym are always going on about protein powder etc. It really does help.
5. Your program.
This will be individualized, as no person has the same body composition or goal. If you weigh 50kg’s and you are really skinny, giving you a program with weights double your size won’t make sense. Make sure that your program is safe and that you are taught the proper techniques. No one needs to get hurt.
Now your probably wondering why I’m sharing this. It’s because I absolutely love going to the gym and doing so many different exercises. It challenges me and sometimes we just need a good challenge. Take your time and ease into it.
Start slow and make sure that you progress gradually. I can really say that for me it was pretty cool to know that I can be strong and still look very ladylike 💙
Xoxo Dan the Wooman
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