Women and Weight Training -No

Women and Weight Training -No Bulk Dispelling the Myth that Women who Lift Weights for Exercise Risk Developing Masculine-Appearing Muscles One kind of physical exercise, properly done, that can and does consistently help women and men alike maintain fit, healthy bodies, is weight-lifting (Women who lift weights turn into men? 2006).

For women especially, weight-lifting exercises in which the right amounts of weight are properly and consistently lifted promote the development of healthy, well-toned muscle in areas where fat is commonly stored: e.g., in the arms; legs; abdomen; upper and/or lower back; hips; etc. But despite benefits of weight-lifting, women often fear acquiring bulging muscles that spoil rather than enhance appearance. I will explore how and why the myth that women "bulk up" in ways masculine and unattractive from lifting weights began, and the scientific that disproves this myth.

Further, I will also explain how and why building healthy muscle through appropriate weight-lifting will not make women "bulk up"; but instead become healthier, more physically fit, and more attractive. To possess good health; physical fitness, and a body both healthy and attractive are aspirations as important to women (and men) today as ever before.

With today's myriad convenient yet unhealthy "fast-food" temptations and our typically too-sedentary 21st century lifestyles, becoming healthy; physically fit, and physically attractive, and then staying that way, are goals perhaps more difficult to attain (and when reached, maintain) than ever before. is to regularly lift weights: the barbell kind and/or by repetitively using weight-lifting machines made (most famously) by Nautilus, but also by various other manufacturers.

There is now even an entire line of Nautilus and/or other weight-lifting machines, available in many gyms that are designed to be used only by women, precisely so that women who lift weights no longer fear having to "bulk up" by repetitively lifting weights. For example: The two women-only clubs in Anchorage offer a line of Nautilus machines downsized for women's bodies. The weight stacks increase by 3-pound increments instead of the usual 10 [sic].

And instead of jumping from 5 to 10 to 15 pounds, the dumbbells increase by 1- or 2-pound increments [emphasis not added] (Men, Keep Out! Are female-only clubs good for women? 2005) Additionally, according to the article Women who lift weights turn into men? (David, 2006), even should women wish (and some do) to actually develop big visible muscles, say, in order to compete viably in women's body-building contests, women's own physiological make-up, as opposed to the physiological make-up of men, most typically works very hard against them in their actual realization of that goal: key to muscle growth is testosterone.

Females do not have high levels of it, therefore, even if they worked out like men do, with heavy weights, she is not going to suddenly become manly, bulky and bulging with muscles. Granted, there are some females who do have high levels but it's pretty rare.

Don't worry Further, according to Dolores (2006) the common myth that women who weight-train will always build unsightly muscle is just that - a myth- because in order to obtain such results, everyone, women and men alike, must specifically train for them: they do not just happen from mere weight-lifting alone. So the opposite of the common myth about weight-lifting by women is actually true: women will get big muscles from weight-lifting only if they specifically train (as body builders do, for example) to get them.

Otherwise, as Dolores (2006), echoing David (2006) further observes about women's muscle-building fears and capacities, it is simply impossible for the development of big unsightly muscles to "just happen" to women, from the mere regular exercise activity of all-around weight-lifting for physical fitness and conditioning! (Dolores; also see David (2006). In addition, this whole original myth that women who lift weights will always acquire ugly muscles, suggests Dolores, and/or that weight-lifting always yields big muscles for women and men alike began several decades ago.

The genesis of this faulty myth occurred throughout the 1970's and continued with strength throughout the 1980's and 1990's (and then beyond, up to now, the early 21st century) (Dolores, 2006).

The myth itself that women who lift weights for exercise would for certain become bulky-looking and man-like, was most likely spread, and moreover spread far and wide throughout America and the world (Physicallyelite [sic], 2006) through, especially, the suddenly frequent and enthusiastic media coverage (e.g., on magazine covers; on television; in billboards and other advertisements; and in films (e.g., Sylvester Stallone's Rocky series; Conan the Barbarian and the Terminator films featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger).

The misleading myth of women, weight-lifting, and muscle bulkiness was then both strengthened and perpetuated by the simultaneous sprouting and aggressive marketing of numerous glossy magazines and other eye-catching-publications and other materials that were suddenly devoted, exclusively, from about the early-to-mid 1970's on (Physicallyelite, 2006; Dolores, 2006; David, 2006), of the newly-popular but by now fast-increasing worldwide practice of body building.

Also at this same time (see Physicallyelite, 2006), many members of the general public, women and men alike, were now quick (and even eager, it seems: see David, 2006) to confuse championship body-building training practices all too easily with regular weight-lifting workouts, and therefore implicitly caution women but not men against them (see especially Physicallyelite, 2006).

Such confusions were then effortlessly perpetuated, from the 1970's on, through media representations of entertainment figures such as Schwarzenegger; Stallone, and others (e.g., (and more recently) champion women body builders like Kelly Ryan and her well-muscled peers) who made (or in Schwarzenegger's case, merely launched). Such well-known individuals (and myriad less well-known ones) had once launched well-publicized careers, just by flexing their muscles at certain well-attended and/or televised body-building events and contests.

From there, suggests Dolores (2006), average people began, without having any clear evidence of the truthfulness of this new myth, to believe (obviously incorrectly, as we now know) that weight-lifting and body building were synonymous entities: weight-lifting was therefore universally considered to be good for men, who most often wished to build visible muscle, but for that same reason very bad for women, who mostly (female body-builders excepted) did not wish to build visible muscle.

Therefore, even now, according to Dolores (2006): There is a common fear among some people, especially women, that if they were to start weight training they will start to look like [sic] the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. And, as Dolores further observes: Truth of the matter is, those kind [sic] of results only happen when you specifically train for them.. When you first start a weight program, don't be disheartened if you gain a couple of kilos. It is often said that Lean Muscle Tissue weighs more than fat.

Do not listen to this hype. 1kg of fat weighs the same as 1kg of muscle - muscle tissue is more toned and compact than fat so you will start to look much slimmer. And further, according to David (2006): In general women do not need any different routines then a man. It's the myth that has been around forever that men lift weights, women do cardio. It's simply wrong.. [T]here's a big myth that women have to train different then men. They don't.

They can lift weights, do the same exercise, and build a little muscle, become stronger and still be [sic] 100% female. Building muscle isn't all that easy right? You don't just do some weights and have a 21" inch arms the next month. Within this essay, I have identified and explored various key reasons for the faulty but nevertheless still-popular myth that women can (and therefore inevitably do) "bulk up" in ways that would be considered "manly" and "non-feminine" from the mere regular exercise of lifting weights.

I have also pointed toward and analyzed various scientific facts: especially facts about how physiological capabilities and/or limitations make it easier for men, due to their higher testosterone levels, to build visible muscle through weight-lifting, but.