The Benefits of Strength Training for Women: What You Need to Know
If strength training for women brings to mind a female Hulk, don't fret. It would take extraordinary efforts and medical intervention for a female to bulk up like that.
Rather, strength training slims down women. Perform an training routine 3 times a week and don't cut a calorie out of your diet, and you can easily lose four pounds or even more a year. Better still: Lean muscles weigh more than fat, so you will have lost much more fat than the scale alone will reveal. Your clothing size will go down.
Better news -- strength training creates a continued influence on your metabolic rate and calorie consumption. strength training pumps up your metabolism for the rest of the day -- more than aerobic exercise will. It adds up to roughly 100 calories a day, over 350,000 calories in a year (10 + pounds) -- for doing nothing! Also, every pound of lean muscle consumes seven to 10 times as many calories as a pound of fat. Fat consumes 5 calories per hour while lean muscle needs 35-50 calories per hour. Strength training not only reduces your bulk, it makes it way easier to keep it off!
A special reward for women is that strength training battles osteoporosis. Strength training builds up muscles, ligaments, tendons, and bones. All of these work against the dangers caused by bone loss. A stronger body will help prevent damage if you fall, and a stronger body will make you much less likely to fall.
There are many training methods. What way is best? You can start just by lifting your own body weight, but you will very soon require something more. Dumbbells and barbells, resistance tubes and bands, and workout machines can all be used.
Dumbbells and barbells come in increasing weights that keep your program on track. You need to change what you are doing every 3 weeks to avoid "accommodation" to the routine, when your body ceases using as much energy to do the same work. Fitness centers have large sets of both the hand-held dumbbells and the larger barbells. If you are exercising at your home or at your office, you would like something less bulky.
A great alternative for women are the Bowflex SelectTech 552 dumbbells. A twist of a knob is all that's needed to change the weight from 5 through 52 pounds, all most individuals will need. They take barely more space than a single pair of regular dumbbells.
Elastic bands or tubes, as well, are excellent equipment for small places. The lighter the coloration, the less the resistance, the darker, the greater. You'll want a rainbow of bands eventually.
The alternation of dumbbells, bands/tubes, and your own body can offer superb strength training for any woman for decades.
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