Weights are your Friend NOT the Enemy!

As a personal trainer most of my clientele are female and nearly on a daily basis hear the words ‘I don’t want to do weights as I don’t want to get big and bulky.’ Well this post is here to tell all you ladies that that statement couldn’t be further from the truth and doing weights is incredibly beneficial for you no matter your health goals.

Benefits

Are you someone that goes to the gym and spends 1-2 hours on a cardio machine, does a few stretches and leaves again thinking cardio is the way to a better body? Do you do a couple of aerobics classes a week thinking that is enough? While doing the exercise is great for your lungs and general health you will actually improve your fitness and general health more by weight training.

Main benefits of weight training are:

• Increased fat loss
• Speeds up metabolism so more calories are burned at rest
• Muscle takes up less room so will be stronger and skinnier
• Improves bone density

To gain muscle you need to have a high level of testosterone in your body which is generally low in females and higher in men. Gaining muscle is also very difficult as you would need to stick to a very strict diet and exercise plan meaning eating a very high level of calories and training at a very intense level. So ladies how perfect is that for you? Your hormones are what are protecting you getting bigger and get the great benefits of doing weights, getting stronger and getting skinny at the same time.

Where do I start?

Ok so maybe you have used the odd machine shown during a gym induction or you have never done weights before and don’t know where to start. The first piece of advice for you is to speak to a trainer/instructor who can safely show you the exercises that are best for you. My advice would be to work what are called compound exercises. A compound exercise is one that works multiple joints meaning many muscles are worked in one go so you get a greater calorie burn and haven’t got to waste hours in the gym trying to target each muscle individually. The best compound exercises are as follows:

• Pull ups/Pulldowns
• Chest Presses
• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Shoulder Press

Performing those 5 moves will work the entire body and you will feel great for doing them with increased self-esteem and confidence.

Article by

Anthony Mayatt, Owner/Personal Trainer at Breathe Fitness. You can follow him on Twitter at @BreatheFitPT and like him on Facebook at breathefitness.