One way to reignite a stalled metabolism is to perform strength training exercises— she advices that we need to lift weights.
Yes, weight lifting is not by any means a men's sport.
Us women need to lift weights and perform strength training exercises to build muscles to keep the metabolism working efficiently to prevent gaining extra pounds and developing a spare tire around our midsection.
Fear of You’ll "Bulk-up" Like Mens
We are all guilty of staying away from the weights with fear that "lifting weights" can make us ‘bulky’.
But the truth is far from that.
Women simply don't have enough testosterone to bulk up.
According to a study by William Kraemer, PhD and Professor of Kinesiology, Physiology and Neurology at University of Connecticut, women have little testosterone hormone and the little we do have declines with age.
Women simply don’t have the same level of testosterone as male do to build big muscles (Testosterone is produced by both males and females but is more prominent in males.)
As testosterone is the major growth factor for muscles in both men and women, women not having as much testosterone than men shows in the size of muscles we can develop.
Yes, for us women, it's practically impossible to “bulk up” naturally.
So what do we get?
Instead, we get toned.
Instead of our muscles begin to bulk up, we build beautiful muscle definitions that look healthy, sexy and slender.
so, fear not— lifting weights will only firm and shape your muscles not bulky.
3 Reasons Weight Lifting for Women
Image credit:cosmopolitan.com
1. Burn Fat and Calories More Efficiently
Weight training strengthens and tones your muscles.
Muscle growth eventually converts to visible well-shaped muscle tone and definitions we love.
Just think of Jessica Alba and Jennifer Lopez. Jennifer Lopez is famous for here tough weight training routines with her
celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson and often credits her well shaped butt to squats and lunges.
Her claim definitely has scientific evidence.
It's the work of what's called lipolysis.
When you perform an intense weight training workout (also known as metabolic training), it stimulates lipolysis, a process where fatty acids get broken down and released into the blood stream to be used as energy.
Lawrence Herrera and Len Kravitz, Ph.D. analyzed several studies to see the correlation between weight training and fat burning— his research revealed there is indeed an increase fat metabolism after a weight training session.
In fact, the researchers found that energy expenditures were elevated approximately 10.5% for 40 minutes after the workout.
They also pointed out that glycerol levels (the marker for lipolysis) were raised significantly to 78% during and 75% after the resistance training— and indirect calorimetry data showed that fat oxidation was 105% higher after a resistance training workout.
For more on their finding you can visit the article title You Can do Burn Fat During Resistance Exercise.
To achieve this level of muscle building and fat burning with strength training, MensFitness.com, recommends following a "strength training program" that includes hitting all the major muscle groups through compound exercises or exercises that require movements at multiple joints.
Some of the most well-known compound and multi-movement exercises are squats, shoulder press and lunges. All of them can be performed with or without weights.
If you are more comfortable using a machine, that's fine to start. However, to get a full benefit of multi-movement exercises, learning to work with free weight such as dumbbells is a good idea.
Perform the following the exercises to get started:
- Leg press
- Chest press
- Leg extension
- Shoulder press
- Seated row
- Lat pull down
All of these strength training exercises help with building muscle mass and improving lipolysis(fat loss). All in all, they give you the body transformation you are after.
2. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
An intense weight lifting session can burn up to 300 to 500 calories per hour. A major calorie burning per session if you ask me!
Weight training has also been scientifically proven to boost BMR (basal metabolic rate) for up to 24 hours after workout.
This is known as EPOC, or the afterburn effect, which in part helps fuel the repair of exercise-induced damage.
The EPOC generally tends to be modestly greater, adding about 6 to 15 % more calories to the overall workout energy expenditure, according to ACSM HIIT training guideline.
So according to the calorie chart below, for someone who weights a 140 pounds did an intense weight training workout for 55 minutes with minimal rest between each exercise, she gets to burn approximately 500 calories during the session and additional 30 to 75 calories post workout.
Source: BreakingMuscle.com
Your BMR simply means that if all you did was sitting around, how much energy would your body or how many calories would it burn?
That’s your Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR.
This is the basic number of calories you need to function in day to day life.
Although BMR varies from person to person depending on a number of factors, here’s a quick breakdown of what affects a person's BMR: