25 Jul Episode 14: Why Women NEED Weight Training
In my career I’ve had hundreds of initial assessments, and I’d estimate that 90% of the women mention something along the lines of, “I don’t want to get bulky.” It’s like the female sex is convinced that if they do 3 sets of squats their suddenly going to look like a bodybuilder. Well today we’re here to set the record straight on why women NEED weight training to be lean and healthy. Let’s start off with some facts:
1) Women have about 1/20th the testosterone as males, which makes increasing muscle difficult.
2) For every lb of muscle you increase, your metabolism raises about 50 cal per day. Translation: The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn everyday.
3) The more muscle you have, the higher your insulin sensitivity will be. What this means is when you eat a carb it will be used to go to your muscles, not your belly or love handles.
If you think about it, how many guys do you know who have been trying to “get big” for years with little results? If it was that easy, every guy would look like a men’s health model!
On the flip side, here is the downside of NOT doing weight training:
1) If you exercise you will likely do steady state running, which will lead to chronically high levels of cortisol, which decreases muscle mass (lower metabolism) and turns them into belly fat.
2) You will miss the most effective way to help you lose body fat: interval based large muscle weight training.
3) You will be at a much higher risk of injury. If you don’t weight train, it is inevitable that you will hurt your back, knees or shoulder at some point in your life.
4) The #1 predictor of age is muscle mass. #2 is strength. So yes, weight training really is the true fountain of youth.
5) You will be weak andfrail. The stronger your muscles are, the stronger your mind is. Weight training gets you in the habit ofsettingand achieving goals. It will turn your mindset from, “I can’t do that” to “I can do anything,”
From the training end, there are infinite variations to training programs and what results they will produce. For example, long eccentric motions (ex: the lower of a bicep curl) for 3-4 seconds will build tremendous strength in the tendons and ligaments surrounding the elbow. This will help to prevent tennis elbow, tommy john surgery, elbow tendonitis and other injuries. A fast eccentric found in complexes, plyometrics and timed circuits will do nothing to protect the joints. I’m not saying don’t do them. I’m saying there are a lot of factors in a high quality program that must be balanced in order to achieve multiple goals. That knowledge is whatseparatesthe good trainers from the bad. Here is the my mentor Charles Poliquin’s take.
To see this is in practicality, compare a bodybuilders program vs one of our Group Training programs:
Body Builder:
a) 1-2 body parts a day, 16+ sets per muscle group, most of the work in isolation.
b) Train 5-7 days per week not including cardio. Optimal is two a day training to get sufficient volume in.
c) Very high carb intake, high protein (2 g per lb of body weight), high calorie. This leads to a daily energy roller coaster.
GT Program:
a) 2-3 sessions per week of resistance training, plus 2-3 sprint sessions or tabata circuits.
b) 4-6 sets max of the major muscle groups each time. Exercises are selected to achieve general structural balance of all muscles in the body and get the most metabolic bang for your buck.
c) Relatively high protein, carbs from veggies, modified Paleo Diet. This leaves you full andfeelingbetter everyday.
The volume of sets is probably 3-4 times as much as our GT, which will still stimulate some muscle growth. But make no mistake, you can’t be all things to all people and a body builder would have no business in our program unless they wanted to do 2 a days and make this a much more effective form of cardio. For the average women or man, this is just enough sets to produce some muscle growth, improve athleticism and make them lean fast.
Wouldn’t you want to look like this over being skinny fat?
In summary, the more muscle you have, the easier it is to be lean, strong and a bad ass chic.Thank you for taking the time to enlighten yourself to the paradigm shift that is taking place. Muscle building is essential to having a high metabolism, and looking/feeling amazing. Just remember that strong is the new skinny. Live by the Faster Fitness modo: Get Stronger Everyday!
