As a Personal Trainer with over a thousand hours training women, and observing women’s workout routines in the gym, one thing is very evident: women need to weight train! [readolog_blockquote ]Women oftentimes lack core stability, and many women seem to think that looking like a rail with zero strength or muscle tone is attractive. I hope that whatever causes this “skinny” complex is brainwashed out of the minds of women forever, and I am here to explain why.[/readolog_blockquote]

First off, men do not like women who are way to skinny. I want a woman who is LEAN and TONED, with a healthy amount of BODY FAT, yes I said it; I want a woman with some body-fat.  Women naturally have more body-fat in certain areas of their body, and if they develop a lean and toned physique through weight training it will actually ENHANCE their looks. I’ll tell you what is attractive to men and what other women are always subconsciously jealous of: A woman who has a curvy and STRONG body that can kick some ass and everyone knows it instantly when they see her. A woman who weight trains will have an amazing backside, toned legs, and her chest will be lifted and more aesthetically pleasing.  But a woman who just does the same boring steady state cardio, or never ventures outside of some light stretching in a yoga class, will never develop this strength.

One of the biggest gripes I hear from women that are skeptical about weight training is that they do not want to get bulky. This is because all of those meat-heads in the gym who have no idea what functional training is, give the gym a bad rap for women in general, and honestly, I hate working out around gorillas with horrible form and big un-functional muscles, of course women are going to stray away from the free-weights in this environment.  But the importance of weight training cannot be undermined for women; it will NOT make you bulky unless you really start training for size in a bodybuilding style routine.

The rep training parameters for size are typically between 8-12 and include a high number of sets, this is what body-builders do. Body builders often ISOLATE small muscles and perform many sets in this rep range inducing a hypertrophy (size response) in the muscles. There are many different functional lifts and exercises that can be performed in a circuit fashion however that will NOT have this effect. Exercises such as: squats, lunges, push press, deadlifts, cleans, etc. integrate the nervous and muscular systems and will build muscle that is extremely dense, lean, and flexible in nature.  Weight training in a circuit fashion can also shed some extra lbs. while also increasing muscle mass and cardiovascular endurance.

If you are a woman who is wondering where to start weight training than start with a basic bodyweight routine. Women need the benefits of weight training for increased muscle tone and strength, as well as the benefits to the core because lacking these things makes for a weak individual. If you lack core stability and cannot even do a single push-up, the body manifests this weakness in the mind; you will be a flimsy person and be weak psychologically as well.  Weight training GREATLY improves the mental confidence of women and I have seen it first hand over and over.  Once a woman can truly go INSIDE her body, which is what women do, they ABSORB energy, they can become comfortable with themselves energetically.

A woman who does not have good control of her body will probably not have good control of her emotions. Weight training has many stress-reduction benefits and hormone stimulating effects that women need especially.   Sometimes the answer is not in trying to become even skinnier and flimsier and worrying about a number on a scale, but the solution is to GAIN MORE MUSCLE, for a more well-rounded and STRONGER METABOLISM.  Imagine a woman who is 105lbs. with the strength of a wet noodle.

Cultural conditioning has hammered it into her head that the scale is god, the number on a machine is more important than holistically viewing her health.  Let us also say her body-fat is low, so she starts weight training in a circuit fashion and eating more whole-foods and puts on 7lbs. but she looks and feels great.  Focusing on the number on the scale in this case could actually be detrimental to her good health!

Here are a few better things to focus on than the number on the scale for women, which is just a limited snapshot of something, not the entire picture:

• How strong you feel physically and emotionally
• The glow of your skin
• The state of your body or menstrual cycle (this can affect appearance and energy)
• How your pants fit and how toned your legs are
• Do you physically LOOK better, for example are you more lifted in certain areas than before
• *Do you have a healthy amount of body fat for your frame?

**Women naturally have more body-fat, especially in certain areas of the body; this is not always a BAD THING. Some women are naturally leaner than others, but if you have a wider frame and happen to naturally equalize with a bit more body-fat than others, you have to realize that it is the QUALITY of the fat, not the fact that you have fat.  As a woman you have to be mature enough to end the madness around hating your own body-fat, you will never be as low as a man’s fat percentage and you are NOT MEANT TO! It is a beautiful thing. The body cycles through fat as a fuel source, it is your reserve energy, so if you are weight training regularly and doing high-intensity circuits you will be burning through and replacing this fat.  This is where DIET comes into play; as long as you eat extremely clean and whole-foods the body-fat you do put on will be healthy fat and you will have an amazing glow and vibrancy.  The key is to keep toxic fat off and avoid processed foods.

Some facts about women’s weight training:

1. You burn more calories doing weighted compound lifts than steady state cardio. Weight training and doing compound movements like squats or deadlifts, even with just bodyweight, but ESPECIALLY with added weight, burns more calories than nearly any other form of exercise.  Weight training stimulates the body’s prime movers and muscle mass, but lifting with correct form also requires deep-stabilizer muscles to engage and high levels of nervous-system coordination.  The heart also has to pump blood to the different muscles and throughout the body as needed.  This is why weight training will burn more calories than steady state cardio, which just keeps your body doing the same motion at the same pace over and over.

[readolog_blockquote ]To clarify, weight training may not burn more calories per hour of the activity compared so some other forms of activities, but the increase in LEAN MASS that you get from weight training will result in more calories burned OVERALL, which means you will burn more calories throughout the day.[/readolog_blockquote]

2. Do not be afraid to do heavy compound movements such as squats and deadlifts. Movements like the Deadlift can be performed with heavier weight and a lower rep parameter, and will not make you look bulky; in fact heavy compound movements will build a lean, toned, strong, and proportional body.  Doing high reps of 15 or 20 plus with exercises like bicep curls or on leg machines that do not place a high demand on the nervous system and stabilization systems will not be as effective at building a lean and strong body.  You will be building mainly muscular endurance, which is not a bad thing, but do not overdo it with endurance and be afraid to go heavy on compound movements like squats and deadlifts, they will balance your frame and pack on lean muscle.

3. Stationary Machines Do Not Count Except for Supplemental Exercises. What I mean by this is that any machine that stabilizes the weight for you, such as a leg press machine, a fly machine, or a smith machine, are completely useless in terms of functional strength and stability.  Machines allow your muscles and prime movers to get engaged, but the problem is that the machine stabilizes the weight for you; this results in a body that looks strong and fit but a person who has no athleticism or balance..

4. ..Instead use free weights like: Barbells, Kettlebells, DumbBells, and Cable Machines, Swiss Balls, the floor, pull-up bars, etc.   Staying away from machines allows you to use your time much more effectively in the gym.  For example a bodyweight squat requires a lot of core stabilization and balance to perform, but a leg-press machine requires almost no core or spinal stabilization because the machine is providing this for you.  This is why we see guys at the gym leg pressing 1,000lbs, but if you told them to do an Overhead Squat with 100lbs they would be falling over.  The strength you can get from machines is not always functional; we need to use free-weights because they require us to balance our own body in space throughout the movement.  This means we must balance our weight and stabilize it with our own core, not with a machine acting as a joint or stabilizer.    Machines will build bulky muscles that you cannot do all that much with, bodyweight and free-weights will build functional muscle that is toned and proportional that will make you perform better due to the balance and stabilization needed, not just build useless muscle.

5. As a woman you can greatly benefit from an experienced personal trainer. Getting someone who knows what they are doing can be greatly beneficial to you in terms of activating your core quickly, building core strength, and toning the whole body. A basic functional understanding of exercise form is needed to perform exercises like the deadlift or weighted lunges for example, so take the time to learn for yourself, or cut your learning curve greatly by hiring a GOOD trainer, look for someone who can adequately explain WHY and HOW you should squat a certain way.  If the trainer you are looking to hire cannot succinctly explain the form, they are not knowledgeable enough to be training you.

6. Your metabolism will become much more active as you gain muscle and naturally burn more fat. If you are a woman who has not lifted weights or done bodyweight exercises in a long time than you are missing out on the benefits of having more muscle mass.  More muscle mass that is stimulated through weight training means you can rev your metabolism and keep your body burning energy at a higher rate for as long as 2 days after you weight train. More muscle mass and a higher metabolism means that your body fat % will naturally equalize to a more healthy level.  You may even stay the same weight except your actual body fat % will become lower which means that you have a stronger body as a whole.  This is because the body will begin to use fat as a fuel source more efficiently from the increase in muscle-mass.

7. Weight training with a proper diet is the best prevention for Osteoporosis. Women are at a higher risk of developing Osteoporosis and when it comes to the body sometimes when you do not use it you lose it, and this can be the case with bone mass and density.  Weight training can stimulate an important growth response in bone density and functionality, which improves your overall strength and lessons your chance of breaking/fracturing bones from falls.

8. Weight training will greatly improve balance and coordination. Weight training and building up not only the muscles, but also the nervous system and core stability can be the best way to build more balance and structure in your body.  More balance in the gym means more balance and strength in your life as well.

9. Weight training better adapts your body to handle stress. Women who strength-train are literally placing their body under an immense physical stress; this physical stress also requires extreme mental concentration and nervous system coordination.  Then you heal from your workout and you go do it again, each time growing stronger and stronger.  Anyone can see how this type of good stress on the body will make a person much more adaptive to stress throughout life.  Strength training will help with stress from work, relationships, and life in general, because it is training that allows you to deeply connect to yourself and train the body to perform at a high level both physically and mentally.

10. Women should weight train because the strength, stability, and balance, will result in a much more balanced hormonal system, overall vitality, and psychological well-being. Women need structure and strength in their physiques just as much as men do.   I have seen first-hand the benefit that strength training has on a woman’s confidence once she becomes skilled at connecting to and using her body.  Everything we do in our training has a direct correlation to our psyche.  When you see someone who is hunched over and frowning, we can subconsciously tell instantly that they are depressed.  Maybe this is you, but it does not have to be.  When we see someone who is strong, standing up tall, and has a strong body that can be effectively used for daily activities and communication, we see someone who is essentially happy because they are functional in their daily life.  The psychological benefits of strength training for women cannot be stressed enough, it will make you more confident about yourself, how you interact with others, and how you handle stress.

Weight training is the best and most effective form of exercise for your time to build a lean and toned body. So hit the weights next time you are at the gym!  Focus on good form and how your body FEELS.