Females and Lifting Heavy Weights: The Truth

The Truth About Females and Lifting Heavy Weights
By Flavia Del Monte – RN, CPT, Precision Nutrition Certified

Being afraid of building muscle and looking like a man because of a little weight training is like me saying “I don’t want to play golf because I’m afraid I’ll turn pro….”

Nothing just happens – especially building muscle! If your body was destined to look masculine, than you would probably know it already! Genetics don’t simply change over night….

Unless you have an unusually large volume of testosterone flowing in your blood, the fear of getting big is unfounded! Competitive female bodybuilders train at least three hours a day and perform 20-30 sets PER body part with their women fitness programs in hopes of getting a fraction of the size of their male counterparts.

GETTING BIG IS NO EASY TASK FOR A FEMALE… and if it were than you would see Jane swinging from the vines and swimming with the alligators, not Tarzan!

Simply put, this myth has no scientific backbone. It is very hard for most men to build muscle; let alone women. I hear of men who are eating thousands of calories and lifting heavy weight but don’t put a pound of lean muscle mass on their bodies. Yet, females are afraid lifting weights will make them look like a man!

Little-Known FACT

Not only lifting weight, but lifting heavy weight will give you definition and that toned look that is desired from EVERY female all over the world.

YOU CANNOT LOOK LIKE A MAN FROM LIFTING HEAVY WEIGHTS, UNLESS YOU TRY (REALLY HARD) TO DO SO, I

NJECT TESTOSTERONE INTO YOUR BUTT OR A GENETIC FREAK!

THE Cold-Hard SCIENCE

First off, men have 10 to 30 times higher levels of testosterone than females.

Women do not have a large testosterone production in their body, making it impossible to build muscle at the same intensity as a male. A male is made up of a lot more muscle than women. 23% of a women’s weight is muscle, compared to 40% of a male’s weight.

Women simply do not have the genetics to build muscle and the women that have done so, have done so by genetically altering their bodies.

I can take a guess that most women want a TONED look. When your muscles look etched, it is because of a low percentage of fat around that muscle.

Toning and muscle building is one in the same!

There are 3 ways growth occurs in muscles:

• during resistance training (followed with precise nutrition)
• natural growth period (such as puberty)
• during pregnancy

In order to build lean mass, you must have an access of calories:

energy in > energy out

That said, in order build muscle, you MUST tailor your diet for muscle building. And that applies to women who want to “TONE”. You have to first BUILD the muscle in order to have a toned look.

Increase in CALORIES + lifting heavy = muscle mass

There are three different body types:

• ectomorph (naturally thin)
• mesomorph (naturally muscular)
• endomorph (naturally broad and thick)

All three different body types need to eat and train a certain way in order to build muscle and lose fat.

The issue here is that there is only so much storage in a muscle. You need to lift heavy weight in order to increase the size of your muscle.

If the unlikely chance of too much muscle being built, all you would need to do is drop the weight, and take in less calories.

THE TRUTH

Resistance training is essential to a balanced and effective training program. You need to lift heavy in order to build muscle.

You cannot change your genetics to the degree to look like a man if you are a women unless you are “trying” to do so by working out at least 2-3 hours a day and lifting 20-30 sets per body part. I m guessing you don’t do that? I didn’t think so so flush that fear down the toilet.

–Flavia Del Monte
R.N., C.P.T., PN Certified

What Is The Best Type Of Cardio That Women Can Do To Burn Fat Faster?

What Is The Best Type Of Cardio To Burn Fat Faster?

By Flavia Del Monte – RN, CPT, Precision Nutrition Certified

The simple answer to this question can boil down to a number of complicated factors, but let’s shoot straight, it really boils down to one question: Which type do you want to do?

Unless you’re stepping on stage or getting ready for a photo shoot in a few weeks, then one of the key factors in determining your cardio type should be what you enjoy doing.

My husband hates doing cardio so would say, “I don’t have any kind of cardio I enjoy doing.”

However, an easy solution for him is to listen to one of his motivational CD’s on his iPod to mask the boredom. It’s funny because he’ll tell me, “I didn’t want to stop my cardio today until I finished my audio!”

Before we dive into the science, keep in mind the “best” type of cardio is the type you’ll actually do. This is a motto I apply to my training and even nutrition for that matter.

It’s often better to stick to what’s “enjoyable” rather than what’s “ideal” for long-term results.

Your Two Cardio Options

There are essentially two types of cardio: high-intensity and steady-state. Before we go any further, let’s make sure we’re on the same page as to how we define each of these two.

Often, when I mention high-intensity cardio to someone, they immediately say, “Yeah, the cardio I do is high-intensity.”

Then I ask them how long their intervals are and they either look at me like I’m from another planet, or they think they miss understood what I’m asking and say “I go for 30 minutes.”

Wrong answer, Private, wrong answer.

High-intensity, at least as for purposes of this article, is defined as something so intense that you couldn’t keep it up for more than 60 seconds — no matter how badly you wanted to! So even though your incline treadmill walk may feel like “high-intensity cardio,” it ain’t.

Running at 10 mph on a 10 degree incline for 10 seconds; now that is high-intensity!

Now that we’re on the same page as to the definition, you can clearly see that to do high-intensity cardio, you’d have to do it in spurts — do some, rest, then do some more, and so on.

That’s exactly what we call high-intensity interval training, or HIIT (pronounced “hit”).
When most people think of cardio, they think of steady-state cardio. For that reason, I often simply refer to it as regular cardio.

Since high-intensity cardio has it own, cool acronym, let’s refer to steady-state cardio as “SSC.”

Steady-state cardio is any cardio that’s done at an intensity low enough such that it can be maintained for a longer period of time.

While you may warm-up and cool-down, any cardio session where you keep roughly the same pace throughout your session is steady-state.

That’s right, even if you’re sweatin’ like a whore in church, it’s still not high-intensity if you can do if for more than a few minutes.

What you probably don’t know, is that while you are slowly burning “some” calories, others[1] are stripping twice as much fat off their bodies and in half the time!

FACT

You can burn fat 2x FASTER and in HALF the time by incorporating High Intensity Training (HIT) into your exercise routine.

Cardiovascular exercise (slow and at a steady pace) burns much fewer calories than HIT.

Doing too much cardio is tough on your joints and ligaments.

Too much cardio will result in burning muscle instead of fat.

THE SCIENCE

When it comes to weight loss, it doesn’t matter what type of fuel (food) you use. What matters is how many calories you burn as opposed to how many calories you take in.

As already stated; In order to lose fat, you must have a negative energy expenditure.

Simple!

Energy out > Energy in

The Basics of Burning Fat

Our energy comes from fat , carbs and protein. But which one our bodies utilizes depends on the kind of activity we are preforming.

Now, most people want to use fat for energy. Sounds legitimate as we assume, the more fat we can use as fuel, the less fat we’ll have in our bodies. But, using more fat doesn’t automatically lead to losing more fat.

Understanding the best way to burn fat starts with some basic facts on HOW your body gets its energy:

The body primarily uses carbs and fats for fuel. A small amount of protein is used during exercise, but protein is mainly used to repair the muscles after exercise.

The ratio of these fuels will shift depending on the activity you are doing.

Given the metabolic pathways available to break down carbs for energy are more efficient than the pathways available for fat breakdown, the body will rely more on carbs for fuel than fat during HIT. This is good.

For long, slower exercise, fat is used more for energy than carbs.

When it comes to weight loss, it doesn’t matter what type of fuel you use. What matters is how many calories you burn as opposed to how many calories you take in.

That said…..you burn WAY more calories during High Intensity Training than your standard aerobic exercise.

Think about it this way: When you sit or sleep, you’re in your prime fat-burning mode. But, you’ve probably never contemplated the idea of sleeping more to lose weight, as lovely as that thought is.

The bottom line: Just because you’re using more fat as energy doesn’t mean you’re burning more calories.

THE SKINNY

The more intense the workout, and the more muscles utilized, the more oxygen is consumed as muscles use energy when they contract. The more oxygen is consumed, the more energy is expended; the more calories you burn!

Flavia Del Monte,
R.N., C.P.T., PN Certified (Sports and Exercise Nutrition)