The High Reps, Light Weight Myth: Ladies if you want to lose fat, LIFT WEIGHTS!

Trainers, how many times have you heard this one, " I want to build muscle, but I don't want to looky manly.... I just want to "tone" up." As experienced trainers we understand that women want to be lean and shapely, yet feminine. But for the uninformed, women feel that by lifting wieghts that they will look "bulky." Let's clear the air on this one ladies, the guys that you see with a heavily muscled physique are lifting quite a bit more than 20lb dumb bells or 100lb leg press. Large muscle is developed over time, at least naturally, and requires heavy resistance. So, unless you are taking testosterone, its a safe bet that you won't look masculine.

The benefit of resistance training is that by building more muscle, you will in turn burn more calories at rest ( as opposed to cardio, which only burns calories during the actual activity). Look at it another way, if you are performing squats with a 20lb weight you are pretty much wasting you time, if you consider that your body weight is considerably more than 10lbs. One of my pet peeves is witnessing an individual doing an exercise with weight that is much too light. What you have effectively done it converted the resistance movement into cardio, low intensity cardio at that. Muscular development is only achieved by pushing your body beyond previous capacity. So, if you are doing the same routine with the same amount of resistance, then you are basically spinning your wheels.

I know I may get some heat from fellow trainers, but its time to reexamine your approach. Intensity resistance training is a great way to burn calories, build bone density, and develop muscle that will produce a lean physique.

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