Fit and Youthful Life

Guest Author: Christopher Guerriero


The benefits of lifting weights — also called weight training, strength training or resistance training — include stronger muscles, a stronger heart, a much leaner physique, a longer life, and a body better able to support your everyday needs and activities. Women, however, still tend to shy away from this beneficial form of exercise.

Ladies, does the mere idea of weightlifting scare you?

“I don’t want to lift weights because they’ll make me too big and bulky.” For how many of you is this the reason you’ve never attempted weight training?

It seems to be many a man’s dream to have big, bulky muscles. Why is it then, that men, whose bodies naturally contain much greater amounts of testosterone and growth hormone, lift weights yet DON’T get big and bulky?

It’s true! Unless they are supplementing with dangerous and unhealthful steroids or similar substances, most men do not naturally bulk up hugely by lifting weights regularly. And neither will most women.

The idea that women get big, ugly muscles from weight training is a complete misconception.

The fact of the matter is that women must lift weights in order to achieve the lean, sculpted bodies they dream of having. If a woman does happen to have the genetic disposition to bulk up quickly, there are easy ways to alter a workout to prevent this extra muscle size, while still increasing strength and rapidly burning fat.

The idea that weightlifting causes insanely huge muscle buildup is largely a creation of the media. It’s true that some women weightlifters takes steroids, and these hormones do make them look very masculine. The average woman who weight trains, however, will simply achieve a slim, healthy body without adding unwanted muscle mass.

Let’s start by discussing the basics of weight training…

Weight training involves controlled lifting and working out with weights. Two basic terms related to weightlifting are “rep” and “set.” A rep describes the complete act of raising and lowering a weight during a single act of exercise. A set describes the number of times a particular rep is performed.

For example, when a person does five reps of a squat, they squat down and stand up five times, continuously, before stopping and either moving on to another exercise or finishing their workout. Those five squats would equal one set. A balanced weight-training session will include several sets of different exercises.

Your goal as either a beginner, intermediate, or advanced weight lifter should be to exhaust your muscles in the shortest time frame – that simply means that when you lift a weight, you should lift a heavy enough weight to exhaust your muscles doing only 10 – 15 reps.

And you should do this exercising pattern about 3 days each week – with at least 24 hour of rest after each workout.

Now I’m going to share a principle exercise with you that many commercial fitness “buff’s” will hate me telling you because this single exercise will do more for your body than almost any other exercise around – making it completely unnecessary for you to ever buy another exercise gadget from late night television ever again.

Before I share it with you I’ve got to give you a quick disclaimer…this exercise should be done (at least initially) under the supervision of a qualified personal trainer, so that you learn the proper form to use during the movement.

This exercise will work EVERY muscle in your body, and you can do it in the privacy of your own home, without any fancy machines or expensive video’s.

In fact, this exercise a foundational core exercise and it’ll set your internal furnace up to burn more calories throughout the rest of the day than any other exercise we’ve tested (when done properly).

It’s called the dead-lift and here’s how it’s done for maximum fat loss and body shaping…

STARTING POSITION

Stand with feet flat and placed slightly farther apart than shoulder width with toes pointed slightly outward.

Squat down with hips lower than shoulders and grasp the weight lifting bar (or any small object)…in the beginning I highly suggest that you use very little added weight, so when you bend to grasp something, use a book or something else that’s small and light weight – just to help you balance.

Place hands on bar (or whatever you choose to lift) slightly less than shoulder width apart, inside the knees and with elbows fully extended. Place bar roughly 1 inch in front of shins and over balls of feet.

UPWARD MOVEMENT

Lift bar off floor by extending hips and knees.

Maintain an erect and flat back at all times.

Keep elbows fully extended.

Keep bar as close to shins as possible without hitting or scraping.

When bar passes knees move the hips forward.

Keep body erect at point of full knee and hip extension.

DOWNWARD MOVEMENT

Allow the hips and knees to flex to slowly lower the bar to the floor.

Repeat movement until finished with set.

Now this might sound a bit confusing the first several times you read it – however, once you practice it for a day or 2, the movement will become second nature to you and you’ll begin feeling and seeing the results quickly.

Remember that with any new exercise comes a bit of soreness, so start very slowly, and gradually increase your intensity.

Ladies, I encourage you: Let go of your preconceived ideas about weight training. Do not fear it. Embrace your weightlifting potential! You will benefit so much more from it than from spending hours on that piece of cardio equipment alone.



Turn Back The Clock

Guest Author: Scott White


The benefits of lifting weights, also known as weight training, strength training or resistance training, include stronger muscles, a stronger heart, a leaner physique, and a body better able to support your everyday needs and activities. However despite its many benefits women, still tend to shy away from this beneficial form of exercise because of a misplaced fear that they will “bulk” up and become like an overly muscular body builder.

It seems to be many a man’s dream to have big, bulky muscles. So why is it that men, whose bodies naturally contain much greater amounts of testosterone and growth hormones, can lift weights, yet never achieve those “Terminator” like muscles? Well, unless they are supplementing with dangerous and unhealthful steroids or similar substances, most men do not naturally bulk up by lifting weights, and neither will most women. The idea that women get big, ugly muscles from weight training is a misconception.

The fact of the matter is that women must lift weights in order to achieve the lean, sculpted bodies they desire. If a woman does happen to have the genetic disposition to bulk up quickly, there are easy ways to alter a workout to prevent too much muscle gain, while still increasing strength and rapidly burning fat.

The idea that weightlifting causes insanely huge muscle buildup is largely a creation of the media. It’s true that some female weightlifters take steroids, and these hormones do make them look very masculine, and women who take performance-enhancing drugs should expect to develop deeper voices and more masculine bodies, because these are the known side-effects, after all anabolic steroids contain elevated amounts of testosterone, the male hormone.

The average woman who weight trains, however, will simply achieve a slim, healthy body without adding unwanted muscle mass. In fact, this is how boxers, wrestlers, and other athletes who need a lot of strength without a lot of extra weight (muscle mass) train to stay in shape.

The process of weight training involves controlled lifting and working out with weights. Two basic terms related to weightlifting are “reps” and “sets”. A rep describes the complete act of raising and lowering a weight during a single act of exercise. A set describes the number of times a particular rep is performed. For example, when a person does five reps of a squat, they squat down and stand up five times, continuously, before stopping and either moving on to another exercise or finishing their workout. Those five squats would equal one set. A balanced weight-training session will include several sets of different exercises.

A more advanced weight-training method would be to perform exercises of only 6 or fewer reps, per exercise. This would make the time under tension very short and primarily train your nervous system, which would allow you to gain strength without building much muscle. This technique should be done using the maximal weight you can lift without losing perfect form for no more than 6 repetitions. Doing more than 6 reps allows for greater muscle development, presumably something women generally do not want to achieve.

Another method that has been around for a long time is performing as many repetitions as possible, with the idea of toning your muscles. Well, like a lot of uninformed ideas, this concept is false. You will build stamina and endurance within a muscle through multiple repetitions, but it will not shape or tone your muscles. If your goal is to build stamina without gaining muscle mass, perform anywhere from 15 to 30-plus repetitions of a single exercise.

These two solid principles will help you benefit from weight training without bulking up. Although, as stated in the beginning, chances are that no matter how much weight you lift, you will never have the problem of building too much muscle mass. It is always possible for you to gain fat, and with it a little additional muscle, so you will feel bigger, but remember, that is mostly the result of the fat, and I guarantee that once you lose the fat, you also will lose the feeling of bulkiness.

Ladies, I encourage you: Let go of your preconceived ideas about weight training. Do not fear it. Embrace your weightlifting potential! Your body and overall health will benefit so much more from it than from spending hours on the treadmill.