If you want to see results and tone up. You must lift heavy. Too many women are misinformed about lifting heavy weights and spend countless of hours wasting away doing 20-30 reps of light weights. Its time for a change.
Lately I have been getting many requests from my female compandres on how to get tone and lose weight. The conversation usually goes something like this:
Female Friend : ”Hey Kingsley, how can I lose some weight and get tone? Help me!”
Me: “Lift heavy.”
Female Friend :” Eww no, I don’t want to get bulky”
Me “………”There seems to be a certain stigma making women believe that lifting heavy will make them big and bulky like man. And let me just tell you all out there that believe this nonsense, to stop and think about how idiotic this assumption is.
Why should you lift heavy? (Men and Women)
1. You overload your muscles, causing them to respond to the change in tension pulling away at your muscle fibers. It’s like economy or synergy. One reaction (heavy tension on muscles) will cause a chain reaction.
Your heart rate will increase so will your Oxygen intake, which will cause your body to send a signal to your brain asking for energy. Your body takes the calories from the reserves as a source of energy (i.e. carbohydrates and fat cells) in order to respond to the body's wishes. Your energy reserves allows you to keep pumping iron and in turn your body temperature increases. You then begin to sweat to lower your body temperature. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.
2. Lifting heavy will expose your body’s weakness and imbalances. When lifting heavy you will begin to notice major, minor, and synergist muscles which might be weak and out of balance. You will be better able to focus on properly aligning your muscles. No one wants to have one overly large bicep while the other one is puny. This goes for other body parts too.
3. Lifting heavy also causes your body to produce more Mtor enzymes which help catalyze muscle growth. By pushing yourself to lift heavy, you are forcing the production or this enzyme
You start to win the war on fat. Many people still think cardio is the way to lose body fat but that is not necessarily 100% accurate. In fact some studies have shown that doing more cardio will actually have adverse effects and cause your body to store more fat.
A study from the journal Medicine & Science in sports & Exercises said that women who lifted more weight with fewer reps burned nearly twice as many calories during the two hours after their workout4. And guess what, you will lose belly fat. I do not think I have ever met someone who did not want to lose belly fat. A study from the University of Alabama found that women who lifted heavier weights lost more intra-abdominal fat than those who just did cardio.
5.You will get toned. This is an obvious benefit in which I do not think there is any argument here.
Final thoughts
You will not get buff, bulky, swole, or jacked unless that is your goal. Lift a weight that you will be able to lift 7-8 reps max. Do heavy lifting about twice a week. And make sure to always lift under control or you will just be creating opportunities for injury in the long run.To reap the benefits of heavy lifting, follow the above advice with moderation. If a few weeks have passed by and you are starting to see results that you want, then you can move back into the 8-13 reps per set range to maintain.
You either train hard, or you train long, but you cannot do both! But you got to train hard and heavy to see results.
No comments:
Post a Comment