The fear of bulking up, why women keep away from weights...

The inspiration for this post lies in a comment I received recently when I stated I was looking for heavier weights to use at home.

There is a common but misguided belief that women will bulk up and begin looking like men if they decide to do some serious weight training. This is why a lot of women will only turn up at the gym for the zumba, or aerobics class and for the more adventurous ones, yoga. Rarely will you see women lifting weights.

The reality is, women cannot (naturally) bulk up like men. It is physiologically impossible. We do not have enough testosterone to do so. Men have more than twice the amount of this hormone, it is responsible for their masculine features (facial hair, physical strength/muscles...). What about female body builders? They use steroids and exogenous testosterone for them to bulk up like they do. As a woman, you would have to use these in order to look like that.

So why do resistance/weight training? To gain muscle...not like a man, but to become toned and shapely...who doesn't want that? And not those sissy weights the media has made us believe are made for women...they are even manufactured in pink for goodness sake (I'm guilty for starting on those as well! ) Lift the heavy stuff! Another plus is that at rest, you burn more calories than another woman who weighs the same but with more fat than muscle. You also burn more while performing an activity.

While cardio does burn fat, losing weight through cardio alone means that you will have to work harder to keep it off (that is, always performing cardio) than a person who chose to build muscle as well as do cardio.

I have also tried to encourage my mother to start doing resistance as well. It is good at any age but especially for older women as it helps maintain or build bone mass which we lose naturally with age.

One of my new years resolutions is to protect the muscle I've built, knowing how beneficial it is to my overall health. This means, yes, I will have to get those heavier weights I'm looking for.

Have happy, active holidays!