With the New Year resolutions in full swing and a lot of newbie gym goers trying out weight training for the first time, I thought I’d give you this timely reminder.
Weight training, by far the most malleable and effective tool for improving your body composition, is all about CONTROLLED AGGRESSION.
Too many women are too apprehensive to give it some whoomph when they hit the gym.
This may be due to social conditioning because they think it might be too “unladylike”, nerves at being out of their comfort zone in what has traditionally been seen as a male-dominated area, or a lack of the right education (see Tracy Anderson’s blithering idiot message that to get “long, lean muscles” you can’t lift more than a 5lb weight) because they think hard weight training will bulk them up.
If that last one was right then wouldn’t all male gym goers look like Conan?
These myths and fears need to die, and thankfully there’s been a definite sea change in women’s attitudes to the gym in the last decade.
But too often it still hasn’t permeated through to the mainstream, and far too often women are not getting the results that they should from weight training simply because they are not doing it right.
This has then lead to a number of women thinking that “the gym doesn’t work for me” and nothing could be further from the truth.
The bottom line is that if it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.
Please only use the pink dumbbells if they are heavy for you (a relative term), but if they are light then move on up the rack.
Don’t be frightened to add weight – you’ll get a much better response, faster results, and literally no one ever put muscles on by accident, so don’t stress about that.
As for men, well all of us (myself included when I was a youngster) could do well from emulating how a lot of women train – good form, controlled movements, and a lack of ego.
Take the best of both worlds and you’ve got the perfect trainee and maximum results in minimum time!
