Head. Heart. Legs.

21. Male. Personal Trainer. Fitness enthusiast. Weight lifter. Achieving my goals by strengthening and maintaining my three greatest assets: Head, Heart, and Legs

strengthfromstruggle: So chest training—various forms of bench press and chest flyes—usually falls to the bottom of the list for women. Or it falls off entirely. Who wants to look manly with a big chest anyway? That’s the prevailing myth about women and weight training. I’m talking directly to the women out there—to completely avoid chest training is simply a bad idea

strengthfromstruggle:

So chest training—various forms of bench press and chest flyes—usually falls to the bottom of the list for women. Or it falls off entirely. Who wants to look manly with a big chest anyway? That’s the prevailing myth about women and weight training.

I’m talking directly to the women out there—to completely avoid chest training is simply a bad idea

I need some input from you, my followers

I’ve been posting a lot of images of shredded women on this page. I post them because I find a lot of them beautiful and impressive. But, just looking at the fact that most of my followers are girls (literally like 90% of you), do you find the images inspiring or do they discourage you? I try to post women that are strong and healthy, not thin. It just so happens that a lot of them end up being ridiculously skinny as a result. This is definitely not a thinspo, I tend to favor girls with major curves. I don’t want to encourage anyone to lose weight, just to be strong.

But, if they continue to motivate or inspire, I’ll just keep on posting what I’ve been posting. However, if you find the images discouraging or they really don’t do anything for you, let me know and I’ll try to limit my posts to purely motivational images/quotes/videos.

what are your thoughts?

Why Women Shouldn’t Avoid Weight Training.

When it comes to exercise many women avoid the weight room at their local gym. A few may wander over the to dumbbell rack and quietly grab a 10 pounder , try a few curls, and then retreat to the cardio equipment. The intimidation of walking over to the area where big men are training, stacking their bars with 45 pound plates and slamming 80 pound dumbbells to the floor, can be formidable

Beyond that many women ask “Why would I want to lift weights? I don’t want to look like a man.”

So why would you want to incorporate a weight training regime into your routine? Here are a few reasons:

Weight training will not cause you to bulk up: It is extraordinarily difficult for a woman to get to the point where she has bulging muscles and “looks like a man”. To reach that point takes many hours in the gym every day, for years on end, in addition to a highly supplemented diet. Women have 10-30 times fewer hormones that cause hypertrophy (the process body builders use to build muscle) compared to men.

In fact, the exact opposite occurs with women. Weight training will help you build strength and tone you, not bulk you up. So, don’t be afraid to hit those weights. In any case, if you really feel strongly that your putting on too much muscle and becoming “manly” the solution is actually very simple and pleasant. Train less.

More muscle = More fat burning: yes, the more muscle you have the more fat your body will burn. Not good enough? This doesn’t just apply to you while your working out. Studies show that a higher percentage of muscle leads to increased fat burning at rest. So, you can feel better about yourself when your sitting in front of the TV at the end of the day after a good weight lifting session.

It will reduce your chance of Injury: Are you an athlete? incorporating a weight training regime into your routine can reduce your chances of becoming injured by strengthening weak areas of your body and by helping fix any muscle imbalances that have developed as a result of previous injury or due to your training.

Additionally, bone density increases until approximately 28 years of age after which it declines until death. Weight training can help you increase the density of your bones before the age of 28 and reduce the rate of density loss after that time. This reduces the risk of developing such ailments as Osteoporosis.

Greater force production: want to be able to power up those hills faster on your runs? want to be able to hammer the pedals harder and longer for sprints on the bike? Lift weights. One of the obvious results of lifting weights is an increase in strength, which makes high intensity exercises such as sprinting up a hill easier/faster. This has an every day benefit too: it makes it easier to grab that heavy object out of the top of the closest, or open that stubborn jam jar.

It’s fun: no, but really, it is! There are few things better than seeing the amount of weight you can lift slowly creep up week after week as you maintain a consistent lifting schedule. But, its not just about the results, the process of learning how to squat/dead-lift/bench press, or any other lifting exercise can be very enjoyable. Give it a try, you may love it.

So regardless of your goal, think about adding in a weight training regime. Yes, it can be intimidating when you first start out, but after a few sessions of hanging out in the weight section of your gym, you’ll start to feel right at home. Not only will you become more comfortable, you’ll get stronger and fitter and maybe even have some fun while doing it.