There has been quite a debate regarding the question should women lift weight or not? Well there have been clearly two groups divided over the debate where one group thinks that it is good for women to lift weights while the second group is of the stance that with weight lifting their body shape might look more muscular.
If you are trying to lose weight and want to curb down the extra fat that you have put on then weight lifting might help you with that. Now the question arises how exactly? Here are a few reasons why to lift weight if you are trying to lose weight.
Benefits of Lifting Weights
- Lifting weight boosts up your metabolism resulting in loss of more calories.
- Weight lifting is a great fat burner and you would definitely notice the results too. Even if you are doing aerobics, you might not be able to lose much fat and your body might start curbing down the muscle fat instead of the body fat resulting in no considerable loss of fat. However adding in some weight lifting would increase the loss of fat. First, and perhaps most convincing part is the effect that lifting weights has on fat loss. The more muscle a woman has, the more calories she will burn. So, basically, muscles speed up your metabolism, resulting in more effective fat loss.
- With the increased metabolism this offers you to be a little more lean and smart since you burn more calories. Thus even giving you an excuse to sneak your dieting sessions once every week and eating your favorite treats.
- Lifting weights regularly results in increase bone density.
- Fittest people exhibits lower levels of stress hormones as after a stressful situation, the blood pressure level of people who work out returns to normal, faster than the level of those who don’t workout.
- Strength training greatly improves sleep quality, aiding in your ability to fall asleep faster, sleep deeper, and wake less often during the night.
Here is a list of weight lifting exercises that would work best for women:
- Bench press, decline bench press and incline bench press would tone up your chest
- Bent over barbell row, hyperextensions and lat pulldown for your back
- Arnold press and dumbbell lateral raises for your delts
- Barbell curls, one arm preacher curls and hammer curls for your biceps
- Kickbacks, overhead extensions and dips for your triceps
- Jackknifes, crunches, superman/banana and plank hold would tone your core
- Waking lunges and barbell squat for your quads
- Lying leg curls and seated leg curls for your hams
- Standing calf raises and donkey calf raises and donkey calf raises for your calves
Lifting weights a lot might make you look too muscular and you certainly do not want that. It is important that whatever you do is in moderation and is not done at extreme levels. Being able to do your workout and even eat at a mediocre level leaves you more satisfied and neither makes you too muscular nor makes you fat.
Weightlifting won’t get you bulky or turn you into a she-hulk. But you will gain confidence, self-esteem, and a banging body. Being able to follow and pursue the path of moderation is easy and not cumbersome.
If you are doing weight lifting a lot this might leave your body shapeless. A good workout which is an amalgam of weight lifting as well as aerobics is a good head start for your weight loss routine and this should remain as such during the course of your workout. Combine your aerobics and weight lifting in such a way that there is no room for the excess of any of these. Doing a balanced workout would be best.