Woman and Weights: Santa Monica Gym Instructors Debunk 8 Myths That Could Be Keeping You From Your Fitness Goals, PART 1

It’s one of the most common misconceptions in women who come to the gym to get fit and/or to lose weight: they stick to cardiovascular exercises because they’re afraid that weight lifting is going to give them a more masculine physique. This is just one of many myths surrounding the use of weights in the gym and, according to many Santa Monica fitness trainers, these myths may be getting in the way of women who are trying to achieve a variety of fitness and weight loss goals.

In order to debunk these myths and provide you with the truth behind weight lifting and its indispensible role in Circuit Training, fitness and fat busting, we spoke to some professional gym instructors and fitness experts on the matter. In this four-part article series, we present to you what they had to say about the 8 popular myths on women and weights.

Women and Weight Lifting Myth # 1: It Builds Muscle and Makes You Look Bulky and Masculine

“So many of the women who come in for circuit training classes express the reluctance to use the weights and certain weight lifting stations because they don’t want to build upper body bulk,” explains one personal trainer in Santa Monica Gym. “They’re afraid they’re going to start looking androgynous and masculine like some of those female body-building athletes. Here’s the thing: unless you are training for six hours per day and pump your body with protein and other specialized supplements, you aren’t going to resemble any of those athletes.”

Why? Because as a gender, women do not naturally produce enough of the hormones (testosterone) necessary to build the kind of muscle bulk that men do. Or at least this isn’t something that can come from regular exercise and weight training. It takes serious dedication to pump your body up to the sizes attained by some of those professional athletes, so you really don’t need to worry about this.

The problem with this myth is that it deters women from incorporating weights into their gym routine and weight lifting is an extremely efficient way of burning fat! By alternating between short intensive weight and cardiovascular exercises – as is consistent with circuit training – you can burn up to 500% more calories than you would by running on the treadmill for the same amount of time. So, cast this myth from your mind and ask your gym instructor how you can start pumping iron to get into fabulous shape.

Women and Weight Lifting Myth # 2: Weight Training Can Increase Breast Size

 

If this were true, there would be a lot fewer successful plastic surgeons in Los Angeles! Unfortunately, lifting weights and working out your chest muscles does not make you more buxom. Women’s breasts are composed of fatty tissue – not muscle tissue – so they won’t increase in size if you workout harder. In fact, if you lose enough fat through weights training, you can end up achieving the opposite effect!

“Most professional female body-builders have less than 10% body fat and as a result, their breasts have shrunk,” explains one female Los Angeles personal trainer. “If you want to get bigger breasts, there are only three things you can do: (1) increase your body fat percentage, (2) see a plastic surgeon or (3) be happy with your fabulous self and if any one ever complains, give them the boot.”

Stay Tuned for Part 2, Coming Next Week!

We’ll be exploring the following myths:

# 3: Weight lifting leaves you stiff and inflexible.

# 4: Stopping weight lifting can allow muscle to turn in to fat.