Why Gain Muscle? Female Worries Put to Rest

I was bombarded today by women who all had very similar questions about gaining muscle. Female clients have a fear of lifting weights. They were scared they would become bulky and too muscular. Since this question comes up quite often in my industry, I thought I would write an article discussing the benefits of muscle. Female worries put to rest.

First off, let's clarify that just by lifting weights you are not going to bulk up. This is especially the case for most women that consider resistance training 3 sets of 25 reps at light weight. Gaining muscle, female or male, to "bulk up" requires organized nutrition and training regiments. A well rounded weight lifting program can add a solid amount of lean body muscle which has many benefits.

So why is this muscle such a great thing to have. Muscle has a lot of benefits. For one, muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does. A pound of muscle will burn around 50 calories at rest. Let's think about that in a long term perspective. If you were to add 10 pounds of muscle this year, you would be burning 500 more calories at rest each day. If you consider one full week of this extra calorie burn, you will be burning 3500 calories more at rest. 3500 calories is equal to 1 pound. 10 extra pounds of muscle and a well balanced nutrition plan will have you burning up to 1 pound of fat per week.

Muscle is also a very attractive body part. A muscular, toned body is much more appealing to the opposite sex than a sedentary shape. The toned look is gained by lowering your body fat percentage, not just total weight.

Building muscle comes from resistance training. The benefits that comes along with the resistance training are also very appealing. The weighted stress put on your bones cause the bones to add calcium and make this makes the bones stronger. Your ligament and tendon strength will also be improved from resistance training. Studies have shown muscle to improve ones resistance to disease as well. withstanding stress, and the improved flexibility gained by strength training also reduces the likelihood of pulled muscles and back pain.

Get out there and start a weight training program if you haven't already. I will be posting some nice weight programs in the near future, so stay tuned and enjoy your body transformation. You should always be increasing muscle. Female clients still argue with me, but its well worth it.

You can determine how much muscle you have now with proper testing techniques. Check out my article on the different ways to test body fat percent. You can read more articles at Go Healthy Fitness.