Monday, January 24, 2011

heavy weights, my best friends!

Today's workout was great. I did an hour of spinning first thing in the morning, then an hour and a half of weights later in the day. I worked my chest, triceps, and shoulders today, using GVT for the last time on my upper body.

Too many times from too many people, I hear women not wanting to use heavy weight. I hate this... it actually makes me cringe. My mother used to tell me not to bench press, because that is why my chest was so broad, or so she thought. No, I was just fat. I love bench pressing as much as I safely can without being spotted. It's like an at-home breast augmentation if you ask me. That and dumbbell flys. In fact, I use more weight for my shoulder exercises than most women use for their leg exercises. That's terrible. My arms aren't big by any means. A couple co-workers actually make fun of me and say I have skinny little arms, but hey, they're incredibly toned.

So how about that? I increased my bench press and everything else (except for my super heavy squats) and actually lost weight, dropped body fat, and got smaller all around.  Unless you have a ton of testosterone, which the majority of women don't, you won't build big muscles without the help of supplements. Instead, challenging yourself with bigger weights will make you stronger, increase your bone density, and create a thermogenic effect so that you actually burn more calories sitting than you would while doing cardio with much less muscle mass. Think about it. I like the fact that I burn more calories with less effort and less time by using more and more weight. You will never find a client of mine using less than 5 lb dumb bells in each hand for their arms, or less than 12 lb dumb bells in each hand for legs, and that's on the light side, unless they have injuries which keep them from lifting without specific pain.

On the other hand, some men actually need to lay off the chest exercises so they can actually stand up straight... but that's another story :)

No comments:

Post a Comment