This article will take you 3 minutes to read. Feel free to leave your questions in the comment section, they will be answered!
Joining a gym and beginning a fitness journey (especially in weightlifting) can be rather intimidating for women! There are many misconceptions which put women off and make the idea of weightlifting seem scary. This article is meant to break down some of the myths surrounding women and bodybuilding and talk about the potential benefits. It’s time to start encouraging women to give this sport a go!
“Lifting weights will make me look too manly”
While more and more women are participating in bodybuilding, there are still many who are concerned that they will get ‘bulky’ and look too manly. And maybe if you are a woman and reading this, you feel like this is the case. Sure, if you train very intensely you will build muscle definition and have a strong and athletic physique.
But you will not look like a professional bodybuilder with huge bulging muscles after a few weeks of lifting. Building a physique like that takes years of hard work, and often the use of performance-enhancing drugs too. Firstly, before you reach the stage of being considered a well-defined, muscular woman, you’ll have to spend some time in the gym. And by then, you will have time to think whether you are satisfied or not!
You can maintain your physique
Once you reach your goals, such as a certain aesthetic appearance – you can amend your training to maintain your current physique. You can also adapt your routine to focus on specific muscles or target weaknesses. The next important step for gaining confidence with lifting is figuring out what those goals are.
There will always be people who think you look ‘too strong’ or ‘too muscular’ whilst some people will admire your visible strength and fitness – much like people disagree on all other body types. At the end of the day, the only opinion that matters in regards to your body is your own. That’s why knowing what your goal is can help you stay on track.
Women and men, the same type of weight-lifting training
Bodybuilding for women is not really any different than it is for men. Men have much higher levels of testosterone, which is why they are naturally bigger in size and also grow muscle faster than women. Though, the training process remains the same. Perhaps there could be a few differences which will be discussed about in another article. Overall, this means that everything discussed in this blog and related social media platforms applies to both men and women!
All articles will give you valuable information to help you progress. Don’t feel that the advice is specifically tailored to males. There are certain topics that will be of interest to women like starting out in the industry such as how to get your first pull up/push-up or dip.
Of course, there are many men who cannot do pull-ups/push-ups and dips but nailing these staple training exercises is a great way to show off your newly acquired strength and represent the strong girls out there! And although they look very impressive, they are actually not that difficult to achieve with the correct training and technique 😉
Don’t let genetics discourage you
Men and women alike compare themselves to others and genetics can play a bigger role in this comparison. Some women are naturally curvy and may have a ‘gym booty’ without ever having trained squats. Whereas some women spend years training in the gym trying to build their glutes and have harder times doing so. This can be very frustrating.
Let us reassure you though, once you do the work, genetics do not really matter anymore. You will look great because you will have a good understanding on which are the best exercises to perform in relation to your body-anatomy. Therefore your shape will look the best it can be!
It is important not to compare yourself to others but to assess your progress based on how far you have come. If you follow our articles, we do our best to help you reach your goals as quickly as possible. We hope that you’re convinced you should at least try your first session and lift some weights!
Forget about the manly part, focus on the gym booty and everything will be fine!
(ps: if you were looking for an article about PCOS, this article might highly help you. Weight lifting has been shown in some studies to help with blood sugar regulation, which is important for Polycystic ovary syndrome management which can be a concern for a lot of women)
Any questions? Feel free to post a comment!
