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Health & Fitness

Women lifting weights - Good idea?

Women considering a fitness program are often concerned about becoming bulky. The facts may surprise you.

Question: My wife thinks she’ll get big and bulky if she starts lifting weights with me. How do I convince her otherwise?

Answer: This comes up all the time, and it’s one of the biggest myths out there. First of all, women simply don’t have the proper hormonal balance to put on large amounts of muscle tissue.

Secondly, even if they did have the right physiology, it would take some serious training to do it. Getting bigger muscles requires high-volume workouts (lots of sets and reps) and a pretty high intensity as well. Picking up a few weights here and there isn’t a recipe for building mass—it’s what you do and how you do it that really makes the difference.

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Remind your wife that weight training programs can always be tailored to specific goals, so if she doesn’t want to put on large amounts of muscle, that’s just fine. Generally speaking, a full-body circuit with higher rep ranges a few days per week would work well if she’s just looking to tone up or maintain her current level of muscle tissue.

If she wants to get an individualized program based on her goals, look for a qualified personal trainer in your area.

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Cliff Gray is the club owner at Anytime Fitness in Richfield. To submit a question for future articles, please contact the author at email@anytimefitness.com. Please like us on Facebook at Anytime Fitness Richfield and follow us on Twitter @AnytimeFitRich.

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