Strength Training...What Women Don't Know

If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready we shall never begin."

- Ivan Turgenev

Website: www.webmd.com/balance/the-health-benefits-of-yoga...what the experts have to say about doing yoga!

OK so I know it can be intimidating to go to the gym for strength training! It has become such a common belief that lifting weights is for guys and cardio is for girls! But this is so WRONG!! Both are vitally important for a complete healthy lifestyle. So girls break out of your comfort zone and don't be scared to pump a little iron of your own. NO you will not bulk up, but lifting weights can help you tone. Need more convincing, listen to what Women's Health Magazine had to say...

· “Tired of sweating all over every piece of cardio equipment at the gym and still getting zero love from the scale? You need more iron. Not in your diet—in your hands. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, a mere 21 percent of women strength train two or more times a week. What you don't know: When you skip the weight room, you lose out on the ultimate flab melter. Those two sessions a week can reduce overall body fat by about 3 percentage points in just 10 weeks, even if you don't cut a single calorie. That translates to as much as three inches total off your waist and hips. Even better, all that new muscle pays off in a long-term boost to your metabolism, which helps keep your body lean and sculpted. Suddenly, dumbbells sound like a smart idea”

· “A study in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that women who completed an hour-long strength-training workout burned an average of 100 more calories in the 24 hours afterward than they did when they hadn't lifted weights. At three sessions a week, that's 15,600 calories a year, or about four and a half pounds of fat—without having to move a muscle.”

· “There's a longer-term benefit to all that lifting, too: Muscle accounts for about a third of the average woman's weight, so it has a profound effect on her metabolism, says Kenneth Walsh, director of Boston University School of Medicine's Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute. Specifically, that effect is to burn extra calories, because muscle, unlike fat, is metabolically active. In English: Muscle chews up calories even when you're not in the gym. Replace 10 pounds of fat with 10 pounds of lean muscle and you'll burn an additional 25 to 50 calories a day without even trying.”

Sold yet?? One of the best ways to maximize your strength training (and to save you time) is to alternate the muscles working. For example, a circuit is a great way to really work each muscle throughout the body!

Set 1:

10-12 Bicep curls (using a weight that is difficult in which the last one is very difficult)

10-12 squats holding weights

10-12 tricep dips (holding the weight behind your head and squeezing your elbows to your head, slowly drop your forearms to 90 degrees)

1 minute of cardio exercise (jumping jacks/jogging in place/walk a lap)

Set 2:

10-12 Upright rows (front grip on your weight, lift straight up until your elbows are in line with your shoulders)

10-12 Plie squats (knees and toes face out)

10-12 Push ups on your knees or toes

1 minute of cardio

Set 3:

10-12 walking lounges on each leg

10-12 Chest Press (lay on the floor and bring your hands down to your chest and back up, similar to a benchpress movement)

10-12 calf raises

Complete the entire set and then rest for a minute before moving onto set 2. Make a goal for yourself...can you start doing the entire circuit 2 times through and slowly move up to 3 times??

Megan