Day 1 of the 'Post an article per day month'.
Please take the time to read the articles and at least implement one of the ideas from each one. There will be a variety of topics, some for men, some for females (although realistically they apply to both.
Some will be nutrition based, some training based, some lifestyle based, but they all have one thing in common.... They will all get you results faster than you are getting them currently! So here goes the first article written by an amazing teacher and trainer from America, someone who I hugely admire and love to learn from, please read below:
Why Women Should Not Be Afraid of Gaining Muscle Mass
Body Composition and Hormone Response to Training
First, let’s address a few of the misconceptions regarding training, muscles, and women. For any newbies to Charlespoliquin.com, let’s review the key factor in changing body composition: hormone response to training. It’s physiologically impossible for women to gain muscle in the same way as a man because women don’t have enough testosterone unless they ingest it on purpose.
If men train hard and lift heavy loads, they will experience a large boost in testosterone post-workout. This doesn’t happen to women. Women have 15 to 20 times less testosterone than men, and studies have failed to demonstrate any significant change in testosterone response in women from training.
The good thing about resistance training for females of all ages is that if you train hard, you will elevate the hormone Growth Hormone (GH), which burns fat in the body. GH will also help you build muscle, but it has a much greater effect on fat burning.
What a lot of women don’t realize is that if they resistance train, they will build a little bit of muscle, get stronger, and most gratifying, lose the fat that covers up the muscles they have. This will make them look strong and fit—and those muscles are great ammunition against the fat gain that happens with age.
Muscle Won’t Turn to Fat
Resistance training will not “turn fat into muscle,” nor will muscle that has been built turn into fat. It you train intelligently hard, fat will be lost and muscle will be gained. You will increase your metabolism and with proper nutrition, you will keep that fat off. If you quit training, muscle will be lost, and fat will probably be gained depending on your energy intake.
Also, a pound of muscle doesn’t “weigh less” than a pound of fat. They both weigh a pound, but if you have 10 pounds of muscle you will look a lot leaner than if that same 10 pounds was all fat.
How to Get Stronger
The only way to get stronger is to progressively increase the amount of weight you lift. It is possible to build muscle with moderate loads, but the definition of moderate is not 5 pounds. Rather, a standard fat loss training program would use anywhere between 60 and 85 percent loads (that refers to a weight that is 60 to 85 percent of the maximal amount you can lift for a given exercise). Where a lot of women and uneducated trainers go wrong is that they take “moderate” to mean “light” and then they drop that weight in half. Loads of 10 or 20 percent are a waste of time. They won’t help you be able to pick a child up off the floor or put a heavy box up on a shelf overhead.
In fact, high rep, light load training won’t do anything for you, except it may lead you to lose the small amount of muscle you already have! High rep, light load training is a variation of aerobic exercise and it may raise cortisol. One study found that embarking on a light load aerobic-style resistance program led to the loss of 5 pounds of muscle and a reduction in resting metabolic rate of 3 percent over a 10 year period!. You’ll be left with less muscle and possibly more fat—sounds like a Fat Trap to me!
The belief that high repetition, light load training will give women develop muscle tone is a misconception. The scientific definition of muscle “tone” has nothing to do with the popular definition, which seems to be the level of visibility of muscles. To achieve better muscle tone by the popular definition, all you need to do is lose fat, and high rep, light load training will not help you do this.
The better solution is to a “periodized” program focused on body composition such as the German Body Comp program, which will progressively allow you to reach your goals.
Ten More Reasons Women Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Gaining Muscle
1. You’ll Have Less Body Fat
Muscle mass is the best defense against getting fat. For example, one study compared a 12-week periodized resistance training protocol using loads ranging from 60 to 80 percent of maximal with a muscular endurance protocol using light loads with 15 to 30 reps on body composition in women. The women that did the periodized program lost nearly 5 kg of body fat, gained about 3 kg of muscle, and had dramatic increases in strength. The women who did the high rep, light load muscular endurance program lost NO fat and gained no muscle. They didn’t get stronger either!
It’s okay to start getting strong at a young age. Studies show that girls from age 7 on up can develop equal strength as boys of the same age. Plus, in young girls, having a stronger handgrip, and more lower and upper body strength are all associated with better body composition, lower BMI, and greater functional ability as measured by vertical jump. By developing strength at a young age, you’ll set yourself or your kids up for a lean and strong future!
For the rest of this article please click on the following link: Article Day 1
