What are the effects of strength training?

There are many rumors about women's strength training. Some say that strength training will make women become "muscular women" and some say that strength training can enlarge breasts. What is the truth behind it? What are the benefits of strength training for women? In fact, there are relatively few women who do strength training because we are all afraid of becoming a big guy. In fact, we still have some misunderstandings about strength training. Let’s take a look at what are the rumors about strength training for women? Let’s take a look with the editor.

Myths About Strength Training for Women

1. Strength training will turn girls into men

Many girls are reluctant to do strength training because they have heard that it can make them develop muscles and become more masculine. But in fact, strength training will only make women more fit but will not turn them into "muscular women". This is because women's bodies don't produce enough testosterone, a key hormone that promotes muscle growth. Therefore, women will not grow large muscles through strength training alone.

2. Strength training can make your breasts bigger

Fat is an important tissue in female breasts. A reasonable body fat content is very important for body shaping, and women are relatively healthy if it is between 18-25. If a woman's body fat is less than 12, her breasts will become smaller. While strength training can burn fat or increase chest circumference by increasing chest muscles, it is not helpful for increasing cup size. If women get their body fat below 12, their breasts may become smaller. Increasing chest and back muscles may increase chest circumference, but it does not help with breast enlargement.

3. Strength training will make your muscles lack elasticity and your movements stiff

Muscles themselves are elastic, and exercise is the best way to keep them elastic. Whether you're looking to get in shape, improve your strength, or gain muscle, strength training will not reduce your flexibility. On the contrary, women can enhance muscle elasticity and help strengthen soft tissues and joints through repeated cycles of strength training.

4. Stop strength training, and your muscles will turn into fat

Muscle and fat are two completely different tissues in the human body. The subcutaneous fat tissue covers the muscle tissue. As the fat tissue gradually decreases, the muscle lines become clearer. Too much subcutaneous fat will make the body soft and inelastic due to insufficient support, while too little subcutaneous fat will make a woman's body look angular and lack softness.

People who lose their body shape after training usually experience two changes in their bodies at the same time. On the one hand, muscle loss is caused by lack of exercise, and on the other hand, fat gain is caused by a decrease in metabolic rate and no corresponding decrease in dietary calorie intake. Therefore, stopping strength training is not the cause of fat generation.

5. Strength training turns fat into muscle

Strength training can increase the basal metabolic rate, increase the body's muscle content, promote metabolism and make the body more symmetrical. Although fat is reduced and muscle is increased during training, it does not mean that the increased muscle is converted from the original fat.

6. You can eat it safely as long as you train long enough

The total calorie consumption of the human body mainly includes the basal metabolic rate, the calories required for daily activities and the calories required for exercise. The calories consumed by exercise only account for a part of the body's calorie consumption. No matter how much exercise you do, as long as the calorie intake exceeds the total calorie expenditure, the excess energy will be stored in the form of glycogen or fat, making you fat.

7. Women only need to use very light weights

Simply consuming more calories will not lead to a good figure. To have a better body shape, you have to strengthen your muscles through exercise and adjust your body fat content to change your circumference ratio. Even if you just want to lose fat, strength training will make it more efficient. If the weight used for strength training is too light, it will not achieve good results.

Benefits of strength training

1. Permanent fat loss

Most people who don't like to exercise, especially women, have a higher fat content than normal even if their weight is "normal". This is because they have lower lean body mass (lean body mass—total body weight minus fat mass) and higher fat content.

Each additional kilogram of muscle will burn 30 more calories per day. This means 11,000 calories or 1.5 kg of fat per year. In ten years, it will be 15 kilograms of pure fat.

Strength training burns a lot of calories - about 300-500 calories per hour, depending on how much the trainee weighs and the intensity and frequency of the exercises.

At the same weight, people with a higher lean body mass content appear slimmer because fat is 20% larger than muscle. So, if you strength train, you'll burn calories during the workout and increase your basal metabolic rate—which will cause you to burn more fat even when you're resting.

This is especially important if you're trying to lose fat, since the body burns most of its calories during the day while it's at rest (roughly 80% at rest and 20% during exercise).

2. Better physical appearance

Through strength training you can lose weight overall and make the right places pop out. Muscles will be firmer and skin will be tighter. You can slim your waist and lift your hips. Your upper arms and thighs will become sexy ovals instead of round.

3. A stronger and younger body

What are the main differences between older people and younger people? The old are weak and sickly while the young are strong and vigorous.

Being strong means being young. A 60-year-old who exercises is stronger than a 20-year-old who doesn't exercise. People who don't exercise lose an average of 10 kg of lean body mass every decade after the age of 30. If you stick with strength training, you can maintain your ideal muscle mass even into your 80s.

4. Stronger Bones

If you become stronger, you can more easily handle any task, whether in everyday life or in special circumstances.

The result is that you’ll feel less exhausted both during and after work. Particularly after menopause, 50% of women and one in eight men suffer from osteoporosis - a condition in which bone density is reduced, putting sufferers at risk of fractures even with normal activities.

Combined with calcium supplementation (menopausal women need about 1500 mg per day), strength training combined with other forms of high-impact exercise such as running is the most effective way to prevent osteoporosis. Achieving a high bone density in youth is also a guarantee for preventing osteoporosis.

The editor reminds everyone that medium and low intensity exercises are more suitable for women, while high-intensity weightlifting and equipment exercises are high in intensity and are not suitable for women. In fact, nothing is absolute. You can choose the intensity of exercise according to your own physical condition. Weightlifting and equipment exercises are also suitable for women. They not only help women shape their body, but also effectively prevent osteoporosis.