Women with weights – dispelling the myth
Visit 95% of the gyms around the UK and on thing that will become very apparent is that the free weights area is dominated by guys and nearly all women do just cardio and classes. This is the situation for numerous reasons including the belief that as soon as you lift weights you will grow huge muscles… this simply will never happen, It’s also because of a lack of education from gym management in terms of integrating resistance training into the average women’s workout regime and finally because on the whole women feel it’s the mans arena and are often intimidated by the loud grunting, “machoism” an excessive testosterone J
When in reality most women would benefit massively from training with weights and in reverse many of the lads that train only upper body and bodyweight is everything could do with some cardio!!!
So why should women train with weights???
- It’s a far quicker and a more effective way to change your body shape than cardio alone
- You might lose fat with cardio but you wont change your shape because under the fat your muscles are what define your shape and curves
- It is great for bone strength and assists with osteoporosis prevention
- The more muscle you have the more fat you burn when you do cardio
- You can change the shape of specific body areas which you simply cannot do with cardio because with cardio fat is burned uniformly across the body
- It is also more interesting than spending 6 hours a week on the treadmill J
At studio1 ALL the women train with weights, they train along side the guys and train every bit as hard and have just as much knowledge. At Studio1 every women that trains with weights see’s results and just read the testimonials at the bottom to see what they say. At our facility we make sure that the resistance training is geared towards women and not a guys workout because often the girls have a totally different game plan and targets, we ensure they really know what to do and how to do it but most of all we make sure they are totally at home and really enjoy the training which in turn yields even better results.
We have trained many competitive female bodybuilders, we help prep athletes for national and world class shows but the bulk of the women at studio1 just training for fitness, aesthetics and self improvement so you don’t have to be a famous athlete or a bodybuilder because everyone will benefit from training with weights and we are here to help you do just that.
But enough of our spiel … let our female members tell you why they train here, why they train with weights and how they feel you might benefit too. Also they have all included some pictures of themselves in our girls at studio1 gallery so you can see our combined results.
I initially started training at Studio 1 to increase upper body strength and improve my stamina for teaching and performing pole-dance fitness.
About 8-10 weeks into training, not only was my strength improving but aesthetic gains were also visible, with my upper body becoming more shapely.
I am now using weight training (in conjunction with a good diet) to gain mass and definition in specific areas, namely; shoulders, back and legs.
As a former 7-stone waif, my friends and acquaintances are now commenting on how much 'better' I look! No amount of dancing, running or other cardioactivity would havebenefitted my body shape the way that weight training has. I continue to train and improve with the support of Studio 1 and its members.
As for the myth that women shouldn't train with weights.................clearly these ladiesare missing a trick.
Sarah Beautyman (pole dancing instructor)
As a Personal Trainer and Body Fitness competitor I already have a lot of knowledge when it comes to diet and training. However I do firmly believe even trainers need trainers as there is always so much more you can learn and always people more experienced in their own specific fields.
Since meeting Mark he has inspired me with his wealth of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm, specifically towards trainingand all preparation forcompetition. Training sessions with Mark are like no other, I thought nobody could push me harder than I already can do myself, but he has proved me wrong! So far by myselfI have reached 3rd in Britain 2 years running. I am so looking forward to 2011 as I believe with Marks help and guidance I can achieve way beyond what I ever have, orimagined I could before.
Karen Norris (national level Body-Fitness competitor)
Like most girls, over the years I have been a member of various gym chains spending hours doing cardio and crazy spinning classes and yes to a degree they kept the weight off but I never noticed any improvement with my overall shape and tone. One of my friends suggested coming to Studio1 where I could talk to Mark and he could give me some advice on weights, nutrition and to just generally get a feel for a more specialist free weights based gym, which normally would have scared me off. The gym is not like that at all, in fact I feel more at home here than I ever have at any other gym. When you first walk in the first thing you notice is the work ethic and the seriousness with which people train, yes there are some huge guys and pretty much everyone is in shape but I could quickly see why.
Within the first 4 weeks I had noticed a change to my over all physique and it’s taken me a while to ‘let go’ of the cardio myth but the moment I did the results were so worth it. I put my trust in Mark having regular training sessions in short bursts as they suit me better and no longer do I dread going to the gym after work for relentless cardio sessions. I would go as far as saying I really enjoy going to the gym now and I’ve even been known to go before work – well only sometimes! ;-)
Like most things in life you need a balance so I still do cardio to maintain my cardiovascular fitness and to get the old heart pumping but the ratio of cardio to weights would definitely be 25:75. It’s strange how something I never thought about doing has now become my daily routine!!!
Frou Williams
Having been an avid gym goer for 10 years I have never seen such dramatic results and improvements to my figure then training at studio 1 under the guidance of Mark.
I have trained with weights for years but it was always secondary to my cardio which I used to spend up to an hour a session 6 times a week doing and the free weights was an unstructured after thought. In the last year I have all but ditched my cardio, since doing this my body fat has never been lower and my physique has never been as defined. My time spent in the gym is also dramatically reduced - so all those people who say they don't have time for the gym - you can get results by training hard for 30 minutes a day 5 times a week...who doesn't have half an hour a day to spare?
Some people consider weight training to be monotonous but I have incorporated such variety to my training with Mark's expertisethat it never becomes dull and the visible results spurs on my enthusiasm to keep training harder and setting new goals.
Sally Miller