MVP Health & Fitness

Q: Will training with weights make me overly muscular?
A: NO! It is almost impossible for a woman to develop a large, visibly muscular body - no matter how hard she trains! Unless a woman naturally has sufficient testosterone in her system she cannot develop large muscular size without chemical help. Some hypertrophy occurs through resistance training but this is experienced as muscular firmness - a desirable result. Women have about 10% more body fat than men therefore tending to be shapely rather than angular. Achieving this lean look is very difficult because as anorexics discover, chronic dieting can lead to loss of muscle tissue therefore increasing the body fat percentage!

Q: What about all those women athletes with
muscular bodies?
A: The vast majority of women in professional and amateur sport have attractive bodies. Women in explosive sports such as throwing, sprinting and gymnastics tend to hypertrophy. Any muscularity is the result of long and highly motivated training and will not occur on anyone who simply lifts a weight. Not all athletes hypertrophy even doing the same training protocols. Women who desire a muscular look such as body builders, are often frustrated and disappointed at the lack of results, no matter how hard they train. Also, strict diets have to be followed to reduce body fat so muscle definition can be seen.

Q: What will happen if I stop working out for a while?
Will my muscles turn to fat?
A: NO. You can't turn fat into muscle or muscle into fat. That is not how the human physiology works. Some people who cease training put on weight because they fail to reduce their calorie intake. Exercise burns calories. Muscular tissue burns calories. If you don't exercise, your muscles will shrink to pre training levels and thus the body needs fewer calories to maintain itself.

These are both women who do weight training. The above article should give you a idea.

FAQ on Women Weight training