stop overdoing cardio and hit the damn weights!!!

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  • ATGsquats
    ATGsquats Posts: 227 Member
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    I wish more females would lift. They look so much better with tone muscle than a marathon runner who looks starved.

    well excuse me but women should do what keeps them happy and healthy, what they love, what they are passionate about.our lives do not revolve around being sexually appealing to YOU. we are not here for your purposes, we have our own purposes and a woman looks best when she is happy and living her life how she wants.we are not bodies to be gawked at, we are whole human beings. a woman does not look 'better' when she does any particular kind of work out, we all have our own ways we want to look, our own lives to live, our own aesthetic.


    Relax...was an opinion
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    I wish more females would lift. They look so much better with tone muscle than a marathon runner who looks starved.

    well excuse me but women should do what keeps them happy and healthy, what they love, what they are passionate about.our lives do not revolve around being sexually appealing to YOU. we are not here for your purposes, we have our own purposes and a woman looks best when she is happy and living her life how she wants.we are not bodies to be gawked at, we are whole human beings. a woman does not look 'better' when she does any particular kind of work out, we all have our own ways we want to look, our own lives to live, our own aesthetic.


    Relax...was an opinion

    No uterus...

    ...no opinion.






    (I learned that rule on an MFP thread once.)
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
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    I wish more females would lift. They look so much better with tone muscle than a marathon runner who looks starved.

    well excuse me but women should do what keeps them happy and healthy, what they love, what they are passionate about.our lives do not revolve around being sexually appealing to YOU. we are not here for your purposes, we have our own purposes and a woman looks best when she is happy and living her life how she wants.we are not bodies to be gawked at, we are whole human beings. a woman does not look 'better' when she does any particular kind of work out, we all have our own ways we want to look, our own lives to live, our own aesthetic.


    Relax...was an opinion

    No uterus...

    ...no opinion.






    (I learned that rule on an MFP thread once.)

    tumblr_m4ckc8oNSp1qzydh2o1_500.gif
  • 06mommy87
    06mommy87 Posts: 5 Member
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    I like doing a mixture of both. I tend to use some weights while working a cardio circuit. This helps me create a toned look while still burning fat.
  • jennibear22
    jennibear22 Posts: 95 Member
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    I just have no clue about weights or lifting so I stick to cardio and "meta fit" or circuits which have a mixture of both.

    But I have use of a fantastically well equpped (and totally free) gym every day at work so I would like to know more about toning and lifting for women. Are there any good sites for beginners to this? I think a lot of females just are not sure which types of weights to do and so stick woth cardio.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    I just have no clue about weights or lifting so I stick to cardio and "meta fit" or circuits which have a mixture of both.

    But I have use of a fantastically well equpped (and totally free) gym every day at work so I would like to know more about toning and lifting for women. Are there any good sites for beginners to this? I think a lot of females just are not sure which types of weights to do and so stick woth cardio.

    Starting Strength is a good beginner program. If money is tight, Stronglifts is free but it's a bit infomerically and you have to wade through that to get to the program. Some like New Rules of Lifting for Women-- it seemed overly complex to me but on the plus side you would learn a lot of different exercises.

    The basis for whatever you choose should be compound lifts-- squats, deadlifts, bench, rows, and overhead press (my old nemesis) are going to be the starting point for most good beginner programs.
  • DuckDynastyMakesMeLaugh
    DuckDynastyMakesMeLaugh Posts: 363 Member
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    Bump
  • DamePiglet
    DamePiglet Posts: 3,730 Member
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    Okay, so I was in this thread eons ago before I started lifting.

    I didn't think I would enjoy lifting, but I decided to try it because I wanted to increase my strength to be able to accomplish things that I hadn't really been able to do before because I had too little arm strength.

    I do like it and I mostly like the asthetics with increasing my lean muscle.

    That being said, I STILL feel like women should do whatever makes them happy.

    I've seen plenty of runners / joggers who have lovely bodies. And even if I DON'T think someone's body is lovely, it's really not for me to decide.
  • MelsAuntie
    MelsAuntie Posts: 2,833 Member
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    Many women, including me, don't WANT to look muscular. I'm strong enough to do farm work, but I would rather be dead than look like those female body builders. Seriously.
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
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    Many women, including me, don't WANT to look muscular. I'm strong enough to do farm work, but I would rather be dead than look like those female body builders. Seriously.
    Don't worry, there's no risk of that ever happening to you.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    Many women, including me, don't WANT to look muscular. I'm strong enough to do farm work, but I would rather be dead than look like those female body builders. Seriously.

    That's kind of offensive.

    And really insulting given the amount of work it takes to actually get there. I do farm work- I still looked muscular- nothing wrong with looking muscular.

    There is a really really big difference between professional body builder- and looking muscular. it's laughable hard to get there and really insulting to think it can be done with just a little weight training. it's not a magical over night- "lift a heavy weight"BOOM vascularity- HA- if only it was that easy.

    You'd be better at your farm work if you lifted weights... trust me I lived on a horse ranch- but- as noted- there is no way that it would happen to you.
  • DamePiglet
    DamePiglet Posts: 3,730 Member
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    Many women, including me, don't WANT to look muscular. I'm strong enough to do farm work, but I would rather be dead than look like those female body builders. Seriously.

    Body building women have to work very hard and micro-manage their diet and exercise routines to build up that kind of muscle. From your previous post (about the chores you do) you already "lift heavy" and you don't look like a body builder, do you? We women generally have too much estrogen to get bulked-up without a whole lot of dedication and effort.
  • fitandfortyish
    fitandfortyish Posts: 194 Member
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    Fascinating thread...I'm a cardio-aholic and spend quite a bit of time on a C2, rowing on water or running sprints for HIIT. I'm toned and would happily compare my a** , shoulders and legs to every female lifter over 40 on this site.

    There are Cardio folks that can have toned bodies-- but like everything, it depends on so many factors.

    The number of times I've seen "lifters" in the gym anemically thrashing away on the machines or with free weights reminds me blanket statements like "lifting is the only way to go" applies only to those who know what they are doing. For some on this site, wandering into the local gym and lifting isn't going to get them where they need to go and may lead to disappointment.

    Cardio on the other hand is easy, cheap and can be effective and it is a good start point. My position on this is great if you are a lifter. So many women and men on this site look amazing and achieved that through lifting alone. But don't knock cardio bodies--we are not all skinny waifs with no tone.
  • blueboxgeek
    blueboxgeek Posts: 574 Member
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    Can I ask a question please? When people say "lifting".... does it have to be in the gym, lifting weight, increasing weights kind of stuff?

    I really did enjoy lifting for a while but started to get a bit bored. My gym was full of posers and people who I really didn't want to be around.

    So I bought kettlebells to work out at home. I now alternate between running and a home kettlebell workout which includes squats, deadlifts and as many other things I can squeeze in, plus things like planks and press ups.

    So when people say if you want to change your shape you have to lift.... can other strength workouts, such as kettlebells or body weight workouts be just as effective for toning and shaping the body?
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
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    Can I ask a question please? When people say "lifting".... does it have to be in the gym, lifting weight, increasing weights kind of stuff?

    I really did enjoy lifting for a while but started to get a bit bored. My gym was full of posers and people who I really didn't want to be around.

    So I bought kettlebells to work out at home. I now alternate between running and a home kettlebell workout which includes squats, deadlifts and as many other things I can squeeze in, plus things like planks and press ups.

    So when people say if you want to change your shape you have to lift.... can other strength workouts, such as kettlebells or body weight workouts be just as effective for toning and shaping the body?
    It's shorthand for progressive resistance exercise so yeah :D
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    Many women, including me, don't WANT to look muscular. I'm strong enough to do farm work, but I would rather be dead than look like those female body builders. Seriously.

    I was really afraid of becoming a brain surgeon so I decided not to go to nursing school.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    Many women, including me, don't WANT to look muscular. I'm strong enough to do farm work, but I would rather be dead than look like those female body builders. Seriously.

    I was really afraid of becoming a brain surgeon so I decided not to go to nursing school.

    I love you so hard.
  • MissStatement
    MissStatement Posts: 92 Member
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    Many women, including me, don't WANT to look muscular. I'm strong enough to do farm work, but I would rather be dead than look like those female body builders. Seriously.

    Unless a woman makes a concerted effort to achieve the muscular look, it will not happen with your garden variety resistance training program. It just won't.

    You may be doing adequate work with the chores that you do, but most women don't do that and they are missing out on one of the most important benefits of strength training - preservation of bone density as they age. Study after study demonstrates that older adults who have resistance trained are less prone to breaks and less susceptible to osteoporosis.

    Edit to quote post.
  • Foodiethinking
    Foodiethinking Posts: 240 Member
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    Umm, no. I will not hit the weights. And not because I think it'll make me bulky.
    1. I don't want to.
    2. I reeeaallly enjoy walking and jogging.
    3. I have no intentions of paying for a full gym membership to have access to weights.
    4. I'm still working on losing fat, toning is for when I'm closer to my goal. I can barely do many squats or lunges right now.

    I don't get why so many people think everyone should lift. People are going to do what they enjoy.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    Umm, no. I will not hit the weights. And not because I think it'll make me bulky.
    1. I don't want to.
    2. I reeeaallly enjoy walking and jogging.
    3. I have no intentions of paying for a full gym membership to have access to weights.
    4. I'm still working on losing fat, toning is for when I'm closer to my goal. I can barely do many squats or lunges right now.

    I don't get why so many people think everyone should lift. People are going to do what they enjoy.

    this post makes me so sad.

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