Advice a professional female body builder gave me
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rankinsect wrote: »15-20 reps as heavy as you can still isn't heavy. For her it's probably what she needs- but in the world of lifting- that's still very high reps. (And understandably so for a body builder) but really-
0-5 reps is pure strength (one rep max being the upmost in that)
5-10- is the hypertrophy/strength and a comfortable training range
10-15 is moderate hypertrophy- and less strength- still reasonable for training- but you are starting to push into muscle endurance
15+ is pure muscle endurance and you're training to get better at pushing THAT volume of weight- not get stronger.
But she is right- the chronic "cardio is a must" for women. More women should lift and or have a balanced training program.
Yup. To elaborate on why this is true:
The part of a muscle that actually generates force is the collection of myofibrils that contain actin and myosin filaments. It is the myofibrils that, when stimulated, use energy to contract.
Besides the myofibrils, muscle cells contain sarcoplasm, which is basically all the rest of the cell - for example, the part of the cell that supplies the fibrils with energy.
When you work out, you will increase both in some ratio. In general, increasing myofibrils makes the muscle stronger - these are the parts that generate force, and they are very dense. You can gain a lot of myofibril mass without gaining much volume. Increasing sarcoplasm makes the muscle endure longer, and gives the muscle a larger energy supply. Sarcoplasm is mainly water, and this increases the volume of the cell a lot. The big, bulky muscles of a bodybuilder are huge amounts of sarcoplasm, while the denser raw strength of a powerlifter is lots of myofibril mass.
Higher weight but lower reps tends to increase myofibrils more than sarcoplasm, and vice versa for lower weight/higher reps. Again, as mentioned, all weight is relative to your current strength - if you're lifting at a weight that you fatigue after 5 reps, it's "heavy" whether that's 10 lb or 200 lb.
In either case, women don't tend to get "bulky" like a bodybuilder unless they either have a hormone disorder or they are taking performance enhancing drugs, because they lack a male's androgen levels, particularly testosterone. Hell, even males take quite a lot of work (and very often performance enhancing drugs) to get the bodybuilder look.
that my friend- is serious sexy talk.0 -
Thanks for thisI'd say 10 reps and just make sure you're in calorie deficit. Throw some cardio in just for heart health and to burn a few more calories.
. I still have a lot more weight to lose and am trying to improve my stamina after an illness. I do some cardio 5-6 days a week and lift weights 3 days a week. I'd hate to think I was wasting my time with the cardio - it seems to be valuable for me. 0 -
I completely agree! I've competed in a number of fitness competitions. I am currently now just a daily gym goer and host a boot camp on the weekends.lauragreenbaum148 wrote: »I'm a woman, and want to lose about 25 pounds. I met a woman who competes in body building competitions, and she looks amazing. She told me that women have been given the wrong advice for years. We're told to go cardio- crazy and to lift lighter weights with more reps. She said that is wrong. Cardio is important, but she said most women put too much emphasis on it. What she said is more important is to lift weights- as heavy as you can comfortably manage for 15-20 reps and to keep building on that. I asked her about "bulking up" and she said I'd have to spend 3-4 hours in the gym daily to have to worry about that. This was her recommendation for weight loss- I'm not an expert, but based on the way she looks I'm going to give it a try. Thoughts?
First and foremost is diet. Once you have the proper diet to achieve the results you want; lifting heavy for 15-20 rep range is key. Generally, I just shoot for the last 3 being difficult. Chase the burn!
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rankinsect wrote: »15-20 reps as heavy as you can still isn't heavy. For her it's probably what she needs- but in the world of lifting- that's still very high reps. (And understandably so for a body builder) but really-
0-5 reps is pure strength (one rep max being the upmost in that)
5-10- is the hypertrophy/strength and a comfortable training range
10-15 is moderate hypertrophy- and less strength- still reasonable for training- but you are starting to push into muscle endurance
15+ is pure muscle endurance and you're training to get better at pushing THAT volume of weight- not get stronger.
But she is right- the chronic "cardio is a must" for women. More women should lift and or have a balanced training program.
Yup. To elaborate on why this is true:
The part of a muscle that actually generates force is the collection of myofibrils that contain actin and myosin filaments. It is the myofibrils that, when stimulated, use energy to contract.
Besides the myofibrils, muscle cells contain sarcoplasm, which is basically all the rest of the cell - for example, the part of the cell that supplies the fibrils with energy.
When you work out, you will increase both in some ratio. In general, increasing myofibrils makes the muscle stronger - these are the parts that generate force, and they are very dense. You can gain a lot of myofibril mass without gaining much volume. Increasing sarcoplasm makes the muscle endure longer, and gives the muscle a larger energy supply. Sarcoplasm is mainly water, and this increases the volume of the cell a lot. The big, bulky muscles of a bodybuilder are huge amounts of sarcoplasm, while the denser raw strength of a powerlifter is lots of myofibril mass.
Higher weight but lower reps tends to increase myofibrils more than sarcoplasm, and vice versa for lower weight/higher reps. Again, as mentioned, all weight is relative to your current strength - if you're lifting at a weight that you fatigue after 5 reps, it's "heavy" whether that's 10 lb or 200 lb.
In either case, women don't tend to get "bulky" like a bodybuilder unless they either have a hormone disorder or they are taking performance enhancing drugs, because they lack a male's androgen levels, particularly testosterone. Hell, even males take quite a lot of work (and very often performance enhancing drugs) to get the bodybuilder look.
Actually, while sarcoplasm levels appear to grow with someone getting stronger, there is no decent evidence that shows any type of training can selectively cause growth of sarcoplasmic versus myofibril.0 -
lauragreenbaum148 wrote: »I'm a woman, and want to lose about 25 pounds. I met a woman who competes in body building competitions, and she looks amazing. She told me that women have been given the wrong advice for years. We're told to go cardio- crazy and to lift lighter weights with more reps. She said that is wrong. Cardio is important, but she said most women put too much emphasis on it. What she said is more important is to lift weights- as heavy as you can comfortably manage for 15-20 reps and to keep building on that. I asked her about "bulking up" and she said I'd have to spend 3-4 hours in the gym daily to have to worry about that. This was her recommendation for weight loss- I'm not an expert, but based on the way she looks I'm going to give it a try. Thoughts?
You asked a body builder. Of course she told you to lift. If she was a swimmer, or a runner, or a dancer or a basket ball player, you would have gotten different advice. There are many ways to get a nice body and a good workout.0 -
lauragreenbaum148 wrote: »I'm a woman, and want to lose about 25 pounds. I met a woman who competes in body building competitions, and she looks amazing. She told me that women have been given the wrong advice for years. We're told to go cardio- crazy and to lift lighter weights with more reps. She said that is wrong. Cardio is important, but she said most women put too much emphasis on it. What she said is more important is to lift weights- as heavy as you can comfortably manage for 15-20 reps and to keep building on that. I asked her about "bulking up" and she said I'd have to spend 3-4 hours in the gym daily to have to worry about that. This was her recommendation for weight loss- I'm not an expert, but based on the way she looks I'm going to give it a try. Thoughts?
You asked a body builder. Of course she told you to lift. If she was a swimmer, or a runner, or a dancer or a basket ball player, you would have gotten different advice. There are many ways to get a nice body and a good workout.
I'd wager that most professional swimmers, runners, basketball players and a fair number of dancers also lift.0 -
Every time I hear I woman say to me:
I don't want to lift heavy because I will be too big
I want to bang my head into the nearest wall as hard as I can. Is the reason I avoid talking to women about lifting all together. Is it impossible for a woman to get as big as a man without steroids and it will take a woman 10 months to build the same muscle a man can in 1 month.
Look at this woman.
Does she look bulky to you? This woman squats 255 lbs and dead-lifts 385 lbs. She trains for strength, meaning she lifts in the range of 3-5 reps and her body is all muscle. Doing cardio you will look like a skinny fat. Train for strength and looks will come. Train both strength for powerful muscles and cardio for endurance (not weight loss)
And I guarantee you no professional runner, swimmer, basketball player train by only running, swimming or playing basketball. Just like you don't train for a marathon by running marathons 3-4 times per week. You train sprints, hill work, interval etc
I get it we all want to look good. But getting too big should the last of your worries. It won't happen over night and will not happen in a year. Not even for men. You can always stop.0 -
lauragreenbaum148 wrote: »I'm a woman, and want to lose about 25 pounds. I met a woman who competes in body building competitions, and she looks amazing. She told me that women have been given the wrong advice for years. We're told to go cardio- crazy and to lift lighter weights with more reps. She said that is wrong. Cardio is important, but she said most women put too much emphasis on it. What she said is more important is to lift weights- as heavy as you can comfortably manage for 15-20 reps and to keep building on that. I asked her about "bulking up" and she said I'd have to spend 3-4 hours in the gym daily to have to worry about that. This was her recommendation for weight loss- I'm not an expert, but based on the way she looks I'm going to give it a try. Thoughts?
In order to lose body fat, you must consume fewer calories than you burn. To put it simply, you have to eat less. This creates the necessary calorie deficit needed to stimulate your body to burn fat as a source of fuel.
However, this has to be carried out with caution.
Although a calorie deficit is a mandatory pre-requisite for fat loss, going too low will put your lean muscle tissue at risk. A good guideline for this is to follow a calorie deficit of 15-20% below your maintenance level. When most lifters shift into a fat loss phase, they make the mistake of switching to a “light weight/high rep” plan in an effort to increase muscle tone and definition.
In reality, this is completely misguided and downright detrimental to your progress.
Always keep this in mind: spot reduction is impossible.
In other words, you cannot target fat loss from specific areas of your body by training those areas with weights.
Resistance training targets only the muscles that are involved and NOT the fat surrounding that area.
Curls do not burn fat off your biceps… dumbbell presses do not burn fat off your chest… and lateral raises do not burn fat off your shoulders.
Fat loss occurs on a total-body scale as you keep yourself in a calorie deficit over time. As the weeks go by you’ll lose fat from your entire body (thus increasing muscle definition), but you have no control over the specific areas where fat is burned from.
Every time you perform a weight training workout, your goal is simple: to provide the most powerful growth stimulus to your muscles possible. And this is achieved using the exact same principles one is using during a bulking phase: high intensity, progressive overload, compound movements, moderate reps etc.
When you follow the “light weight/high reps” approach, all you’re really doing is providing a weaker stimulus to your muscles and increasing the chances of muscle loss.
So, to lose fat, not muscle, and to get ripped without losing muscle size and strength, focus on creating on a small calorie deficit through your diet, maintaining a high level of weight training intensity and performing cardio in controlled amounts.0 -
I know that when I found progressive weights I finally found something that made me feel and look feckin awesome
And that helped me stick to my calorie defecit
Which made me lose weight
And I finally hit a circle of activity - food - confidence - that seems to work for me and I can stick to. And I've even started doing some cardio to build my endurance
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I know that when I found progressive weights I finally found something that made me feel and look feckin awesome
And that helped me stick to my calorie defecit
Which made me lose weight
And I finally hit a circle of activity - food - confidence - that seems to work for me and I can stick to. And I've even started doing some cardio to build my endurance
Training for strength and not look has that effect. Tracking your weights and crushing them next time with a new PR on squat is satisfying. Progression is something easily tracked if you lift for strength.0
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