Goodbye Twiggy, hello tone

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” 

– Eleanor Roosevelt

Hello everyone, I’m Kaylee. My true passion is writing but I have to admit, this whole blog thing is completely new to me. I love having the freedom to say basically anything I want and have people judge my work.  It’s exciting and terrifying all at once. All of my posts are meant to open your eyes to new fitness and nutrition trends so that hopefully people will want to try some of them.  I truly believe life is full of crazy opportunities and if you take the right ones you will eventually find yourself exactly where you want to be. Enjoy!

 Everyone has that friend or at least knows that girl who says, "I'm afraid to lift because I don't want to get huge." From an athlete’s prospective, this statement can be extremely frustrating to hear. 

    Not only is this assertion uneducated but also very untrue. Fortunately, in the last five to 10 years, more and more people, specifically girls, now understand that being fit is not only healthy and but it’s also more attractive than being skin and bones. After all, haven’t you ever heard the saying “if you look good, you’ll feel good?”

    I have personally witnessed this revelation come to life in the fitness center at school and in others.  Those women you normally see relying purely on cardio for exercise and benefits, are now lifting weights. 

    I am not the only one seeing this fad take off. James Matta, a certified personal trainer at Fair Haven Fitness has been in the game for about 19 years and has seen significant changes. 

    “Within the last three years our women power lifters have more than doubled, if not tripled,” Matta said.

    When he first started as a trainer he would have girls say, “you’re not going to make me huge right?” 

    In the last three years the tables have completely turned.

    “Now I have had a lot of girls ask me, ‘can you make me jacked?’ ” Matta said.

    From his experience he said one of the biggest things drawing more girls toward lifting is cross fit training. The Spartan races and any obstacle course training he said have attracted a lot more people and have become such a popular thing.

    So all those girls out there who think they’re going to get huge or “look gross” if they lift,  it is not true at all. The women who get “huge” train a specific way and consume plenty of calories to insure they will get bigger. 

What are you looking to do? 

Improve muscular endurance: lots of interval training

Get Tone: lift weights within the rep range of 3-5 and 10-12; starting with the 3-5 in the beginning stages and switching 10-12 and coming back to 3-5. 

Gain muscle mass: Switch between 6-8 reps and 1-3. 

Benefits to weight training: 

Just this year an article published by Danielle Diamond, writer for yahoo news, talked about 5 benefits to weight training.

  1. Losing fat and gaining muscle burn more calories even at rest
  2. Increase bone density
  3. Regulates your mood and works to release stress
  4. Helps to prevent illness such as arthritis, osteoporosis cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.
  5. Improves posture, balance, and stability

****ANOTHER GREAT READ TO CHECK OUT: 

In 2012 Forbes magazine published an article on the health benefits of weightlifting. This article is definitely worth the read if you want to learn more. 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/juliewilcox/2012/05/31/health-benefits-weightlifting/

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous post Residence Life to sponsor homecoming Family Fun Zone
Next post The Challenge Blog: Castleton