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Women and Muscle Best Ways for Women to Gain Muscle

There are many misconceptions about women and muscle. Most of us have seen pictures of women who look like mass monsters, women don’t gain muscle like men. however, first impressions say that women get big muscles by lifting weights.

What women do not realize is that only men get big muscles. Truth is, even men who want to gain muscle struggle to gain muscle mass.

It is physiologically impossible for women to gain muscle like men, this is because the main hormone in women is estrogen. Women do have testosterone but not as much as men. A 19-year-old male has 240-250 dg/dl, a 19-year-old female has 8-60 ng/dl nanograms per decilitre. As you can see testosterone in women is much less. That is why women don’t gain muscle like men.

Women and Muscle - Woman Flexing Bicep

When you see women with big muscles it is because they are taking a combination of anabolic steroids. If women take steroids, especially testosterone they can increase muscle mass.

Women who take steroids not only increase muscle mass also tend to have other bodily transformations known as virilization. These are secondary changes that happen to women who take steroids. Some of these include:

  • Deepening of the voice
  • More body hair
  • Hair loss
  • Oily skin
  • excessive acne
  • Clitoral enlargement
  • Shrinking breasts

Besides physical transformations, women who take steroids may suffer from internal live and kidney damage as well as behavioral side effects. This is simply the mainstream side effects of steroids.

Most women don’t want big muscles

Only a small percentage of women want big muscles, and now you know that for women the only way to achieve big muscles is by taking anabolic steroids.

There is a big percentage of women who want to gain a small amount of muscle and improve the look of their body. There are so many myths that revolve around women lifting weights most women will avoid the weight room.

What a lot of women do not realize is that no matter how much you train with weights you will not get big and bulky muscles. What will happen is that you will begin to eliminate fat and increase lean muscle mass.

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Benefits of strength training for women

Most women will spend hours doing cardio in an effort to burn fat. Cardio is good for you but lifting weights also offers many benefits. In fact, a perfect balance of cardio combined with a strength training routine can give women an incredible looking body. Imagine having strong glutes, firm thighs, toned arms, and an hourglass figure. Lifting weights can help sculpt and transform your body.

Getting a great looking body with weights is not hard, it is just a matter of performing the right exercises. You have to visualize how you want to look. Transforming your body is similar to sculpting a statue. Picking a varied training can help tone every muscle group in your body.

A lot of women will focus on their lower body, that is because many want firm thighs and big round glutes. Your upper body is also important.

Working your upper body especially abs, chest, and back will help give you a strong core. Arm exercises will prevent flabby arms, certain exercises that focus on your chest will give you firm and more lifted breasts, back exercises will give you better posture and overall body strength.

Before you begin any strength training routine you should start off slow. If you are considering joining a gym try and find one with a personal trainer who can get you started. Some personal trainers will start your training with machines which is fine, but once you have been training for a few weeks you will want to begin using some free weights.

Free weights rule!

I am not against using machines but free weights can give you better core strength, improve balance, and give you lean sexy muscle. Many women will avoid the free weight room which is a big mistake.

Before machines, all we had were free weights. You might be concerned about injury, but if you take things slow and focus on your form you will be better off in the long run.

Woman Doing Deadlift

Best core exercises

When you begin your training you should begin with compound movements, once again, these movements and exercises are not going to make you big and blocky. Below are some of the best compound exercises you can start off with.

Barbell squats

Squats are one of those exercises many people hate but the one that will give you incredible results. If you are a woman who wants nice firm glutes and legs the barbell squat is a great compound exercise. When performing squats you should begin with moderate weight and use strict form.

Front squats

The front squats similar to the regular barbell squat also targets the glutes bet puts more emphasis on the front quads (front part of your legs)

Deadlifts

Another all-around exercise that targets almost every core muscle group including legs, glutes, hamstrings arms and back. This should also be performed with good form and moderate weight.

Stiff legged deadlifts

This exercise targets the glutes to some degree but the main purpose of this exercises is to target the hamstrings (back of the legs)

Bench press

The bench press is a compound movement that targets the chest muscles, secondary muscles used include the triceps. Women may choose to use dumbbells or a barbell either one will work. Training the chest helps build the muscles underneath the breasts giving you fuller firmer and more lifted breasts.

Proper nutrition is important

There is more to gaining muscle than strength training, proper nutrition is just as important. We all have different genetics, this does have an effect on how we can transform our body. Some women are genetically gifted and have a thing physique, others might tend to struggle with fat loss.

Nutrition is important, a rule of thumb is that a high protein low carb diet is best for maintaining lean muscle and preventing fat buildup but this is something where going by feel is your best bet.

Stick with quality food and avoid all the stuff you know is bad for you the less complex carbohydrates, fast food and sugar you consume the easier it will be to achieve your fitness goals.

Vitamins and supplements

If you are eating good quality food you may not need to take supplements. If you are training with weights and have an active schedule, you might find yourself struggling with energy.

If this is the case you may want to consider taking a dietary or sports supplement. There are hundreds of supplements you can take to help improve your training.

Some of the more common supplements you will hear about are pre-workout supplements and fat burners. Pre-workout supplements can help give you energy, many of them contain vitamins and minerals that ensure you are getting the nutrients your body needs.

If you have just started an exercise program and need to lose extra fat, a fat burner can help burn fat and provide you with extra energy.

Whats my blog about?

I have tried many supplements and I stupidly tried anabolic steroids a couple of times (Big mistake) So I guess I can say I have a lot of personal experience both from working out and trying different sports enhancement products.

I feel that my personal experience has served me well, I hope my workout tips and supplement reviews can help you too but I also highly recommend you do your own research, especially if you have your own doubts about using a certain supplement or implementing a new workout routine.

Practice makes perfect and here is what I can offer:

  • E – My personal Expertise, my  goal is to always keep the user up to date and well informed about my personal experience when using different dietary supplements that I review on my blog.
  • A – Stands for Authoritative and that’s because I always try and fact check the ingredients in all the products I review to ensure they are of good quality.
  • T – Stands for Trustworthy and that’s because I personally feel that I place a lot of effort in checking my facts before recommending any products, this includes me using each product for the recommended time and dosage and letting you know about my results from using each supplement.

Just because something works for me does not mean you will get the same results, that is why I always recommend that  when in doubt that you do your own fact checking before using any kind of dietary supplement.