I have heard women say, "It's okay that I'm not pushing my muscles
to their limit, because I don't want big bulky muscles like a man!"
This is a huge fallacy about weight training.
Women CANNOT grow muscles
as quickly as men, nor can they get as large. It is a limiting factor
of bone structure, physiology, and most importantly, hormones. The
only way professional female bodybuilders can get so big is by taking
a lot of highly targeted supplements, and incredibly restricted diets
and training methods. Some take steroids, and even most "natural"
bodybuilders take hormone-mimicking products. The average woman simply
cannot get anywhere near that level.
Secondly, putting on even
a few pounds of muscle takes many days, even for men, so if you ever
notice that your arms are getting "too big" to be attractive, then
cut back a little. It will never happen suddenly, and will always
be in your control.
Many women do not realize that muscle is
the main way the body burns fat. Muscles that are even slightly bigger
can burn vastly more fat. So, if your goal is to reduce the amount
of body fat you have, then a big help is to have bigger muscles, especially
in the legs. The buttocks and the thighs are the two largest muscles
in the body, and they are the primary fat-burners during all activities
involving leg movement (walking, biking, soccer, etc.) If a woman
does nothing else in the gym, she should do resistance training on
her legs for more attractive legs and a much improved powerhouse to
burn fat.
One additional note for those who read women's magazines:
there is no such thing as "toning" a muscle. A muscle will shrink
and weaken if it is not used, stay the same with normal use, or grow
bigger and stronger if it is challenged with a heavy weight. Exercising
with a small weight for a long time does nothing to the muscle's physiology,
because that is a normal load. It is, at best, a very inefficient
aerobic activity. The idea of "toning a muscle" is for it to look
better while staying about the same size. Muscles that "look better"
are slightly larger than average, and not hidden behind a layer of
fat.
Good Luck...
