Strength training doesn’t mean bulking up

We’re thrilled by the new wave of women picking up weights, increasing their strength, improving their health and generally kicking butt in the fitness department.

Unfortunately, there is still a strong band of believers out there who think strength training will make them bulkier than they’d like to be. We’re here to tell you: that’s just not true.

Of course, while we’re fans of muscles in all their forms, the truth is that strength training for women doesn’t lead to Thor arms. But it does burn calories, tone the body and carve out muscle definition – not to mention, make you strong as heck.

Here’s what you should know about strength training as a woman.

Bulking up requires specific training and a large excess of calories

Of course, strength training is vital in building big muscles and increasing muscle size – bodybuilders and powerlifters strength train extremely hard for their goals. But that is the main point here – that is their goal.

The honest answer is that if gaining bulk isn’t your goal, you have nothing to worry about. If you do want to gain mass, you’ll have to work for it. In order to increase muscle size, you need to be manipulating your rep range, the amount of weight per exercise and you also need to be fueling your training sessions with excess calories. If bulking up is not your goal, it doesn’t mean don’t strength train – it simply means don’t strength train in a way that would give you those results.

In your settings in Centr, pick ‘lose weight’ or ‘get fit and toned’ for your goal. Your training sessions will be tailored for just that – no bulking in sight!

Strength training burns big calories

When we strength train we create lean muscle in our body. The more lean muscle we have, the harder our metabolism needs to work to keep that lean muscle – which means the body burns more calories.

Simply put, just by increasing lean muscle mass through strength training, you can burn more calories at rest.

Strength training burns big calories (Part 2)

Just when you thought the above was great for your goals…

When we strength train, we use big muscle groups and big muscle groups need to be fueled with big energy. Energy = calories, so when we strength train we use a higher number of calories to get through a workout.

If your goal is to trim down, lose weight, tone or tighten up, burning more calories through strength training is a great way to get there.

Strength training defines your body shape

The lean legs, curvy butt, defined arms and sexy shoulders you’ve been dreaming about are all created through strength training.

You can plod along on the treadmill or tootle an hour away on a bike, but the only way to create shapely muscle and definition throughout the body is by resistance training.

Tiff’s HIIT, Luke’s HIRT and Jorge’s MMA sessions all incorporate strength training components to define your muscles and create lean muscle mass. Give them a go and see how your body composition changes in line with your goals.