The general perception is that most women want to lose weight, but this is not always the case. Some women enjoy bodybuilding and wish to gain muscle weight. Bodybuilding involves losing fat and gaining muscle mass, and the results of your hard work can be aesthetically pleasing. Bodybuilding gives a woman the tools to lose excess weight and fat and reshape her body.
Guidelines
Women's bodybuilding and the desire to gain muscle weight necessitates lifting heavy weights -- barbells, dumbbells and resistance machines. The term "heavy" is relative. You have to work for the number of repetitions you do for any given weight. The last two reps should require extra effort. Apply the principle of progressive resistance. Build by small increments in weight, or one more rep each time you do an exercise. Your muscles respond to this stimulus by getting stronger and bigger. Lifting heavy weights will make not make you gain huge muscle mass and look like a man. Women have lower levels of free testosterone and smaller muscle cross-sectional areas. A smaller muscle cross-sectional area results in less muscle gain from resistance training.
Principles
The principles of gaining muscle are the same in men and women. Focus on the compound movements, such as squats, dead lifts, rows, lat pull-downs, bench press, and overhead press These exercises will make you stronger and build muscle on your legs, butt, hamstrings, back, chest and shoulders. Add isolation exercises, such as biceps curls, triceps push-downs, leg extensions and leg curls, after you have been training for a number of months and gained some muscle.
Adaptation
If you are not comfortable handling free weights, particularly barbells, use resistance equipment, dumbbells and the Smith machine to build up your strength and confidence. For example, do squats and bench press on the Smith machine, seated dumbbell shoulder presses instead of barbell shoulder presses, and the leg press instead of squat. The deadlift is an intense exercise that requires an ease with free weights, focus and near-perfect technique. You may prefer to defer this exercise for a few months.
Program
Do a whole body program three times a week. Do three sets per exercise, using heavy weights for six to 12 repetitions per exercise. Maintain your intensity by resting a maximum of two minutes between sets. A Monday, Wednesday and Friday routine will give you sufficient time to rest and recover from your workouts. Your muscles adapt to the stimulus of training and grow in your time away from the gym.
Nutrition
Eat four to six meals a day. Eat lean meat, poultry, fish, whole eggs, beans, nuts, legumes, beans and lentils for muscle-building protein. Your energy source should be mainly complex carbs, such as oatmeal, whole grains, whole potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and quinoa. Women naturally carry more adipose tissue or fat than men, so you may prefer to limit carbs to two meals a day, possibly three meals a day on workout days. Replace carbs with a variety of fruits and vegetables. Limit your fats to olive oil, omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids, such as flaxseed, pumpkin and hemp seed oils. Eat coconut oil, which your body can use as an energy source to power your muscle-building workouts.
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