Strength training is beneficial for everyone including women. Some people believe women that lift weights will bulk up, but according to the American Council on Exercise, this is a myth. Women cannot get bulky muscles because they don't produce enough testosterone. Instead, strength training helps women gain lean muscle which helps you lose fat while toning and defining your muscles.
Major Muscle Groups
A strength training workout should provide exercises for each of your major muscle groups. ACE says these include the muscles in your arms, legs, chest, hips, back and core. Your hamstrings, quadriceps, glutes and calves are the muscles in your legs and hips. Your pecs or pectoralis major is located in your chest. Your back muscles include the rhomboids at the top and the latissimus dorsi in the middle. Your arm muscles are the biceps on the front of your upper arm and triceps on the back of your upper arm as well as the deltoids on the outside of your shoulders. Your core muscles are your abdominals and the erector spinae found in the lower back along your spine.
Sample Workout
A full-body strength training workout should train each of the major muscles effectively and efficiently. A sample workout include squats, shoulder press, leg press, bench press, biceps curl, Swiss ball crunches, lat pulldown, prone back extensions and the dumbbell fly. Squats exercise your total leg, focusing mainly on your hamstrings. The shoulder press machine will exercise the deltoids and trapezius muscles, which is found along the top of your shoulders. It will also work your triceps. The leg press works the glutes, quadriceps and calves. Bench press works the pectoralis major and anterior deltoid along with the triceps. Bicep curls work the biceps as the name implies. Swiss ball crunches work your abdominal muscles including the rectus abdominis and the internal and external obliques. Lat pulldowns work your latissimus dorsi and rhomboids. Prone back extensions are akin to a reverse crunch and work your erector spinae. Finally, a dumbell fly exercises your pectoralis major and anterior deltoid.
Circuit Training
To get the most benefit from your workout, perform these nine exercises in a circuit. For each exercise, choose a weight that is approximately 60 percent of the most you can lift. Start with the squats, performing repetitions for 30 seconds. Move onto the shoulder press, resting no more than 30 seconds between the exercises. Continue through the entire workout until you've finished the dumbbell fly. Repeat the full circuit two to three times. You can also try a super-circuit to boost the intensity and weight loss effect of the workout by replacing the rest periods with 30 seconds of jumping jacks, running in place or jumping rope.
Benefits
Circuit strength training increases lean body mass and reduces fat mass and body fat percentage. A 2010 study published in "Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism" found that when women participated in circuit training similar to the sample workout they almost 9 lbs. of fat mass and reduced their body fat percentage by nearly 6 percent. They also increased their lean body mass by 7 lbs.
References
- American Council on Exercise: ACE Lists Most Common Fitness Myths
- "Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism"; Circuit Resistance Training in Sedentary Women: Body Composition and Serum Cytokine Levels; Ferreira et al.; April 2010
- American Council on Exercise: What Is the Difference between Total Body Strength Training Routines and Split Routines
- "A Guide to Personal Fitness Training"; Mary York; 2003
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