To all my girl frens who think that weight training is going to butch them up – Unless you have an abnormal testosterone production/ you use steroid and train the very way to get butch(y)- it’s not going to happen. Testosterone plays a very important factor in the development of muscle shapes. Women have very low levels of this hormone; which means their muscles will develop differently. So a little resistance/weight training is not going to lead one to a bulky, masculine physique. Resistance/strength training is as important to women as it is to men and may be even more because women seem to suffer more from osteoporosis. Here you can find some good information on women, osteoporosis and weight training.

With age muscle mass naturally diminishes. “If you don’t do anything to replace the lean muscle you lose, you’ll increase the percentage of fat in your body,” says Edward Laskowski, M.D. Read the article here

Another good source of information on weight/strenght training is here and here

 Because strength/weight training can increase our Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR is the amount of  calories that our body burn no matter what the other variables are) by almost 15% , one will lose body fat faster with weight training instead of doing cardio alone. Muscle is the furnace. The more muscles one has the more calories per pound is burned. And we gain muscles from weight/strength training. In the past I did not incorporate any weight trainings in my routine. I worked out hard but the result was sluggish and it was only frustrating me.  I wasted all those years pushing away weight training – dreading it will bulk me up. Today I know it better.

But Hey…IT’s your decision still. 🙂