Fitness Tip: Don’t Be a Softy in the Weight Room

Lifescript.com's Jennifer Gruenemay talks about women and their trials and tribulations in the weight room. The article is an interesting read on how we differently we treat different fitness activities.

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Most women are too hard on themselves when it comes to cardio. But when it comes to weight training, they might very easily be going too easy on themselves. Studies show women tend to life weights that are too light because they are afraid they'll bulk up. But that's not the case. Women generally do not produce enough testosterone to build bulky muscles. And if the weight isn’t heavy enough, it won’t provide enough resistance for your muscles to make gains in muscular endurance or strength, which makes lifting weights completely pointless.

Experts recommend that you start with a 10-pound weight, which is light enough to avoid injury, and see how many repetitions you can do of a certain exercise (like an overhead press or biceps curl). If you can easily do more than 15 repetitions at that weight, you should increase the weight by five to 10 pounds and repeat the drill. Do this until you figure out how much you can safely lift in 8-12 repetitions, which is the preferred amount of reps for improving muscular endurance. Once you’ve found a weight that challenges you, stick with it until it also becomes too easy. Then, increase the weight by five to 10 pounds again until you find a comfortable but challenging weight. Muscular adaptations can occur in as little as a few sessions or a few weeks of training, so don’t be surprised if you have to increase weights a lot in the first few months of training.

Main Event Daily Tip: Weight Loss is 90% Mental

Jennifer Gruenemay of Lifescript.com had a great tip on Weight Loss and slimming down.....
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While a personal trainer is one of the best coaches you can have in your weight loss journey, a positive attitude is even better to have in your corner, and it won’t cost you anything extra. While the science behind weight loss breaks it down to a “calories in vs. calories out” equation, the reality is that weight loss is largely a battle of the mind. But the battle is lost when you end up talking yourself out of exercising, talking yourself into ordering that cheeseburger and listening to negative self-talk every time you look in the mirror and pick apart your image. If you want to get serious about weight loss, don’t just pay attention to how much you eat and how often you exercise – also make a mental checklist of how often you put yourself down, even as you’re trying to build yourself up. Once you get an idea of how damaging your attitude really is to your goals, start putting encouraging thoughts and images into your mind. Stomp out those negative thoughts and keep a positive attitude, even when things aren’t looking so great. So you missed a workout and had a piece of cheesecake for breakfast – so what? Don’t beat yourself up over it. Rather, tell yourself you’re human and you’re allowed to make mistakes now and then, but you’ll do better next time. Visualize yourself at your goal's end and you’ll find yourself there sooner than you know.

Now you know and knowing is half the battle!