Sex Face?

Lifting weights.  I thought about making this solely a tip and trick but it is worthy of a full Jo:Moma blog. 

I recall hearing/reading about weight training when I was a teenager (about a million years ago). "The face and noises that you make whilst training are similar to those while participating in sex". Dear Gawd! When I think back to that, I am confident that little nugget of information could have very well been used as an 'abstinence' campaign for teenage sex. I was not a weight lifting type of gal...and after witnessing several of the football players in the weight room at the college I attended, I was terrified at the idea of both. 

Fast forward a million years. Present day me is far less concerned about my sex face and sex noises as evidenced by the four children that call me Mom. Both activities have incredible health benefits but as my weekly gift to you, I shall not detail the former. 

Women have been misinformed about weight training. We have previously been told that if we lift heavy weights we will get big and bulky. We have accepted the notion that we are the weaker sex and strong muscles is an abnormal trait for a female. We have spent more of our 'fitness' hours doing cardio than lifting weights. Time to shift gears. Time to change what we know about weight training. 

Weight training benefits:

*Higher metabolism. By lifting heavy weights, muscles break down and repair themselves. This takes energy. Energy burns calories. 

*Stronger muscles result in stronger bones. The health of your bones is directly related to the health of your muscles. Weight training stresses your muscles, which stresses your bones. Sounds scary, but the end result is denser bones! 

*Balance. As we age (yes...it happens to us all if we are lucky), we get weaker if we do not work our muscles. Weak muscles equals instability. Instability equals falling. Falling equals injury. 

*Stamina. Also known as endurance. The ability to do things longer.  

*Endorphins. A lovely natural made drug that floods the body during exercise. Happiness in the blood. 

Why women will not look like men if we strength train:

*Testosterone impacts muscle growth. Higher testosterone = higher ability to increase muscle size. Women typically only have 5-10% of the testosterone of men. Therefore, unless a female's testosterone is increased 10 to 20 times above normal, she simply will not look like a man just because she weight trains. 

*Big and bulky takes much more than lifting heavy weights. To achieve the muscles of Swartzenegger, caloric input must increase significantly (not to mention how much you would have to increase your steroid input). By merely lifting weights women will not get 'big'. In fact, muscle is 5x more compact than fat. To rephrase..MUSCLE IS FIVE TIMES SMALLER THAN FAT. 

If you were hoodwinked into believing hours on the treadmill was the only route to maintaining a slim waistline, you will be pleased to learn you can get a cardio workout lifting weights (without losing your bum....YES, running flattens your bum. NO a flat bum is not attractive nor strong). 

Sooooo? How about it? Breathe heavy.  Sweat.  Groan.  Shake. (Go lift weights...). 

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