by Alwyn Lee Beikoff

You can be forgiven for believing that women don’t look very
feminine when they work out with weights.

The wrong impression is given by the media when women
bodybuilders are featured. They are generally shown when they
are at their ripped and vascular contest peak or when actually
training with weights in the gym. This is when their skin is
thinnest and fat is lowest in order to show the most detail and
striation of every muscle. On top of that, all the images people
see are when muscularity is maximized by the poses. Rarely are
they shown standing normally with muscles relaxed. They are
instead shown pumped and tight from exercise.

Furthermore, women bodybuilders only look like that once or
twice a year at the end of the training for competition cycle.

This misconception that if you work out with weights you are
going to balloon out to look muscular and lose your femininity
deters many women from even considering resistance training as
part of their body shaping exercise and health program.

Also, many males and females think it is not ladylike for women
to workout with heavy weights as in power lifting or
bodybuilding.

Society ascribes various feelings and traits that should go with
the words masculinity and femininity. Men for example have big
muscles and don’t cry at the movies; women don’t have big
muscles and do cry at the movies.

Life however, is not so straight forward because men can cry at
the movies and women, at least some of them, can develop big
muscles. Genetics plays a big role in how much muscle a woman
can develop. Very very few, in fact, are actually able to
develop the big muscles that lend to the impression that muscle
building women look more masculine. Those who do build big
muscles are very serious about their training and the exercises
they engage in.

Women in general have much less genetic predisposition to
building muscle than men.

A female bodybuilder for example may have about 5kg more lean
muscle mass than the average woman. A male bodybuilder though
could outweigh the average man by up to 50kg in lean muscle mass.

A male bodybuilder will often be recognized as such even when
fully dressed in the street. Even competitive female
bodybuilders on the other hand, are rarely identified as
bodybuilders when they are dressed in normal street clothes.

Because women just don’t have the natural hormonal makeup to
develop giant muscles, the changes they make from bodybuilding
exercise are much less pronounced than in men.

An average 80kg (175lb) man who starts serious bodybuilding
training might be able to put on about 15kb (35lb) of solid
muscle in a five year period without using steroids. Over the
same period a woman equally serious about training might be able
to gain about 5kg, a third of the solid muscle that a man could
gain. And that’s if she has favourable genetics and works out
hard.

Women reshape their bodies without adding muscle bulk. As a
woman training with weights you are more likely to improve your
shape, tone and proportions than build great muscle mass.

The last thing you need to be concerned about with exercise is
developing large muscles if you don’t want them. Even if you did
want them, they are incredibly difficult to build. Instead you
can look forward to body changes that make you sexy and
attractive as well as fit and healthy.

About the author:
Alwyn Beikoff (http://www.BodyMindUnlimited.com) is an educator
and personal performance coach who helps people the world over
to change the way they think and create the body and life they
desire.

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