A Common Fear Ladies Have

Most ladies have this fear that if they go to the gym and lift weights they will become too muscular or gain weight.

They think that if they go lift weights.. they will go from Average Jane to She-Hulk! But have no fear, leanfityou is here! =P

Let me address this fear and show you why it is unfounded. Below are the reasons:

1) Selection Bias

This fear is currently so prevalent that it keeps most would be moderate female weight lifters away from the gym. Most ladies do not want to be heavily muscular.

And so currently, because of this fear, it is more likely that only the most determined to put on muscle ladies are heading to the gym for regular weight lifting workouts. This forms a loop.

Only the most hardcore ladies are going to the gym to build muscle – their routines and diet are tailored specifically for muscle growth. These ladies indeed do get muscular because that is their goal and exercise plan.

Then, since this fear keeps the moderate female weight lifters away from the gym, the general public is more likely to only see the hardcore female gym goer who gets too muscular.

This in turn builds upon the fear that “lifting weights = too muscular” when this is not true. The moderate female weight lifters are just not turning up!

2) It Is HARD To Build Muscle

The average lady has much lesser testosterone than the average man.

This means that ladies might only build about half the amount of muscle a man will build with a similar training program (weights tailored for each specific individual of course).

Muscle gain can be monitored closely and once the desired muscle mass is achieved for the female, the program can be tailored to hold on to that muscle mass and not increase muscle mass further.

One important idea of building muscle is Progressive Overload. Progressive overload means lifting more weight over time (be it in reps or amount of weight).

Thus, if the desired muscle mass is achieved, the program can stop progressive overload and the stimulus to build further muscle will stop too. In this way, the amount of muscle mass gained can be controlled.

Next, Ladies, I am sure you have heard of guys taking steroids to build muscle. You have surely seen some muscle freaks in your lifetime. You see, if building muscle were easy, these guys would not be taking it!

This drives home the point that muscle building is HARD. First, they are guys. Second, they probably work out way harder & more frequently than you plan to workout.

Finally, they still have to take steroids to build the amount of muscle they want.

Trust me, if muscle building was easy, the performance enhancing drug industry would be a bust!

3) If You Get Too Muscular, Losing Muscle Is EASY

What if point 2 fails and you built a little too much muscle? Well, losing muscle is easy!

If too much muscle has been gained, one could always go on a cutting diet and do it in such a way as to lose muscle mass. To do so, one could reduce caloric intake and reduce the amount of weights they are doing.

This would make the body smaller (due to the reduced caloric intake) and make the muscles smaller too (due to the reduction in the amount of weight lifted).

Let’s relate this to a real life example. During the covid circuit breaker period, did you notice that some of your buff friends lost muscle? Why did that happen!?

It is because they stopped lifting as much weight! The stimulus for the muscle stopped and so the muscle slowly left their bodies.

In conclusion, I hope that ladies no longer fear the weight section in the gym. In fact, most ladies will benefit greatly from the weight section as it is usually the case that the exercise that you are not doing is the one that will benefit you the most.

Most ladies who exercise tend to be better in flexibility and endurance but they lack strength. The weight room builds strength!

Your body is WAY more likely to look like the left picture rather than the right picture:

One does not become a super heroine over night even if they would like to!

Thank you for reading and see you in the weight section =)

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