Myths about lifting weights to increase muscle mass

If you want to toughen up, shape, lose weight and have a strong and defined body, you have to work with enough weight.

As you will see later, you will not bulk up or look like a bodybuilder.

Here is the information you need to know if you want to increase your body mass, define yourself and tone:

Working your muscles will not only dramatically improve your physical appearance, but it is a great way to improve bone density, joint mobility and body composition. This will facilitate all your daily tasks, such as carrying the groceries, taking your child in your arms or climbing stairs, helping to prevent problems and alterations typical of the female gender.

The fear of stretching is what has kept women away from weight rooms for a long time. But it is a huge myth, since women have testosterone levels 15 to 20 times lower than men, which makes it literally impossible for them to develop large muscles. Genetically, the muscle mass of women allows very little modification.

Strength training will provide you with great benefits, such as:

– Better posture.

– Improving muscle tone prevents muscle imbalances and incorrect postural patterns, changing our posture and physical appearance.

– You will age better: Not only because your appearance and your weight will be better, but because strength training increases the production of human growth hormones, which help regenerate muscles and bones, improving fat metabolism and providing you with a healthy body composition at maturity.

– More health: According to a study published in the “Journal of Applied Physiology” lifting weight provides a better immune response of the skeletal muscle tissue after training and increases the production of white blood cells, which protects against infections.

– Gaining physical strength will also make you gain mental strength and increase your energy level.

Another absurd fear that many women have is that when they stop strength training, the muscle they have gained will turn into fat. Muscle never turns to fat. Not even stopping doing strength exercise in a radical way would happen to you.

If you gain weight when you stop training, it is because you have a lower caloric expenditure and suffer a metabolic decrease. Muscle mass loses tone due to lack of activity and fat begins to accumulate due to a surplus of calories consumed. That is, if you keep eating the same thing and don’t burn that excess energy (with any type of exercise or physical activity), it is stored as fat.

Many people think that cardio is not only essential but the only exercise that is useful for losing weight. As Valerie Waters, a famous personal trainer from Los Angeles, says, “If you want to get a sexy body fast, go straight to the weight room.” The reason is that strength training increases the basal calories we burn each day.

Muscle tissue is the most metabolically active in the body, so the more muscle you have, the more energy you will use to live and you will burn more calories even at rest. That is why it is essential that, if you want to lose weight, your training includes both cardio and strength exercise (machine room, a body pump class, athletic yoga, or interval training).

This is a misunderstood truth, since when starting a strength program the body weight rises, but not because of the increase in muscle mass but because of the physiological adaptations that your body makes. The cause is muscle glycogen, which is stored in muscles due to increased energy demand, which will also help you store carbohydrates as glycogen rather than as fat.

When muscle tone increases, the percentage of fat decreases, resulting in a more defined body. This means that you may not lose weight because the muscle weighs more, but it does size, so once you start training it is better that you forget about the scale and check the changes in clothes.

Working your muscles will also allow you to enjoy healthy carbohydrates without fear of gaining weight.