Things Fitness-Loving Women Need to Know

You simply cannot deny that fitness and health trends are on the rise—whether it’s running, cycling or any of the other fitness classes so popular with women of the 4G generation. But it’s not all about being in with the trends; exercise needs to be done correctly in order to get that beautiful, strong body, and, in the case of injury, for your body to be able to deal with and manage the trauma correctly.

Some women want to get into fitness. They want to do weight training exercises, but they fear that, over time, their muscles will become too large; their biceps will swell; and their bodies will appear bulky and unsightly.
The truth is that obviously we all have muscles, but in order for those muscles to grow in a way that they become visible and pronounced requires some action and force whereby the muscles will respond by accumulating and building up muscle protein, causing growth in size. If women exercise correctly, they can achieve a compact, tight body shape with beautiful muscle tone.
Those large muscles you may have seen are the result of the male hormone testosterone. Testosterone causes an increase in muscle protein synthesis and therefore muscle mass, causing the muscles to grow and swell. In women, testosterone is only present in very small amounts, and therefore, even when they do strength training in the gym, it will not result in large muscles.
For those women who do have large muscles like men, this is due to the use of synthetic hormones in training, resulting in much larger muscles than normal. However, the use of synthetic hormones does have side effects, causing women to exhibit more of certain male characteristics.

To start with, women first need to find the right weight to be using in their exercise routines. This is known as RM (Repetition Maximum).

1RM (one repetition maximum) stands for the value of the maximum weight that can be correctly lifted once.

Finding your own 1RM by weight is quite difficult, as lifting the highest weight completely one time carries with it the possibility of injury. Today, therefore, there are programs to help you calculate your 1RM. You can find more details here: http://calculate1rm.com 

Once you know your 1RM, you can then design an exercise program that best suits you and your needs.

For women who want to focus on building muscle strength should be lifting 85 percent of their maximum load or more, which should be a weight that can be lifted from 1 to 8 reps before running out of strength. If your focus is on building more muscle mass, or having larger muscle size, known as hypertrophy, you should instead be lifting a moderate weight at about 8 to 12 reps before running out of strength. Lifting a lower weight for 12 or more reps will instead improve muscle endurance.

Fitness related injuries may be caused by improper knowledge about the level of weight lifted, a lack of proper posture, insufficient or incorrect advice resulting in exercises being carried out incorrectly, or the use of damaged or failed fitness tools or equipment. Any and all of these can cause injury to varying degrees.

If an injury occurs, the first thing to do is to stop and rest. Don’t force yourself to continue exercising, as forcing it will cause the injury to worsen. If there is pain or swelling, apply an ice pack to the area within 24-48 hours of the injury, rest and keep the injured part as immobile as possible, elevate the injured limb to a level higher than the rest of your body, and take anti-inflammatory medication.

The principles of rehabilitation in order to resume fitness training after an injury include the steps of ‘resting and stretching’ the muscles until flexibility has returned to the injured part before gradually beginning to exercise it again. Skipping a step, for example, just resting until the pain is gone and then returning to weight training immediately when the muscles are not yet flexible enough to do so, will cause repeat injuries and trauma to the muscles. Repeat injuries can then result in decreased ability to return to sports or fitness.

If swelling or pain increases rapidly, if there is a misshapenning or something out of place, or if there is an inability to put your weight on or use the injured parts, you should see a doctor immediately.

Treatment depends on which part of the body has been injured, and whether the injury is a more complex one involving more than one tissue type, such as whether an injury is affecting muscles, tendons or ligaments and bones at the same time or not. Doctors will take all these factors into consideration when deciding which treatment is most appropriate.

Exercising the right way will help to keep your body healthy, and can help you achieve a beautiful, slender shape, which will, in turn, increase a woman’s confidence without any need to worry about gaining too much muscle or bulking up. And if you happen to have an injury, don’t force anything. Stop and rest until you are properly healed before returning to your fitness routine once again.

*Thanks to the following website for information sourced in the article: http://calculate1rm.com