by Khyrana Oktivia Pambudi

Created on: April 18, 2009

All the frenzy on lifting weights hasn't been around for too long. In the past women used to avoid lifting weights as they usually do not want to end up with bulky muscles. But this perception has changed. Research show that lifting weights for women are no longer an option, it is an essential to be included in your day-to-day exercise regimen. Among many benefits from lifting weights, here are some of the most prominent ones:

1. Weight lifting helps to strengthen your bones. The more you do it, the stronger and denser your bones become. A strong bone could be your best defense against osteoporosis.

2. Helps you can lose fat faster. What most people doesn't realise, is that if we diet, or reduce our calories intake, we would lose not only our fat, but our muscles as well. What lifting weights do is it helps building and strengthen your muscles. You have to know that muscles burn far more calories than fat. And when we have a lot of lean muscles we could turn our body into a fat burning machine. You would burn fat 24 hours, even when you sleep. Now isn't that sounds just terrific?

3. Weight training helps to shape and tone your body. Even though there's no such thing as a spot reduction exercise miracle, a good weight training programme could tone those flabby arms and lift your saggy butts.

4. Like I mention before, lifting weights help strengthen your muscle. This is important in your daily life. Stronger muscle means you could easily lug your groceries while carrying your baby in the other hand. A stronger muscle could also help prevent injuries and gives you that extra energy.

If you are a beginner, you want to use enough weight that you can complete only 10 -12 repetitions for 1 just set. Remember that you need to give your muscle at least a day rest in between training. So I would suggest you do a split training. Meaning that you train your upper body muscles on day 1,3,5 and train your lower body muscles on day 2,4 and 6. As your muscle grow stronger, you can add the set until you are able to do 3 sets, resting about 30 seconds to 1 minute in between sets. After that you can slowly increase the weight, or the repetitions.

Remember, it is never too late to start lifting weight. Age doesn't matter, you can be in your 20's or late 60's and you still will experience significant benefits from weight lifting.

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