by Agent G

Created on: July 07, 2009   Last Updated: July 09, 2009

Weight training is an integral part of health, strength, and fitness maintenance. Unfortunately, many woman shy away from weight training due to a misconceived notion that working out with weights will make you bulky. Images of large iron weight plates and muscled men tend to come to mind. However, this could not be further from the truth. Power lifting and body building should never be confused with resistance training as they are sports onto themselves. Each has its place in the fitness armamentarium but they are not interchangeable. Women should consider incorporating resistance training into their workout routine. Before exploring how to weight train, it is critical for women to understand why they should weight train.

Health Benefits

Resistance training, whether using weights, bands, or simply ones own body weight, has numerous health benefits including increased bone density, augmented body strength, and an increase your resting metabolic rate. Osteopenia-the decreased calcification of bone resulting in low bone density, and osteoporosis-a disease of the bone where low bone density results in extremely porous bones that are subject to fracture, are of great concern to women, especially those who are post-menopausal. Due to lack of estrogen, age-related declines in muscle and bone mass often lead to frailty and fracture in this population. Numerous studies demonstrate strength training's ability to increase bone mass, especially the one of most importance, spinal bone mass. Your body has the constant capability to regrow bone but requires the correct nutrients and physical training to do so; therefore women of all ages will benefit from the addition of resistance training into their exercise routine. Additionally, the strengthening of skeletal muscles helps maintain bones alignment thereby potentially reducing both chronic and acute pain and reducing injuries.

Beginning a Routine

For many women new to weight training the weight room can be daunting, but it does not have to be. Although there are many, many types of workouts that can be preformed either at the gym or at home, I have selected 2 varieties to highlight. As always, before beginning any workout routine you should check with your doctor. Also, always remember that workouts should be hard and they should burn, but if it hurts, STOP. Resistance training has no benefits if you injure yourself.

Workout 1- A Comprehensive Gym Workout

In order to be considered a comprehensive workout all major

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