Weight Training And Women

Women tend to feel that they should only do mild intensity exercises like running or an elliptical or some kind of low impact class like a step class or yoga or pilates, etc. And they should avoid at all costs anything to do with weights or heavy weights. But in fact women need weight training more than men due to their high risk for loss of bone mass over time and osteoporosis. Weight training increases bone mass along with high intensity exercises. It also will make them more athletic and give them a better hip to waist ratio. Meaning shapely curves with a small waist. As opposed to a nonathletic female body that has a hip to waist ratio similar to a man's. Meaning even, and having a torso like a box. Whether it be a skinny box or a big box, it's still a box. So without it you can have the shape of a skinny boy or a large man. Either way, avoiding certain work outs because you think its not for girls will only lead to brittle bones and a man's body.



About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Intense Exercise

Intense exercise uses everything. Unlike going to the gym for 2 hours to lift weights or jogging for an hour, an intense work out that lasts let's say twenty minutes will work everything. If the exercise is intense enough, you will be working your strength, balance, muscle endurance, mild cardio, moderate cardio, intense cardio, coordination, agility, speed, quickness, flexibility, recovery, lung capacity, nervous system, etc. Because it will be so hard on your body, every system has to coordinate to complete the task. As opposed to mild exercise that takes a long time like jogging or weight lifting where your body can rest a lot, use one system or one muscle at a time and take a break.

Believe it or not, not only will you save time, get better results, but you will get less injured. Most modern injuries are due to pattern overload, over use, or chronic repetitive trauma. Whereas with intense work outs, you don't need to do it every day or other day. Even once a week will tax your system to create beneficial change.

Kid's Menus

Why do kid's menus have the worst things? Parents should be appalled to order from this menu. No matter where you go or how nice the restaurant is, if they have a kids menu it will feature:

French fries
Soda
Deep fried meat
White bread or pasta
Sauce or gravy
Ketchup
Ice cream

So if this is what modern children start out with, no wonder they have no idea of what real food is.

Ketchup

You ever read the ingredients of ketchup? It's mostly made of corn!

Groceries Expensive?

Yes spend a little more on groceries, but spend less on eating out.

Dinner?

Every once in a while skip dinner and go to bed early. Sometimes catching up on sleep is more important than eating supper.

Meat And Veggies

It is better to eat meals with only vegetables than it is to eat a meal with only meat. Not to say you can never just only eat meat, but more of your diet should be made up of vegetables.

Food And Edible Products

Just because something is edible doesn't necessarily mean it's food. Edible things may be entertaining but it's not always food. It's high on convenience and fun factor, low on nutrition. Most of the modern diet is now made up of edible products/inventions and very little of it is real food.

Modern Fruits

Ever notice how big and how much sweeter fruits are becoming? Something unnatural is going on here...

Marathon Runners

Have low testosterone if they are male. In women endurance training lowers estrogen. Think again before you think a cardio class or running are the best ways to get in shape.

The Importance Of Strength

The stronger you are, the longer you will typically live.

Food As Entertainment

Over the years, the idea of food has changed. From something we need, from being fuel, a necessity for survival, like it is with every wild animal, it has become entertainment for us. Food has to be fun. Look a certain way. Be categorized by meal times. Snack foods, breakfast foods, lunch foods, etc. It has to be interesting, it has to have pictures of it taken, talked about, written about, has websites, TV shows, TV channels, magazines, a whole social media, movies, and huge blocks of conversation dedicated around it.

It has moved away from what food is, which is...food. That's why we actually eat so little of it, and eat so much edible entertaining items. Potato chips. Yes it's edible, so is chapstick and edible underwear. Doesn't mean it's food.

We think of food the same way we think about movies, about a book, music, or a night out on the town. You can go to a concert of you can go to this restaurant. One is for fun, the other was for survival now we made it fun. Now it offers so little of the things that keep us alive and healthy and more of the things that we think are entertaining.

It's not a healthy relationship and we have to respect food again for what it is, which is fuel, and a necessity of life. Like water. People have tried to jazz up water and its becoming more and more entertaining, but I think all in all we still consider water as water, and the way we think about water is different from the way we think about food even though in a survival sense both are the same, two things we need to feed on to live.

Food is all some people talk about or care about or hold value in. Some think without entertaining food, what is the value in life? Well yes in a shallow life that would be valuable. I enjoy food, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't have to be fun for me. I enjoy it for what it will do to me. Like in a way drugs, doing it isn't so entertaining or enjoyable, but how it feels after and what it does for you is. For me food helps me perform better, be more alert, and helps me be in a good mood. What's that drug you take to feel good and have energy? Oh, it used to be called food.

Fat Is Not Your Enemy

People try to avoid fat, eating low fat or nonfat. Fat is not your enemy. Eating fat will not convert into more fat into your body. Fat isn't even made of fat, fat is filled with water and sugar.

In nature, as a general rule, animals who only eat nonfat (meaning vegetation) are grazers because they have to constantly feed. They have small brains and an advanced digestive system. There are exceptions of course.

Meat eating animals tend to be leaner and smarter. Humans are the most efficient and advanced, we can eat both. A lot of cultures survived for long periods eating only animal fat.

Now eating saturated fats and transfats and animal fats is not all that healthy either. But avoiding it is just as bad, in its place will be sugar. Remember your brain is also made of fat.

Eating Competition

Why does the simple act of eating with people (or drinking for that matter) turn into a contest or competitive? Or somehow you are competing with yourself how much or how fast you can eat or drink? As if you will get some reward or recognition for killing yourself. 

Cleanse And Puking

Doing a cleanse reminds me of throwing up. Whenever you get sick and throw up, it's always hard to digest the next day because you lost a lot of your healthy stomach and digestive culture. Same thing happens when you do a cleanse or even any other type of purges that are popular now. Without a healthy stomach culture, you will not be able to digest food properly. That is not a good thing.

My Father's Health

A couple years ago, my sister was diagnosed with cancer and she passed away. My family did what the doctors told them to do, had whatever surgery that needed to be done, and hoped for the best. She went very quickly. My father was diagnosed last year. This time I personally didn't want to just do or not do what the doctors said but be pro-active. We of course did the modern medicine, and went on treatment. He was already at Stage 4 colon and liver cancer. We also did a lot to change his eating habits and diet, I was very obsessed about that. Then exercise and stress management were other factors. There is no magic cure-all. It's all a game of inches and I wanted to be as greedy with the inches as I could be. My dad is also in his 80s, lifetime smoker, and alcoholic. He stopped smoking maybe 20 years ago, and stopped drinking once he was diagnosed.

I've seen most of my dad's friends and siblings pass away. He had one friend, a lot younger than him. Would visit all the time once my dad was diagnosed. A couple months ago he also was diagnosed with cancer. He recently passed away. Both went to the doctors and did all the medical stuff, both are religious men, but I think the true difference was that my dad made all those changes to his diet. And diet was one conversation the doctors never had with us... When I engage in them about it, I can tell right away their lack of knowledge in the subject. My dad is pretty healthy for the most part, active, walks, talks, drives, etc. Only when on chemo is he weak, but not weak from cancer but from the medicine.

Truly diet isn't just about weight or appearance, but is about overall health and longevity.

Even Though You Don't Gain Weight

Doesn't mean every time you eat crap you are not creating metabolic damage.

Every Day

Every day you wake up just a little bit better than yesterday. A little bit smarter. A little bit stronger. A little bit leaner. A little bit healthier.