Should WOMEN Over 40 REALLY Be Lifting Weights?

Most women “over 40″ agree that their naked body looks NOTHING like it did at “20″, even though they “still” weigh about the same. Why? The answer would surprise MOST of them. It’s the LOSS of MUSCLE MASS! Ladies, it’s time to say “yes” to weight-training.

I know what you’re thinking:
“I don’t want big muscles!”
“I don’t want to look like a bodybuilder!”
“I actually want smaller muscles!”

Women should NOT shy away from weight-training (a.k.a. resistance training or strength training). It is essential to remaining youthful, and having the lean, toned, shapely body, at any age.

Allow me to explain why muscles are the key to attaining the body you have always desired. First, let’s address a common myth that too many women believe. If they lift-weights they will become “bulky”. Nonsense! A women’s unfavorable genetic factors, such as lack of testosterone, levels of estrogen, cross section width of muscle bellies, etc., simply precludes 99.9% of woman from getting “big muscles.” As women age (men too), their muscle mass decreases – it is a natural process of aging. Losing as little as one-half pound of muscle can result in additional fat deposits on your butt and thighs. Why? Because muscle is active tissue, which makes high calorie demands – even when you’re lying in bed at night. Less muscle means a slower resting-metabolism. As early as your middle 20′s, the average woman experiences a slight decline in her metabolic rate each year, which exactly parallels her loss of muscle mass. The relationship is obvious: as muscle-mass decreases, metabolism slows. As a woman ages – even if she continues to eat the same number of calories per day – she gets fatter and fatter. Plain n’ simply, the loss of muscle equals a decline in metabolic rate. And, it gets worse year after year.

BOTTOM LINE: The passage of time puts all women on the road to having an over-fat and out-of-shape body. Weight training is the #1 way to slow or stop this natural aging process. It’s not a matter of building bigger muscles, you should be exercising simply to KEEP the Muscles you have now. By the way, it is NEVER to late to start.

~Franny Goodrich

“FUNCTIONAL TRAINING” – Another DUMB Fitness FAD We Will ALL Be Laughing at in 1-2 Years.

No sooner had SKETCHERS SHAPE-UP SHOES been exposed by experts as a foolish way to get in-shape, now health clubs across the country are having a love affair with an idiotic new exercise fad: “FUNCTIONAL TRAINING”.

In a nutshell, Functional training is promoted as a way to strengthen your “core” (another media-created buzzword), and improve your overall “balance”, and, in-turn, making you stronger and better capable to perform “real-life” physical tasks, such as carrying groceries upstairs, stooping and bending while gardening, or plain ole house cleaning. The objective is to perform strength-training exercises in an “unstable” environment. The SHAPE-UP SHOE works on the same principle; it challenges your “balance” as you walk in them. Experts say, “SO WHAT!” Eventually, credible research exposed the Shape-Up Shoe as a marketing fraudulent product since it was determined that altering your natural walking mechanics was – for many reasons – unwise.

Nonetheless, in gyms everywhere, we are now seeing people sitting, standing, or lying on big inflatable exercise balls while resistance exercises. Again, the supposed value is that by creating an unstable environment in which the client must counteract, while simultaneously dealing with a particular resistance. Sounds good on paper, but the only thing it really does is prove that the Personal Trainer is a “dumbbell” themselves, and that the client is NOT using the best exercise protocol possible to accomplish what is probably their goal; to improve the way their body looks. Yes, you heard it here first: This form of training does not – to any great extent – cause improvement in overall physical fitness, muscular strength, muscular development, or body composition. Instead, it makes you look a bit silly in the gym, resembling a circus performer, instead of someone training in the safest and most efficient manner possible.

ATTENTION HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES! This faulty science is also behind much of the “Sports-Specific” Training that is being marketed not only to High School athletes, but athletes of ALL ages. Just know this fact: The best “functional” training for any sport, is the “sport” itself. We get better at throwing a football by throwing a football. Conversely, the only thing flipping tires makes us better at, is flipping tires. Make sense?

I am NOT hating on functional training per se, I am against it being a mainstream first choice exercise application for your average “Hey, I Wanna Lose a Few Pounds” Gym-Goer. These are the folks being ripped-off because it is NOT the best exercise protocol (not even close) Nonetheless. it doesn’t stop gyms from hyping it at the “next big thing!” Well, you heard it hear first – IT IS NOT.

—-Great article by Fitness Author Franny Goodrich