In the world of bodybuilding, women and men don’t often enjoy equal representation and opportunities. However, considering the significant benefits that women may gain from hardcore weight lifting, it’s essential to make this activity a part of your lifestyle.
Bodybuilding is not a small commitment, but it’s one that’s well worth exploring. Fortunately, women’s bodybuilding has been well-explored by others and plenty of beginning bodybuilding guidelines have been thoroughly tested, and they often apply across both genders.
In this blog we would walk you through the benefits women can gain through bodybuilding from a fitness perspective, elaborating on certain workout routines, recommended diets, and much more.
Myths Around Women Bodybuilding
The most commonly heard myth around women’s fitness and/or women’s bodybuilding is that too much weight training will make them look masculine and muscular, so they spend hours doing cardio in order to maintain their “feminine” figure.
However, the fact is that women don’t have the hormonal support to gain muscle mass like men. The hormone testosterone is responsible for increases in muscle mass. Women’s testosterone levels are a fraction of men’s, which means weight training will not make women look masculine. As a woman following weight training for fitness, such an outcome is highly unlikely.
Another common myth that people tend to believe (especially women), is that you can eat whatever you want if you’re exercising to burn it out. As much as everyone would love to be able to eat whatever they want, we all should know that it doesn’t work that way!
Working out surely burns calories, but not nearly enough to compensate for gobbling down whatever strikes your fancy. You just need to use restraint, if you overboard with the dessert, forget about it and move on. You don’t need to compensate by doing extra cardio just to burn those calories, because it isn’t going to work, and “punishing” yourself only leads to an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise.
Furthermore, let us understand the benefits of women’s bodybuilding for fitness.
Benefits of Women Bodybuilding Workouts
Increased and Developed Bone Density
Medical research indicates that postmenopausal women most definitely experience loss in bone density. Regular resistance training or weight training stimulates bone growth and also increases overall bone mineral density.
Improved Metabolism
Bodybuilding improves metabolism through increased muscle mass, allowing your body to burn more calories, even when your body is at rest. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body will burn; and the more calories you burn, the leaner you’ll get. Increased muscle mass will also add shape to your body and, take inches from fat deposited areas of your body.
Stronger Joints
Women have a greater chance of ligament injuries than men. Bodybuilding exercises like squats and lunges build hip strength and develop stronger muscles to support the bones and joints.
Well-Improved Mobility, Posture, and Balance
The combination of developed bone density, stronger hips and legs, and increased upper-body strength leads to these benefits which may also help prevent back and shoulder injuries; thus improving posture and balance.
Better Mood
Women are twice as likely as men to develop clinical depression; hence working out helps combat moods swings due to the release of natural mood-enhancing chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. Bodybuilding workouts help in getting better sleep, increased energy levels, and a feeling of accomplishment.
Starting a Women Bodybuilding Workout Regime
Every journey has a first step, though, and for beginning bodybuilders, that first step is a basic resistance training routine. The most suitable women’s bodybuilding workout is a balanced diet and plenty of cardio. Women tend to gain fat more easily than men, so cardio is an absolute must.
‘Focus on the Weight You Lift, not the Weight You Lose!’.
General training programs for weight lifters who are just starting out can be followed which can be altered based on an individual’s comfort level and under a trainer’s supervision.
Here’s a starter workout plan suitable for beginners, following the training principles that apply appropriately to women:
- Make sure to engage in a minimum of 8 to 10 exercises that include the major muscle groups such as the chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, forearms, glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves.
- Incorporate exercises that cause muscles to shorten as well as movements that cause muscles to lengthen (for example extension/curl exercises using appropriate machines).
- Perform one set of 8 to 10 repetitions for each exercise.
- Make sure you maintain your routine for at least two days per week.
As you progress with your primary women bodybuilding workout routine, you can gradually work for smaller muscle groups after the large muscles.
- Don’t forget to use a full range of motion.
- Make a habit of lifting weights in a controlled fashion and practicing a normal breathing pattern, exhaling on the exertion.
- At an intermediate level, 2-3 days can be dedicated for training each week or 4-5 days for advanced lifters.
- Eventually, your body would get trained enough to not experience what’s known as volitional fatigue (the point at which your muscles can no longer perform reps with perfect form)
- As you begin to focus more on that bodybuilding pump, you’ll want to increase your repetitions.
- Once you’re fully comfortable with the beginning regimen, you can start emphasizing heavy lifting under a trainer’s guidance.
Diet Recommendations
Women bodybuilding isn’t only about lifting heavyweights, both women and men have to follow strict diets to gain effective results, with or without supplements.
‘Lifting Weights doesn’t make Women Huge, Cupcakes make Women Huge!’
Diet plays a key role in achieving the aesthetic goals of bodybuilding, such as symmetry and vascularity. Let’s understand some general yet important diet guidelines to be followed:
Calorie Control
Your total calories will determine if you lose or gain weight, hence the biggest factor in a diet is calories in versus calories out. Setting a target calorie intake (under a professional dietitian’s guidance) and counting the number of calories you eat each day is vital to losing fat and gaining lean muscle.
Macronutrient Manipulation
The ratio of protein to carbs to fat can determine whether the weight you gain or lose is actually muscle or fat. A diet that contains 80% of calories from carbs, 10% from protein, and 10% from fat will produce different results than a diet containing 40% of calories from carbs, 40% from protein, and 20% from fat. Hence maintaining a personalized balanced diet as per your individual health and fitness goal is very essential for fitness in women bodybuilding.
Stay Hydrated
It’s not new to us that drinking plenty of water every day is always beneficial in our day-to-day life and maintaining good health in general. Try to drink at least eight glasses (or 64 oz.) of water per day, as drinking water provides optimal hydration as well as a feeling of “fullness” without added calories. Sometimes people will mistake thirst for hunger; hence staying hydrated can also prevent overeating.
Adequate Protein
In order to gain lean muscle mass, you need to eat enough protein to sustain the development of new muscles. You may not be used to eating the number of proteins prescribed by dietitians in the beginning but once you get used to the diet and workout, you will enjoy how full and satisfied you feel with a balanced diet and regular workout routine.
Essential Fats
Essential fatty acids are vital to the proper functioning of your body; a certain amount of fat content is needed by the body and is definitely a part of a healthy diet. Many essential fatty acids help support the fat-burning process and maintaining a lean body. Make sure to follow your nutritionist/dietitians for good fat intake.
Women Bodybuilders in India
Indian female bodybuilders have been working hard to break the huge barriers in the traditionally male-dominated sport of bodybuilding.
‘Will Power is a Muscle, the More You Use it the Stronger it Gets!’
They are now receiving more support than ever before, thus helping them to prove their abilities by competing in various competitions around the world. Some of the famous Indian women bodybuilders and/or women athletes who have made our country proud are:
Yasmeen Chauhan– One of the top Indian female bodybuilders and otherwise known as the ‘Iron Lady’.
Sonali Swami– Certified Zumba and Bowka instructor who proves that women can succeed in bodybuilding.
Deepika Chowdhury– India’s first female IFBB (International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness) professional.
Vaishali Bhoir– A famous Indian athlete who owns a gym named Creed Culture offering Into Wellness/Realleader USA equipment, one of the best brands in the fitness industry.
Kiran Dembla– A certified personal fitness and aerobics trainer whose clients include Anushka Shetty and Tamanna Bhatia.
Conclusion
Researchers have found that women were more likely than men to agree that weight loss and body toning were their fitness motivators.
As professional women bodybuilding continues to gain traction among females, gender norms continue to blur outside of the gym. When it comes to fitness benefits achieved from bodybuilding, women stand to benefit greatly from the core foundation of lifting weights.
