My personal training routine

Frodo is right. For a time my wife used to do natural bodybuilding and she was a terrific raw powerlifter before she got pregnant. All that time she still looked like a very beautiful woman.

 

I have two 90min MA classes a week.

Ninjutsu is not very cardio, but you exert a lot of energy from your whole body. You work up a pretty good sweat, but don't feel it the next day.

CLF is pretty tough on cardio, especially when we do sparring. And we do a lot of kicking and punching drills that use very specific muscles. I usually feel the pain the next day. And my personal training session is the day after CLF. That's the only night I can fit it in.

 

And yeah, that pic was an exaggeration....but I don't even wanna get, let's say, Cris Cyborg kinda big.

 

She's really not that big either. That's her on the right.

 

I know...but I don't even wanna get that big...or rather, that muscular. I pretty much don't wanna look any different....if possible.

 

Just to reinforce what others have said:

There is no way women can build big huge muscles, unless you are on special supplementation, steroids, hrt, etc etc. There are specific personal training programmes designed for women who want to build big muscles, but by and large, it is incredibly difficult even with these programmes and supplementation. It is impossible for women to become very muscular without these.

This is because women simply do not have enough testosterone, a male hormone that encourage muscles to grow. men have anywhere between 10 and 30 times more testosterone than women, and as such are able to build muscle.

Lifting weights will indeed stimulate the growth of more muscle tissue, but this is not to be confused with building an incredible ammount of mass. all that will happen is the body will tone up, because your fat to muscle ratio will be better. This will invariably lead to a slight weight gain, but a weight gain of muscle, and not fat (muscle is denser than fat). So, although heavier, you will actually be in better shape, because you have less fat.

There are many other benefits to women from weightlifting, including increased bone density (helping to prevent osteoperosis), increased caloric expenditure at rest (allowing for weight management to be far easier).

It is biologically impossible for women to build huge Muscle mass. But, lifting weights can be just as beneficial for women as it can for men.

Em

 

Frodo is right. My wife lifts heavier than a lot of women and she looks great because of it. Back when she used to do figure and natural bodybuilding, a lot of people thought she looked a lot like Jamie Eason. Now she's more into running and kettlebells, and she likes Lauren Brooks a lot because they have a similar body type.

Jamie Eason:


Lauren Brooks:

 

Wow, both those woman are gorgeous. Now... About that video =P

 

No offense, but you're likely biased here

I definitely wouldn't mind having a body like Cris Cyborg (OK, maybe without the tattoos - I can remember my own name without them). But I'm too much of a wimp to put in nearly as much effort as she does.

As an additional point, many really muscular looking women such as seen in fitness mags, body building comps, MA look that way because they have fantastic muscle definition as a result of low body fat. And the low body fat is a result of having to make weight or specifically to look more muscular or 'fitter'. Even women posing for fitness magazines will cut weight before the shoot to get the desired look (not to mention additional airbrushing etc). But a lot of people men and women are more uncomfortable with the look of a woman with low body fat compared to a man.

Reading this thread is making me want to go and spraypaint my 20Kg plates pink.

 

I love the colour of bumper plates, wish the little uns below 10kg were colour coded too

 

Actually if you look at Lauren Brooks (the second lady) that really is how she walks around most of the time. You can still be lean and have definition without doing crazy extreme diets all the time, especially if you want to be more active. During the final stages of preparation, a lot of the time bodybuilders have just enough energy to get through a light workout and that's about it. You won't see them pulling beastly numbers too often. All it really is is sensible eating, a solid workout plan, dedication, and hard work. Even at my heaviest from bulking I still had visible abs, but when I was lighter but less fit I didn't.

 

Ok....so it's been about 2 months now and my personal trainer seems to be changing things up a bit. Now i'm doing some lat pull-downs, chinups (well I attempt, at least lol), row machine (the weights one, not the cardio one), shadow boxing, but still a lot of running, skipping and cycling.