(BlackFitness101.com) Treadmills, bikes, ellipticals and gliders are just a few of the heavily used cardio machines at the gym. Let’s start by saying cardio is a healthy, and valuable, part of a workout. It is great for building endurance, blood circulation, warmups and heart health. Many women love cardio and it is the foundation of their weight loss, and weight maintaining exercise routine. Too many of us grew up being told that resistance training was for men, and masculine women. This is a myth that is definitely being to disappear in today’s fitness world. Women, and some men, are beginning to embrace a simple truth. Cardio workouts are important, but resistance training is necessary for strength and even burning fat.
Many women stayed away from weight training in fear of becoming as muscularly big as a man. The truth is naturally we are unable to do this because we do not possess the levels of testosterone necessary to get a bulky as a man. However, we will be able to tone, 
shape and define our body composition due to resistance training. “Because females have less free testosterone than males at rest, any increase is not significant enough to allow for muscle hypertrophy to the extent of a male. Therefore, it has been suggested that other anabolic hormones, such as GH may be responsible for hypertrophy in females (Kraemer & Ratamess, 2005).” We should not let this myth deprive us of all the benefits of weight training.
When our lean muscle increases so does our metabolism at rest which allows us to burn fat longer. Resistance training, in conjunction with cardo, is beneficial to weight loss and boosts energy. It’s a no brainer that resistance aids us in being strong. Cardio does not build strong muscle, and connective tissue…weight training is necessary to achieve this. When muscles are stronger the chances of diseases such as osteoporosis decline. “Research has found that weight training can increase spinal bone mineral density (and enhance bone modeling) by 13 percent in six months.
This, coupled with an adequate amount of dietary calcium, can be a women’s best defense against osteoporosis”. Building our strength assists us in carrying out everyday tasks. Sometimes everyday life: groceries, carrying kids, strenuous tasks at work, and even our workouts can put us at risk of injury when we aren’t our strongest. “If your maximum strength is increased, daily tasks and routine exercise will be far less likely to cause injury. Research studies conclude that even moderate weight training can increase a woman’s strength by 30 to 50 percent. Research also shows that women can develop their strength at the same rate as men.”
The benefits of adding resistance training to your workout is endless. So many of us have focused purely on cardio, and thus we have not been maximizing our workouts. Lifting the weights is also a great way to release stress and tension, and it helps battle depression. Cardio alone won’t put it the best physical condition. We can be ladies, and feminine, while hitting the weights. If you haven’t you owe it to your health to give it a try.
Staff Writer; Christian Starr
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