Chicks Can Lift Heavy Too

by Paula

This is dedicated to the dude in the camouflaged Joey Buttafuoco pants that tried to give me lifting advice today.

The reason I lift weights is to stimulate muscle growth. The only way to grow muscle is to lift heavy enough weight to tax the muscle. In fact, if I am not lifting heavy enough, I feel like I am wasting my time at the gym! And no, I am not going to get big and bulky and look like a man if I lift heavy weights.

There are a lot of reasons that I want to grow muscles. The most important reason for me is that strong muscles help to protect against injuries. Building muscles strengthens connective tissues and muscles to hold bones in place.  Also, strength training has been proven to build stronger bones and increase bone density. This is particularly important during high impact conditioning and sparing; and bone density is an important issue for all women!

As a martial-artist, I need both explosive power and endurance. The explosive power is used for off the line kicks and attacks. In addition, explosiveness is needed for strong kicks and fast movements around the ring. One way that explosive power is achieved by lifting heavy weights. I also have other exercises I do to increase explosive power, but that’s a whole new subject.

Finally, building muscles will help me to look tight and lean. Muscle is more compact than fat, which creates a smaller body and a smaller dress size! Lifting heavy, and therefore growing muscles also means that I am going to lose weight. A pound of muscle burns up to 20 calories a day, but fat only burns around 5 calories. So the more muscles I have, the better my resting metabolism will be.

These are the reasons I lift heavy. If I can do more than 8 repetitions with the weight I am using, then I know that I need to bump up the weight. I like to keep my reps between 6-8 for 3 or 4 sets.