Female Training;why are we still getting it wrong?
This is Jamie Eason, fitness model and writer. I would venture to say that she has a body that most women aspire to. Jamie recently made the following facebook post this past week:
“Ladies, the biggest thing you must overcome in your head is the compulsion to overdo cardio. Too much cardio will NOT allow muscles to grow and muscle keeps you lean. If you want definition and tone, your goals should be to eat clean with adequate calories to support muscle growth and lift heavy but with good form.”
As a female trainer, training females, this is solid advice. Embracing weight training is still the biggest obstacle most women need to overcome. Getting over the fear of getting too big, not dropping enough body fat, or feeling the need to stick to light weights only, places giant obstacles in the way to achieving success.
Cassandra Forsythe, in an article entitled “Do it like the boys do”, explores the top 4 reasons why women are fearful of training ‘like boys’.
1) “I don’t know how to use the weights”
2) “There’s no calorie counter on the weight machines like there is on the cardio equipment. So I don’t know how many calories I am burning”
3) “Weight training doesn’t feel as intense as aerobics”
4) “I feel uncomfortable to weight train around men”
If any of these reasons are why you are not lifting, than you’re not alone. I’ve heard all 4 of these reasons at some point in my training career. Female models like Jamie Eason are a great example of how women need to strength train to achieve the fit physiques they want. I would guess that 9 out of 10 women (and 10 out of 10 guys) appreciate her physique, but don’t subscribe to the same training philosophies.
Interestingly enough being early into the New Year, we are still in the ‘season of weight loss’. The shelves at book stores are filled with books on the latest new workout programs and diet plans, and the ab rocket and shake weight can even be found while you stock up on cold medication at Shopper’s Drug Mart. While all the books, dvd’s, equipment and magazines are capitalizing on new year resolutions, real fitness is still happening every day (you know, working hard and eating clean).
So what are Jamie Eason’s secrets? The funny thing is that if you check online you can easily find Jamie’s training and nutrition program (even down to what she eats every day). The thing is her secret isn’t what most women want to hear but need to hear. Lifting weights, interval training and eating clean IS her secret. It’s nothing fancy, it’s nothing flashy and no you won’t find her story on the cover of US weekly, but it’s real fitness and she’s a real woman get real results.
So my advice? If you’re fearful of getting too big or lifting weights don’t be. And if you are already training smart – keep up the great work, because hard work does pay off.
