Be Realistic When Building Muscle for Women

Does this mean all women should give up? This is far from the case because there are weightlifting movements and exercises designed to change a woman’s body definition. The workouts will actually develop muscle mass and create the long and lean look most women desire.

Stimulating the Muscle With Resistance

Building muscle for women means adding slow and consistent resistance training to a regular workout schedule. It means adding heavy weights, so you develop muscle mass. For those women just starting out, it’s better to use 1-, 2-, or 5-pound weights at the beginning, rather than going straight to 10- or 15-pound weights. Starting lower and gradually increasing reps will benefit a woman’s body, especially if you complete 5 to 10 reps at once. It also means completing three sets at a time, so you slowly overload the muscle group and then stimulate them. 

Increasing Weight

When building muscle for women, there comes a time when a particular weight becomes too easy. This is when it’s time to increase the weight by another five pounds. For most women, it only takes two to four weeks for a particular muscle group to achieve this weight limit. It also helps to increase reps from 10 to 15. Then, break these reps up into three different sets, with a short rest period in between them.

Adding Challenge to a Workout

Some women won’t feel challenged after a while, especially if they regularly exercise. Another way to overload a particular muscle is to take out the sets. For instance, while doing a bicep curl of 15 pounds, count out each rep of all three sets until completion. This eliminates the breather.

Another way to build muscle mass is to add isometric holds after a rep. When doing bicep curls, stop when the bicep is contracted and the arm is curled. Hold this pose for 15 seconds, so the muscle is overloaded. This can be done with almost any weightlifting exercise, whether it is for the upper body or lower body. Building muscle for women takes time, but with hard work and consistency, goals will be met.