Absolutely not, provided you don’t have any health issues. Many women have an unfounded fear that lifting weights is going to give them huge bulking muscle, instead of nice definition. This is often due to inaccurate information circling around out there. The truth is that you are doing yourself a disservice if you are lifting weights that aren’t challenging for you. I see women frequently lifting 5 pound dumbbells when they could probably be doing 4 times that depending on the exercise. Remember, your body gets the most from the last couple reps of an exercise. So the weight you choose should be heavy enough that by the end of your set, whether that be 6, 10, 15 reps or any number in between, you should not be able to do another rep. That means that if you still feel like you can crank out another 10 or 20, you need to go up in weight. Don’t be afraid that you will develop an overabundance of muscle naturally. Women simply don’t have the testosterone for that. What you will walk away with is nice definition and muscle sculpture.
Melissa Allen, BS, CPT, CES. Please visit my website at
http://www.optimumcondition.org/
