Female Bodybuilding - Why You
Should Not Let This Sport
Intimidate You

While men's bodybuilding forges on as a rather popular sport for males to get into, female bodybuilding has not caught on to nearly the same extent. More often, women will actually turn away instantly at the thought of this sport thinking that it is in no way, shape or form for them.

Before you rush off to turn your head however, it's vital that you take a closer look at what this sport is really about and some of the common misconceptions that are held. If more women would realistically look at the details of what it entails, we may just find more females trying to get involved.

Here are some important things that you must reconsider about female bodybuilding.

Female Bodybuilding Myth #1 - Women Bodybuilders Are Always Huge

If you ask any random woman on the street what word instantly comes to mind when they say female bodybuilding, often the response will be something along the lines of 'scary', 'freakish', 'man-like', or she will show a rather disgusted look on her face.

This is quite sad however because it really is not representative of female bodybuilding at all.

While you will have your extreme levels where these women do really take things to the limit and try and develop as much muscularity as possible while getting down to extremely low levels, the vast majority of those participating in female bodybuilding are not doing this.

The image that most women have about female bodybuilding is a female face on a ripped man's body – with very little breast tissue added on to further reduce the female characteristics.

If you look at the more common female bodybuilders however, you find that it's quite a different story. Many are very sexy and show a high level of feminine curvature to their body. They maintain low but not extremely low body fat levels so that they aren't showing nearly the same extent of vascularity and instead take on a firm but softer look.

If you take notice of the vast majority of women in North America right now, 'firm' and 'toned' would not be the words you'd use to describe them as cellulite and excess 'jiggle' are far more evident.

The average female bodybuilder portrays an image of being athletic, firm, strong, and shapely all at the same time and provided she is keeping that body fat reasonable, will still be able to maintain a much fuller cleavage appearance.

Female Bodybuilding Myth #2 - Lifting Heavy Weights Will Make You Bulk Up Quickly

Moving on, another misperception that's commonly held about the training style that female bodybuilders use is the belief that lifting heavier weights will automatically make you look bulky.

What more women need to realize is that as a female, you do not possess nearly enough of the muscle building hormones in the body to make this happen. A male has hundreds of times more testosterone running through his body than you do which is why males develop to a much larger extent than any female ever would (naturally).

Even males who don't lift any weight will typically show more muscularity than a woman who doesn't lift weights either and this is simply because of the different in testosterone levels between the genders.

What's more is that even if you lifted the heaviest weights you possibly could imagine, if you don't provide the nutritional support to build more muscle mass, you won't get any larger.

Remember, you can't build something out of nothing so those women you see who do possess more muscle mass have had to do some higher scale eating as well. They use higher calorie diets in order to provide their body with the nutrients to generate more lean muscle.

So right there you have two factors working against your ability to get 'huge and bulky' overnight. What lifting heavier weights will do though is dramatically boost your strength levels, help to prevent future injuries down the road, add more muscle tone and definition to your body, and help to increase the metabolism more during and after the workout session.

If you do decide to eat a few more calories in attempt to add five to ten pounds of muscle to your frame, you'll then also receive the added benefit of a long-term increase to your metabolism as you now have more lean muscle mass to support on a daily basis.

Muscle mass is the most metabolically active tissue to maintain so even if you were to sit on the couch and watch your favorite reality TV all day, you're still going to be able to eat more food without gaining body fat.

The only way you'll ever get much more bulky is if you consume thousands of calories each week over what you need, spend years lifting heavy weights (females in an ideal situation can only gain muscle to the extent of one pound per month), and possibly take some form of chemical enhancement supplement.

Female Bodybuilding Myth #3 - Cardio Training Is A Far Superior Way For A Woman To Get In Shape

Hopefully by this point you're starting to feel slightly less afraid of weight lifting and the thought of female bodybuilding. It's critical that you do come to understand this because weight lifting is such a superior form of training for achieving your best body when compared to cardio workouts.

Cardio workouts will only break muscle tissue down, which over the long term could decrease your metabolism, increase the chances that you gain body fat, and keep you at the higher body fat percentage you are at today.

While cardio does burn calories, very often it's not effective at all for making you look better while losing weight, and isn't that what you're after? While losing weight is nice, if you just look like a slightly smaller version of your current self you won't be all that impressed.

If you want to totally transform your physique, then female bodybuilding is a far better way. Weight training will alter your body composition (fat mass to muscle mass ratio) and that is what you should be really after.

The scale can only tell you so much about the type of progress you're making – after that you're far better off having a body fat test done to learn your own body composition. If fat mass is deceasing and muscle mass is staying constant (or even increasing), then that is what will lead you to the sexy, lean figure you're after.

So really do take the time to reconsider your perception of female bodybuilding. Far too many females run at the thought of this activity but in all reality, it is this activity they need most.

There are so many benefits to engaging in a regular weight lifting program that you'd really be silly not to take advantage of it just because of your fear of looking like a man.

About 99% of the females who engage in a weight lifting program will never even come close to developing these masculine traits you're so afraid of so you really must put this notion to rest. Female bodybuilding is not just for competition.

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