It’s so important to get the record straight about this fear of “bulking” when it comes to strength training!
99% of women are physiologically unable to build muscle to the degree where they would be considered ‘bulky., It’s simply a function of estrogen and lack of testosterone. You will never build muscle like a man’s, unless you are trying to achieve that result.” Instead, you’ll create beautiful, feminine curves.
Strength training can cause women to produce more somatotropin (otherwise known as human growth hormone), but when you consider that growth hormone helps metabolize fat and is considered an important part of reducing the effects of the biological aging process, this is not a bad thing.
During most traditional “cardio” training, the legs are the primary muscles being engage, when performing a full-body, strength training session with exercises for both the upper and lower body can involve a tremendous amount of muscle tissue, which results in more calories being burned during a workout.
Cardio can be an efficient way to burn calories, but it often doesn’t provide enough stimulus to increase levels of lean muscle (think curves), which are metabolically more efficient because they burn calories even when the body is at rest. This means you’ll burn more calories by just being upright and over the course of a month decrease body fat without needing diet!