Weight Loss Mistake: Deciding to lose weight FIRST before beginning to weight train.

This thought process is 90% personal theory to avoid “bulking up” and 10% excuses to not step outside a comfort zone. Ask anyone with this mindset enough of the right questions and I guarantee it will boil down to the fear of bulking up or getting too big. Many women (and even men these days) feel that shedding weight through cardio and diet before resistance training will lead to a leaner looking body in a faster time. The thought is to lose all the excess pounds on the scale and then “tone up” the leftovers for a sleeker, sexier, firm body. Is it possible to lose fat exclusively through diet and conditioning? Yes – but it’s not faster, nor is it more efficient in the long run. Weight training in conjunction with improved eating habits and conditioning has major advantages over cardio and diet alone.

It’s actually the body fat over the muscle that’s making you look big. It’s not all muscle on a female body. It rarely ever is. Even if you have an athletic background or a naturally more muscular build, if you can pinch an inch on your quad or calves while standing – don’t blame it all on leg day. You just have more work to do. Now if you’re a cheap pincher or you flexed the whole time and still think you’re super lean, get naked and shake or jump up and down in front of the mirror. If it’s still jiggling when you stop wiggling, it’s body fat.

Fat hides and fills in everywhere and the arms and back are a good example. You may get freaked out when you see a bicep curve in your arm as it starts to take shape because you think your arm looks too big and hate the way it looks in pictures. It’s likely the fat over the bicep and the notorious fat holding triceps that make the arm as a whole look bigger. Unless that arm is carved and lean with muscles that flicker when you move, you’re not jacked. The point is that it’s possible you are not over muscularly developed. You may just need to shed a bit more fat.

Get stronger NOT bulkier – Women have 10-30 times less of the hormones that affect muscle-building. If it were that easy to get huge every guy on the beach would have massive biceps. But you don’t see that. You see skinny dudes, fat guys and the men that you can tell lift hard, eat well and put in the years of hard work that goes into getting and maintaining a built physique. Getting stronger will make your life easier; picking up your children, putting heavy boxes in the attic, carrying your luggage, and even lugging laundry baskets up and down stairs. Life just gets easier when you’re stronger. Start opening pickle jars for him. (www.articles.elitefts.com)