Obese women strength train a lot differently than their lean counterparts, and while this creates obstacles to fat loss, it’s important to know that it is not the obesity that causes overweight individuals to work out differently than thinner ones.
I’m a certified personal trainer, and in my years in the fitness industry, as well as being a “gym rat,” I have observed a very intriguing phenomena in the way that women of different sizes work out.
First of all, in general, most women, regardless of amount of body fat, tend to use light weights when doing resistance exercise.
There is a range within this range, so that some women use very light weights, while others use heavier than average weights, and only a very small percentage use a “Wow!” amount of resistance.
Most women do not want a muscular look. The muscular look, however, results from very low levels of body fat, when one has a very-well-strength-trained body.
Obese women, I’ve noticed in every gym I’ve ever been to, almost always use particularly light resistance, whether it’s with a machine, dumbbells or barbells. Trust me when I say that this is NOT because they are obese.
There is nothing about obesity that makes a woman physically weak in the sense of strength training. A very large person is on an even playing field as a lean person when it comes to strength training.
Ask an obese woman who strength trains, whey she strength trains. She will probably tell you to lose weight. However, training with light weights will not get her results. Overweight women usually fear that if they use heavy or even moderate resistance, or work out in a way that feels intense, that they will get bigger. This is a myth.
Go to any crowded gym and observe how obese women do strength training. The weights are ridiculously light. They are afraid of getting bigger if they use more than a light resistance.
This phenomenon is particularly obvious with the lat pull-down, leg press, any chest press, bench press, seated row and bent-over dumbbell row.
Now, look at the women who are lean and buff. How much weight are they lifting? Almost always, it’s a lot more than light, and often “a lot for a woman.”
In other words, an obese woman will be using 50 pounds for a lat pull-down, while the lean, tight, buff size 6 counterpart will be pulling down 115 pounds.
The best way for the obese to lose body fat via exercise is to lift heavy, and intensely. Intense strength training with moderate to heavy resistance ignites a hormonal response in the body that causes an accelerated resting metabolism. This hormonal response does not occur with light exercise!
An obese woman’s body will shrink, shrink and more shrink only when she begins using moderate weights with high intensity, or heavy weights with medium to high intensity. The formula for this, in general, is using a load that makes 8-12 repetitions exceedingly difficult. If you can do more than 12 reps, increase the resistance!
For continued information on the ultimate fat-burner, read:
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- ·: F.A.Q.
- · Three exercises to target love handles
- · Tight round butt exercises
- · Solutions to stubborn excess body fat
- · Activities that don’t count as exercise
- · Should you stand on one leg while lifting weights?
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