Building Lean Muscle for Women
Recently, I got and answered an email asking for advice on how to gain weight.
And I made a HUGE mistake.
Somewhere in my reply I said the phrase women fear most, "Build Muscle Mass."
The reply I got back was predictable, it said something to the effect, "Oh - no,no,no. I DO NOT WANT TO BUILD MUSCLE MASS. I was just hoping to add some lean muscle."
My bad. I should know better. In fact, the whole fitness industry knows better than to mention "muscle mass" to women. It just conjures up bad images, images of those chicks who stuck one too many needles in themselves or, even worse, images of men.
The politically correct term for women is "lean muscle tissue." Men build muscle mass, women build lean muscle.
But here's the thing - muscle is muscle. Yep, women who are building lean muscle are really building muscle mass. There is no difference.
So where did the term "lean muscle" come from? From some very, very smart fitness trainer I guess, someone who figured out they could avoid the long, laborous task of trying to convince a woman that she would retain 100% femininity, look better, feel better and younger, and be healthier if she went about building some muscle.
That argument has a very low-success rate - but simply call it lean muscle and you're on easy street.
Note my clever placement of "lean" in this article - Weight Gain For Women.
I'm pretty sure it was that same genius trainer that started calling it "lean muscle" that invented "toning." What is toning? It is commonly believed to be an alternative to weight lifting, for those who don't want to get huge muscles. The thing is, IT IS WEIGHT LIFTING.
Really, I want to shake the hand of the trainer who invented these terms.
Here's an article from a college paper that tries to ease women past their gym fears using some gentle language - Weight training myths ‘filling the heads of women everywhere’.
That's a good article, BUT... it does perpetuate one baseless fitness myth - Can you guess what that myth is?
I'll reveal the answer in my next post.
JP
And I made a HUGE mistake.
Somewhere in my reply I said the phrase women fear most, "Build Muscle Mass."
The reply I got back was predictable, it said something to the effect, "Oh - no,no,no. I DO NOT WANT TO BUILD MUSCLE MASS. I was just hoping to add some lean muscle."
My bad. I should know better. In fact, the whole fitness industry knows better than to mention "muscle mass" to women. It just conjures up bad images, images of those chicks who stuck one too many needles in themselves or, even worse, images of men.
The politically correct term for women is "lean muscle tissue." Men build muscle mass, women build lean muscle.
But here's the thing - muscle is muscle. Yep, women who are building lean muscle are really building muscle mass. There is no difference.
So where did the term "lean muscle" come from? From some very, very smart fitness trainer I guess, someone who figured out they could avoid the long, laborous task of trying to convince a woman that she would retain 100% femininity, look better, feel better and younger, and be healthier if she went about building some muscle.
That argument has a very low-success rate - but simply call it lean muscle and you're on easy street.
Note my clever placement of "lean" in this article - Weight Gain For Women.
I'm pretty sure it was that same genius trainer that started calling it "lean muscle" that invented "toning." What is toning? It is commonly believed to be an alternative to weight lifting, for those who don't want to get huge muscles. The thing is, IT IS WEIGHT LIFTING.
Really, I want to shake the hand of the trainer who invented these terms.
Here's an article from a college paper that tries to ease women past their gym fears using some gentle language - Weight training myths ‘filling the heads of women everywhere’.
That's a good article, BUT... it does perpetuate one baseless fitness myth - Can you guess what that myth is?
I'll reveal the answer in my next post.
JP
posted by JP Clifford at 9:42 PM
2 Comments:
This is great, thanks!
I have been trying to get my girlfriend to "work out" for ages. When I first mentioned "work out" she became visibly disgusted. Confused, I suggested that it was just to tone up, and she immediately took to the idea.
My trainer laughed when I told him this. He already knew never to use that phrase around most women.
I'm a woman and I have "muscle mass" and personally, I love it! I don't look masculine either! If anything, working out & weight-lifting makes makes me look MORE feminine. "Toning" has defined & trimmed my waist and posterior (which I have received many a compliment on after using weights)... Take Jessica Biel for example. She's got muscle and she's undeniably sexier for it. A healthy body is an attractive body. Too many women focus on thinness these days, hence the "lean" sounding more attractive. But the waifish frames of models aren't attractive - they just look unhealthy.
I was once waifishly thin myself and had the same shock-horror reaction towards the aforementioned terms when I joined the gym. I think many women don't understand that to maintain a trim, toned, flexible body you can't just go to a yoga class once a week. It's the same for both men and women - strength/resistance training, flexibility training and cardio training all work TOGETHER to create the perfect physique.
That's my two cents!
P.S. Great blog - love it!
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