fit-runner: muffintop-less: Some girls still fret about this…Lifting heavy weights will NOT make you manly or bulky! Women do not have the levels of testosterone necessary to gain muscle the way men do. The women you see who are extremely muscular take STEROIDS and train for years upon years to develop that much bulk and mass. Picking up a heavy dumbbell will not result in you waking up the next morning looking like the incredible Hulk. If it were that easy to build muscle (muscle = tone) don’t you think more women would be tone and in shape? Lifting heavy weights creates curves in all the right places! Things like heavy squats, deadlifts, lunges and leg presses give you tone, shapely legs and glutes. Things like rows, pull downs, chin ups and hyperextensions gives you a sleek, tone back. Curls, kickbacks and push downs give you tone arms and helps reduce “jiggle”. Lateral raises, presses and upright rows gives you little caps on your shoulders that can make your waist appear smaller! And those are just a few example exercises! There are SO MANY benefits to building muscle! Did you know.. the more lean muscle mass you have on your body, the more calories you burn, just by being alive?? That means if you and your hypothetical “identical twin” sat on a couch all day watching tv, but you were more muscular than your identical twin… YOU would actually burn more calories doing the exact same thing?? Muscle tissue is metabolically active, it requires more calories to maintain than fatty tissue. To add to this fact, the more lean muscle mass you have, the faster your metabolism! This means you can eat more than your identical twin, and it is less likely to be converted to fat and more likely to be used by the body for energy! Having more muscle on your frame also makes it easier to lose body fat! The lesson to take from all of this? If you are physically able to, lift heavy weights! You will be glad you did =) EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS.