Many women believe that chest exercises will make their boobs smaller…That’s completely wrong.
Myth 1 ///
Chest Exercises Will Make My Boobs Smaller
This myth gets perpetuated because female bodybuilders sometimes hit the stage with flat-looking chests that are far from what we normally deem feminine. It’s not the muscle that makes their breasts smaller; it’s the extreme diet.
Most bodybuilders walk on stage with body fat levels that are far lower than what’s considered healthy for a female. Breasts are primarily fatty tissue, so when body fat levels go way down, so do breasts. Aside from the women who have implants, most fitness and bodybuilding competitors just don’t have enough body fat to keep their bras full.
Don’t be afraid to press serious iron, girls.
As long as you sustain body fat levels that are well within a healthy range, you won’t have an issue. According to the American Council on Exercise, women need to have at least 10-13% body fat for “basic physical and physiological health.” Dipping below 10% (for ladies) may bring “underfat” health risks.
Myth 2 ///
Chest Training Will Make My Breasts Firm
This myth just makes me laugh. Supposedly, with some bench pressing, your breasts will go from soft to rock hard. Who needs a sports bra now?
Training your pecs will build muscle underneath the fat makes up your breasts. As long as you aren’t dieting too severely, your fat mass should remain. If anything, the added muscle helps your breasts appear fuller and might actually give a little boost to your cleavage!
Myth 3 ///
Just Do Push-Ups
Most women add push-ups to their regular routine as an afterthought and then wonder why their upper body isn’t looking better. As with any other muscle group, you need a sufficient level of exercise variety and weight resistance training in your program.
A combination of bench press, incline bench press, cable or dumbbell flyes and push-ups is the variation and difficulty you should be aiming for.
Once you reach a certain level of fatigue, push-ups aren’t going to do much for maximizing strength gains. Unless you put a plate on your back or find some other way to add resistance to push-ups, they’re not going to help you get stronger.
Instead, add them to the end of your workout as a finisher.
Chestivus For The Rest Of Us
Now that we’ve covered what not to worry about, here’s what you need to know about chest training:
- It might seem like a good idea to use light weights for “tone,” but remember that muscles respond best to a challenge. If you lift light weight for high reps, you’ll be making very few fitness improvements and won’t be doing much besides burning calories.
You won’t gain muscle mass unless you’re eating a high-calorie diet — all the heavy lifting you do on a standard or fat-loss diet will increase fitness and strength, but you won’t get big, so don’t be afraid to lift heavy!
- Keep your reps within the 8-to-10 range for bench press and incline bench press. For flyes, take it up to 10-to-12.
- 2-to-3 sets of each exercise will be perfect for strength gains. Any more or less may not produce the results you want.
- For compound lifts like the bench press, rest one minute between sets. Also, try to hit your compound lifts at the beginning of your workouts.
Between sets of flyes, decrease your rest to 45 seconds. Because you’re just using your body weight for push-ups, rest only 30 seconds between sets.
Frequency
Depending on your current workout split, you can work your chest muscles up to 2-to-3 times per week. Make sure you take a day off between workouts.
If you’re using an upper/lower body split, add this chest workout to your upper body days.
(Source from http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/a-girls-gotta-bench-chest-workout-and-training-tips.html)
Low Calorie Diet Myth:
Many people who have been on low-calorie diets experience side effects like fatigue, depression, hair loss, dry skin, poor memory, difficulty concentrating, mood swings, irregular menstrual cycles and a lack of interest in sex. Over time symptoms worsen and the body weakens until illnesses and allergies become frequent, and eventually degenerative diseases are more likely to occur. This deterioration may be fast or slow, depending on how extreme your diet is.
Another side effect of low-calorie dieting: when people focus on slashing calories, usually fat is the first to go - because fat has nine calories per gram, compared to four calories per gram in protein and carbohydrates. It may seem like a logical choice, but it’s a poor one. The body treasures its dietary fat, which is used to coat every cell and is required for countless functions in the body. Getting plenty of healthy fats also satiates the appetite and prevents food cravings, so cutting them out does nothing but hinder weight loss efforts. Eliminating healthy, natural fats seems to exacerbate and accelerate all of the above-mentioned side effects of low-calorie dieting.
Eventually most people find it difficult to maintain a low-calorie diet, and after their diet many find they must eat fewer calories to avoid weight gain than before. Others continue on the low-calorie bandwagon, usually hitting a plateau which triggers them to “buckle down” and cut even more calories or exercise excessively to cause the coveted calorie-deficit. The body feels the effects of starvation even more, and fights back. At this point it often feels like your body is working against you - and you’re right. It’s fighting you with everything it has. The body will stop clinging so desperately to stored fat when it no longer fears starvation because it’s receiving proper nourishment from food.
The idea of eating hundreds more calories every day may seem unusually generous to some, but it is not permission to eat irresponsibly. What’s most important is making sure the foods you eat are natural, nutrient-dense choices. Choose whole foods - your body understands how to use these foods to their full advantage. Eat foods in the most natural state possible, and implement traditional practices like soaking grains, beans and nuts overnight before eating or cooking them. Avoid processed foods like refined grains, sugar, alcohols, aspartame, saccharin, monosodium glutamate, sodium nitrates and nitrites, and the rest of the gamut of food additives. These impair the body and prevent real nutrients from being utilized properly.
It’s time to rethink the tired theory of low-calorie dieting. It’s time to consider the fact that the body will quit hanging on to stored fat when it is properly nourished with healthy, natural foods it can use to rebuild. It’s time to stop resisting food and realize it is the only path to healing.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/027126_diet_body_dieting.html#ixzz2GZFCOmUC
Myth about women getting bulky:
Due to the fact that women do not, and cannot, naturally produce as much testosterone (one of the main hormones responsible for increasing muscle size) as males do, it is impossible for a woman to gain huge amounts of muscle mass by merely touching some weights. Unfortunately, the image that may come to your mind is that of professional female bodybuilders. Most of these women, unfortunately, use anabolic steroids (synthetic testosterone) along with other drugs in order to achieve that high degree of muscularity. In addition, most also have good genetics coupled with an unbelievable work ethic that enable them to gain muscle quickly when they spend hours in the gym lifting very heavy weights. Believe me when I say that they do not look like that by accident. Women who conduct weight training without the use of steroids get the firm and fit cellulite-free looking body that you see in most fitness/figure shows these days.
http://bodybuilding.about.com/od/womensfitnesstopics/a/womenmyths.htm
