Women are more and more frequently getting on weight machines, and that’s a great thing.  Women previously seemed to be either intimidated by weight machines or simply were more interested in doing aerobic activity.  Now, with muscles being considered sexy and powerful on women, you find females on these machines all the time.  It’s a great thing!

If you are thinking about using the weight machines at any gym, whether you’re a guy or a girl, make sure you first get the little once-over type of education they give you at any gym. They should always have a person on site that will be able to show you how to use weight machines safely.

They also will be able to show you how to use them effectively, so that you get the most results out of each use and are targeting the proper problem area that you want to when using it. Basically, you need to know how to use these machines correctly so that A.) you don’t get hurt and B.) you don’t waste your time doing an exercise wrong.

Well, since women have been increasingly getting on these machines, there have been more reports of injuries. I’ve gotta be honest, at the gym, I’m seeing more women on these weight machines than men, so it makes sense that more women are reporting injuries.

The increase in weight room related injuries in women has gone up over 50% over the past few years. You think maybe women are loving feeling strong and muscular?  I, as a woman myself, can tell you that it feels amazing to me when I can actually lift heavy things and I feel stronger.

To me, it’s just empowering. Sure, it’s great to look muscular and more “cut”, but the best thing about it is, the older I get, the more invincible building muscle makes me feel.

My husband recently was trying to lose weight, but he also wanted to simultaneously build lean muscle, and keep the muscle that he had. He has long been a fan of the muscle preserving and building supplement creatine.

Creatine has been around for a while, and is a staple of many body-conscious weight lifters and people who just want to get lean and muscular quickly.  It used to be that you had to drink creatine with grape juice, but there are many kinds now that you do not need to do this with.

Creatine comes in powder form, and for those that like to take pills better, it also comes in a pill form now. Depending on what you like, or what you feel is more effective, you do have options as to how to take this supplement.

My husband said he always noticed better muscle gains faster when he supplemented his diet with creatine and started a regular weight lifting regimen. I never did try it because I was always happy with my results from doing cardio and my light weight lifting. Plus I confess, I’m a woman, and I was a little scared I’d start looking a bit too buff for my personal taste!

My husband also made it a point to do his cardio after his weight training, or alternate his weight training days with his cardio days. Which is odd, because I know most women do their cardio first, then their weight lifting. Men and women metabolize a bit differently though, and they do need to do their workouts a little differently.

Also, my husband informed me a while ago that men do body parts at a time, as opposed to the whole body at one time like most women do, and get results from. This works well when they are trying to concentrate on building individual parts, such as their biceps, triceps and quads, for example.

He would take either his creatine or his protein drink of choice after his workout, and he did get more lean muscle mass by doing this.

Exercise is wonderful for your body, mind and spirit.  It helps us through stressful times, helps to elevate our mood and reduce anxiety, stress and depression, increases our heart and circulatory health, helps us manage a healthy weight, and even helps us to maintain a healthy blood pressure.

That’s just the beginning of exercise benefits.  Many studies show that it also elevates our immunity, fends off several kinds of cancer, and also helps to reduce the likelihood of a bevy of other deadly diseases that are an unfortunate part of the human condition.

Even though exercise is excellent for your health, psychological well being and even your spirit, there is such a thing as over doing it.  People who have an unhealthy obsession with working out often can go hours at the gym or exercising in their homes. 

This type of exercise obsession often accompanies serious eating disorders or other unhealthy and potentially deadly habits.  “Other” deadly habits may include something like taking anabolic steroids to get larger muscle mass in professional body builders.

I guess my rule of thumb for healthy means when something that is meant to enhance health takes up the majority of your life and starts to interfere with “living” on a day to day basis.  At that point, really anything, whether it’s considered a healthy habit or not, becomes destructive.

People with habits of working out too much actually endanger their heart by overworking it.  They often may also be endangering it by not eating enough food, if they happen to also be anorexic or bulimic. If they are not taking in enough potassium, they can go into cardiac arrest from over working their bodies.

The heart is a muscle, and although working it out on a daily basis is good for it because it keeps your heart in great condition, and able to handle challenges of the physical sort, over working it can have the effect of weakening the heart muscles.

One also may experience deyhdration as a result of overheating and excessive sweating. This can also cause the body to go into cardiac arrest, so constant hydration is very important when you are really pushing yourself at the gym.

Addiction to exercise can aslo interfere with one’s life by “taking over”.  If you feel that you absolutely have to get hours a day in to even feel normal, it’s probably safe to assume that you’ve become addicted to something.

No, we are not talking about the word “no”, but about NO supplements, which is just an acronym for nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a substance that is supposed to help the body pump more iron, build more muscle, transport more oxygen to the critical muscle masses that are doing the heavy lifting, and therefore, to help the body lift more weight, for a longer duration.  It is supposed to help with endurance, and also with the capacity to carry oxygen to the muscles for less recovery time after you do a really strenuous muscle busting workout.

We’ve dedicated a new page to talking about such supplements here, so enjoy!

Body Building Muscle Supplement