What men and women need to have a beautiful body

When a man goes to the gym for the first time, he will most likely choose weight training, because a man has to be strong. When a woman first visits the gym, she thinks about aerobics, because a woman has to be graceful. But there is another reason why many men develop strength and women develop flexibility.

It's simple: we follow the path of least resistance and do what we do best. This is fine. The difference between amateur and professional sports is in getting pleasure and improving the body, and not overcoming oneself through pain. But you still need to work on the whole body.

Flexibility development for men

When a young man appears in the gym, he devotes no more than five minutes to warm-up. And in vain.

Before training, you need to warm up for 10-15 minutes, conventionally - until the first sweat.

Rashid Itsaev coach, master of sports of the USSR in weightlifting

Dynamic stretching (stretching) should be done at the beginning of the workout, static - at the end. … These are common truths that, unfortunately, not everyone remembers.

It is believed that a bodybuilder is a hulking mountain of muscles. This stereotype has a rationale. During hard training, the constantly contracting muscles become thicker and shorter. Professionals know this, so they pay special attention to the development of flexibility, not limited to stretching. A famous example is the eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman, who can do the splits.

Stretching, yoga and other techniques to increase the flexibility of muscles and joints reduce the risk of injury, improve posture and mobility, and have a positive effect on strength performance.

Even if you are not weightlifting, flexibility exercises can prevent injury in everyday situations, such as slipping.

Strength exercises for women

There is still a popular stereotype that women's strength sports are not needed. There are several arguments: a barbell press leads to complications during childbirth, a woman loses her femininity.

Due to physiological characteristics, the female body is not prone to building muscle mass. On average, the female body contains more fat than the male. Therefore, in order to increase muscle mass, a woman has to put in more effort.

Due to less testosterone in the body and a slower metabolism, the female body tends to store energy in the form of fat rather than burn it. The mass of muscle tissue grows slowly, so the opinion that a woman will turn into a mountain of muscles without the use of hormonal drugs is wrong.

On the other hand, the female hormone estrogen helps muscles recover faster and prevents muscle loss. Estrogen also counteracts the protein-damaging hormone cortisol in women, as testosterone does in men. …

Due to the different ratios of muscle mass to body weight in men and women, a woman is unlikely to be able to pump up so that the body takes on a V-shape. The famous American fitness model Elena Abbu proves this with her example.

Strength training will not turn a woman into a man. The relief of body fitness beauties is the result of preparation and drying of the body. After the end of the competition, even among professional women, sharp angular forms quickly acquire a feminine roundness.

Strength training will provide a more harmonious body structure, strengthen your core muscles, prevent curvature of the spine and help develop the endurance needed for all types of training.