Earlier, many fitness conscious women used to yearn to get involved in a bodybuilding program but they were often held back due to certain myths associated with female bodybuilding most of which said that body building will lead to bulking up of your body, making it appear rather huge. Another common myth is that you will need to devote many hours to it, which may hamper your daily schedule and workload. But as the awareness levels grew, women began to appreciate the value and need of a bodybuilding routine in their daily schedule.



The basic difference between women's bodybuilding and men's bodybuilding is 'biological difference'. For instance, when steroids and supplements are taken to increase testosterone levels in the body to promote muscle growth it can result in embarrassing side effects in the female bodybuilder's body such as deepening of the voice, more hair growth over the whole body, etc.

Women bodybuilders must first chalk out a fitness goal for themselves depending on their health condition and needs. Then they must design a weight training routine by taking valuable inputs from their personal trainer or experts at the gym.

Protein are the building blocks of muscles and therefore, experts recommend that you should increase your protein intake to at least 2 gm/kg of your body weight irrespective of whether you have done a workout on that day or not. Your diet must be full of minerals (mainly Iron), vitamins, and carbohydrates for a ready supply of energy to fuel your workouts.

Although you need to be consistent and regular with your workouts, you should take sufficient rest between 2 successive workouts because without rest, your bodybuilding efforts will be counter-productive. Ideally, you must allow two days of rest period between subsequent workouts.

Initially, start your weight training with relatively easy resistance exercises than very hard ones to avoid injuring yourself. First of all, try to learn the proper technique for performing each exercise correctly. Use minimum weights initially and then gradually scale up the weights used for each exercise. You need to focus on toning up your thighs, hips, abdomen and arms. You can perform exercises such as squats, dead lifts, lunges and bench presses.

Initially, your workout session must not extend beyond 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat each set 8 to 12 times. You can give a gap of 15 to 30 seconds between each set. You must workout on 2 to 3 days in a week and provide a rest period of 2 days between subsequent workout sessions.