Walk into any gym today and you will see countless numbers of women lifting tiny dumbbells or doing hundreds of squats or lunges on the spot with no weights. They certainly won't be straining or working up much of a sweat and they certainly won't be forcing their body to build or even maintain their current level of muscle mass. It is very unfortunate that many gyms still advocate light weight training for women under the mistaken assumption that this will tone them up without giving them bulky muscles.

What is the definition of tone anyway? Is it losing fat? Is it hardening the area? Is it increasing muscle? The dictionary defines tone as, ?creating tension in a muscle.? That doesn't really sound like a definition relating to changing body composition at all, does it? I must admit though, it is a phrase most people can relate to. For purposes of this article, I will define to tone up as to, ?lose fat and slightly increase muscle size to achieve a ?harder? looking body?. I think this is the sort of body most people would want to achieve anyway.

An important point to keep in mind is that a muscle can only increase or decrease in size. Most people have the mistaken belief that they can tone up or harden up their muscles by performing certain exercises. The fact is, muscles cannot harden up, get flabby or get soft. All they can do is increase (hypertrophy) or decrease (atrophy) in size. Muscles cannot actually harden up themselves. The part of the body that is exercised may feel harder simply because the muscles have experienced hypertrophy, and because muscle is a denser tissue than fat, it's the body part not the muscle that feels harder.

Since increasing muscle mass is part of our definition for increasing body tone, it is important to perform some type of resistance training. If you only perform cardiovascular exercise and/or diet to lose fat, up to half of the weight lost will be from muscle tissue. Since muscle has an enormous effect on our metabolic rate, a loss of muscle results in a reduction of our metabolic rate, thereby making continual fat-loss very difficult. Without resistance training, there will still be a layer of fat on your body that just won't budge! The metabolism-enhancing effects of resistance training cannot be under estimated in dramatically reducing your body fat to levels you never thought possible.

Have you ever seen your abdominals? Has your butt ever felt rock-hard when you tensed it? Have you ever had really shapely biceps and shoulders? If your answer is no to any of these questions or if you would like to achieve this with your body, then resistance training is the most efficient way to do it. Slightly larger muscles means less body fat and better body shape. By slightly increasing your muscle mass you will achieve a level of leanness you never thought possible and you will be enhancing the curves and shape of your body at the same time. If you're a woman, you won't end up looking like a man by slightly increasing your muscle mass and you will be amazed with the changes that occur in your body.

If you decide to incorporate a resistance-training program into your lifestyle don't be concerned about increasing your muscle mass indefinitely. People wanting to continually increase their muscle mass, must constantly increase their food intake. This is why bodybuilders eat 3-4 times the amount of food of the average person. Their bodies are like furnaces, continually burning up energy. In order to continually increase their muscle mass, they must also increase their food intake accordingly. However if you choose to maintain a moderate food intake, then the increases in your muscle size will also be moderate. If you don't increase your food intake, then your body will only increase its muscle mass up to a certain point. Through continued weight training you will be able to maintain this amount of muscle and therefore keep your metabolic rate elevated.

Resistance (weight) training will provide you with the following benefits:

? Enhances natural body curves.

? Younger looking body.

? Lower level of body fat.

? Less ?cellulite?.

? Reduces risk of osteoporosis.

? Improves body functioning.

If you're still not convinced that weight training would aid in your quest for creating the best body possible, then consider the following facts:

?Women produce less testosterone than men. It is especially difficult for women to significantly increase their muscle mass because women do not naturally produce as much testosterone as men do. The majority of overly muscular women take anabolic steroids to increase their muscle mass (a derivative of the male hormone testosterone).

?Women have less muscle mass to begin with. Women have two-thirds less muscle mass (on average) than men. This does not mean however they can not derive benefits from resistance training.

??Heavy? weights ?tones? faster. Women who consistently train with moderate to heavy weights (?heavy? being relative to their strength levels) achieve a toned look to their bodies very quickly. Training with light weights and high repetitions does very little to change their body's composition. Initially women may see some benefits however over time this type of training will only increase their muscle's endurance capabilities without considerably affecting their metabolic rate or body shape.

?Muscle growth must be maintained. If you ever feel that your muscles are increasing too much, however unlikely, simply stop training for two weeks and your muscle mass will start to shrink.

?Muscle cannot turn into fat. You've probably heard the comment, ?when you stop training the muscle turns into fat!? This is a popular comment from many well intentioned but ignorant people. These people usually have very little knowledge of weight training or have never trained themselves before, so they really have no idea at all. They are also probably envious of the fact that you are doing something positive for your body and they are not.

It is a physiological impossibility to turn muscle tissue into fat tissue. Muscle and fat have totally different chemical compositions. Muscle is made up of protein and water whereas fat is made of triglycerides (fatty acids and glycerol). The two are completely different. Both muscle cells and fat cells can increase or decrease in size and some research indicates that under certain conditions, these cells can actually split and become two cells. This is called hyperplasia (as opposed to hypertrophy, which simply means to increase in size). Remember you cannot harden up a soft muscle, although the body part may appear harder due to the increased size of the muscle. And muscle does not turn into fat when someone stops training!

It should now be obvious that resistance (weight) training is a must for women wanting to achieve a toned body. Without weights, women will be continually struggling to achieve their ideal body with little or no success.

The sooner the myths regarding weight training are dispelled, the sooner women will become aware of the benefits that can be gained by lifting weights and the sooner they will make themselves happy as well as many more men in the world!