Women need heavier weights

I hear this often from women: "I want to weight train, but I'm nervous about bulking up." I'm here to tell you, honey, the chances are slim that you'll get big rippling muscles unless you also do lots of steroids. Women just don't have the testosterone for it. In fact, you might need to worry about whether you are lifting enough. A study of college students at Ohio State University showed that women, when left to their own strength training devices, typically chose weights at 50 percent of their max capacity, which isn't even close to the 75 percent you should be pumping. And women who were given a regimen using weights at 75 percent reported that the program was too hard. So while guys in the gym might be adding pounds to the bicep curl, many women are probably just, well, barely making it worth their while.

This is a drag, because you need sufficient weight to really get the benefits of muscular fitness and bone density. Bone density is crucial in the prevention of osteoporosis. Here's one way to tell if you aren't pumping enough iron: can you do three sets of ten to twelve reps of an exercise with relative ease? If so, add weight, baby. At least the last few reps of the second and third set should be hard to complete.