Weight Training Routines - Building and Sculpting Your Body

There are basically two types of weight training routines, each with a different end goal. The first one is body sculpting or toning. The second one is body building or bulking. While both can be done almost simultaneously, this is not easy.

Women generally seek body sculpting, believing that bulking up will make them look masculine. This, however, is not the case. It is one of the biggest weight training myths out there. For one, you need testosterone to bulk up, which women do not have much of. Secondly, not everybody, and that includes men, has the genetics to build up huge muscles.

The good thing is, weight training can speed up fat burning, and give you more muscle tone and better body proportions. Even better, more muscle mass helps enhance aerobic exercise and prevent injury.

Whichever of the two is your goal, sculpting or bulking, you need muscle definition. Weight training routines help build up that impressive muscle and burn fat that covers the muscle so you get definition. You can't have six pack abs without well developed abdominal muscles, for example.

There are basically two types of weights training routines; compound and isolation. Compound exercises use multiple muscles, joints and ligaments. These should form the staple of your workouts, whether or not you want to bulk up. Isolation exercises target a specific muscle or group of muscle and one joint at a time. These are for adding detail.

Examples of compound weight training exercises are bench press, squats, shoulder press, dead lifts, bent over rows, etc. Isolation exercises include preacher curls, concentration curls, side raises, leg curls, leg extensions, seated machine rows, etc.

And, yes, there are exercises that fall somewhere between compound and isolation. The upright (EZ or straight) barbell row is a good example.

Your weight training routine should mainly focus on free weights, that is barbells and dumbbells. And you should always use the heaviest weight you can handle for about 10-12 repetitions without losing form. This applies to you ladies too; don't be afraid to look like man, it won't happen.

Some people, women especially, tend to relegate weights training routines to the end of their aerobic workout. This is a mistake for two reasons, 1) most of your energy will be spent on aerobics exercise therefore compromising weight lifting intensity and 2) weight lifting burns fat and doing aerobic workout after helps speed up fat loss.

If your goal is to pack on slabs of muscle, it may be wiser to cut back on aerobics in order to give your body a chance to bulk up. Cutting back is not the same as cutting off. Some aerobic exercise is good for your heart and will also help build up stamina as well as speed up recovery. In turn this will help increase weight training intensity, which we know is what's needed to stimulate muscle growth.