If you’re like most gym-going girls, you believe that lifting any weight above 10 pounds will make you too bulky. There’s a fine line between looking toned and looking like superwoman — no one wants biceps that will make people think you’ve been chugging Muscle Milk. However, according to fitness experts and a recent study carried out at the University of Arizona, this fear of heavy dumbbells is unwarranted.

In order to develop bulky muscles, you need to be consuming an excessive amount of calories (i.e. more than the recommended 2,000 per day for most adults) in addition to pumping serious iron. If you use heavier weights without consuming those extra calories, however, you will actually see more results in less time than with those dinky little baby weights.

The trick is to do sets of 8 reps at 70 to 80 percent of your ability three times a week. This means that while your arms will be aching by the end of each exercise, you should be able to finish each set without cheating. The scientists who led this experiment followed a group of 122 women for six years, and found that the people who stuck to this exercise routine lost more weight than women who completed more repetitions with lighter weights. Read More »

Dear Ladies,

Men here, as a collective. We thought we’d get together and write you guys some letters about a few things that we’ve been thinking about. Today’s letter is about us men being confused! Yes, smirk, and press your tongue against your canine (its hot).

We’re confused about what you lovely ladies are wearing in the gym. More specifically, why you’re looking so damn hot in up in that! To us, the gym is about a few things. It’s about working out, making loud grunting noises (FYI, makes you stronger), and sleeveless narcissism.

Or at least, that’s what we go there for. We aren’t specifically there to look at, or pick up, women. There’s an assumption that most of us aren’t going to look our best in there anyways, so we aren’t super concerned with finding ladies to woo. But hey, thats us, we’re dudes and we think a certain way. Beyond ‘the gym isn’t for dating’ we also have a few collective rules that we feel like you may or may not have given us.

1. Gawking is creepy
2. Sweaty dudes are creepy
3. Gawking, sweaty dudes are super-duper creepy.

So you could see our confusion when you ladies show up to do some leg lifts or swiss ball crunches in what basically adds up to a bikini with more support. We want to be clear, we like you in bikinis. Hell, we love you in those things. But when you wear those in the gym, and you’re being all active, you’re really creating a dangerous situation for us. Again, we’ve got focused, mostly one-track minds. Here’s a short list of things we cannot do at the same time. Read More »