Among women who lift weights, there is common controversy over whether or not to train upper body.
Oftentimes, weightlifting in general is seen as a man’s workout. Even more so is training upper body specifically.
Because of this, it’s often believed that women who lift weights should only be working on their lower bodies.
As a girl who lifts weights, I’ve experienced first hand the assumption that I only ever train lower body and the push for me to continue only training lower body.
Because I’m aware of the benefits and have seen them within myself, I still train upper body regardless of all the other opinions.
And while the choice is up to you, it’s actually very healthy for women to train upper body alongside training lower body.
In this post, I’m going to cover many of the reasons why it’s healthy for women to train upper body.
Why is the assumption that women shouldn’t train upper body
The primary reason that people are against women training upper body the common misconception that weightlifting will make you look like a man.
The rumor that weightlifting will make you look bulky scares many women away from ever wanting to train upper body.
However, this rumor isn’t actually true.
First off, in order to actually get to the point of looking bulky requires a lot of work.
It’s impossible to pick up a weight one day and suddenly look like a female body builder the next.
Female body builders put a lot of time and effort into what they do and still some of them can’t achieve the look of being bulky.
Secondly, it takes a lot more effort for a woman to build muscle than it does for a man. So it’s pretty impossible for you to start weight training and to get to the point of being the same size as a man.
Finally, seeing progress from weightlifting takes a long time. So you can’t instantly become bulky. You’re progress is slow and lengthy so if you see yourself starting to look bulkier than you want to look, you can stop training that muscle group.
You’ll lose the muscle much quicker than you put it on, so if you don’t like something, you can just stop training it.
You get to customize your physique based on what you train. Therefore if you don’t want to grow something past a certain point, all you need to do is stop training it.
Muscles to train in your upper body
I think when I say upper body a lot of peoples’ minds jump straight to thinking about arms.
However, there are a lot more upper body muscles than just your arms that you can train and grow.
The most common upper body muscles that weightlifters train are chest, shoulders, back, and arms.
There are multiple muscles that make up each of these regions. Requiring a variety of exercises to make each of these into a well rounded muscle group.
These leave a lot of room in your upper body for extra progress and growth.
Why should women hit upper body
There are many reasons why women should train upper body. And to me, the pros outweigh the perceived cons.
Whether you chose to train upper body or not, the choice is yours, and one does not make you better than the other.
However, here are some of the reasons I choose to train upper body.
It’ll help you look toned
Many people complain about looking “skinny fat” and end up chasing diet after diet, eating less and less to try and lose this fat.
What these people don’t realize is that this physique isn’t caused by excess fat, it’s caused by not having enough muscle.
See, you’re bones and muscles will always have a layer of fat covering them. This means you’re always going to have fat on your body.
However, if you don’t have any muscle beneath this fat, then it’s impossible for you to look toned. Which is what will give you that skinny fat appearance.
Now, let’s say you were to put on some muscle underneath that fat. Then, you’d have the appearance of more defined muscles and less fat, while still having the same amount of fat!
Building muscle is essential for body recomposition and improving the ratio of fat to muscle.
Remember, it’s not always losing fat that’ll give you that toned, defined look you’re striving for.
Sometimes, you’re body fat percentage is fine, but what you really need to do is put on more muscle.
It can give you an hour glass shape
A lot of women nowadays want an hour glass shaped body type, with a smaller waist and wider top and bottom.
However, not everyone is born with this body type, in fact, most people aren’t.
But, you can actually achieve this physique by weight training.
By training your upper and lower body, you can actually create the illusion of having a smaller waist.
Because our eyes perceive our waist size relative to the things around it, if your upper and lower body are wider, your waist will look smaller.
Which is actually pretty cool, right?
So by training your shoulders and upper back, you can widen your upper body.
Creating the illusion of this desired small waist and hour glass shape.
It strengthens your bones
Many girls and women are prone to having more fragile bones than men. Osteoporosis usually the culprit behind this.
Osteoporosis is when your bones become less dense and therefore become more fragile.
This can be caused from a variety of reasons such as aging or not getting the proper nutrients.
However, when you weight train, you put extra resistance on your muscles. This resistance on your muscles will cause your muscles to put more resistance on your bones.
Doing resistance training (weightlifting) causes your muscles to pull on your bones with every rep you do. This is one of the benefits of weight training.
Essentially when you’re training your muscles, you’re also training your bones.
The more often you lift weights, the more training your bones get. This causes them to become more dense, stronger, and less fragile.
This leads you to have stronger muscles and stronger bones.
More muscle means boosted metabolism
We all know that muscle burns more calories than fat. So, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn.
These aren’t just calories you burn while working out. No, these are calories you’ll burn at rest.
You heard that right. This means with the more muscle you have, you can burn more calories doing nothing.
You’ll be burning more calories all throughout the day no matter what you’re doing than you would if you had less muscle.
What happens when you burn more calories throughout the day? It makes it much much easier to lose fat.
Essentially, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, the more fat you can lose and the easier it is to maintain your weight.
If this is the case, why would you only want to have muscle in your lower body? Wouldn’t you want to have muscle all over your body? To have the most amount of muscle possible without looking too muscular?
Skimping out on training upper body completely limits the total amount of muscle you can have.
Which will greatly reduce the number of calories you’ll burn, making it much harder to lose or maintain your weight.
Training upper body makes you more athletic
If you want to increase your athleticism and stamina in all areas of life, then training upper body is essential.
In order to have an effective lower body, you want your upper body to be just as athletic. Or else it wouldn’t be able to keep up.
To be athletic, your whole body needs to be able to work together.
This means that your upper body needs to have muscle to provide strength, balance, and coordination for your entire body.
That’s why you see so many runners with strong athletic arms. Not bulky arms, but toned defined arms.
They need these strong arms to be able to keep up with their lower bodies.
The same applies for you. In order to be overall more athletic, your upper and lower body need to be on the same level.
Makes everyday tasks easier
In life, it’s inevitable that you’re going to have to be doing a lot of physical work. Whether that be moving, lifting, or carrying heavy things, it’s just a part of life.
By training your arms and upper body, you can make these tasks so much easier for yourself.
For example, carrying groceries into the house can become a breeze.
Suddenly you can carry more, don’t get as tired, and the trip becomes much easier.
Training upper body just helps to make everyday tasks easier to carry out.
How you can start to implement upper body
Once you decide you want to start training upper body, now it’s time to implement it into your weightlifting routine.
The first step is to find solid, upper body exercises you enjoy.
Then, create a gym split with dedicated upper body days, or mix some upper body workouts into your leg days.
For example, I currently have two upper body days: one for training back and shoulders and one for training arms (and sometimes chest).
But, I’ve heard it’s common for women to implement both legs and upper body together on the same day.
Keep in mind you don’t need to train your upper body the same way you train your legs. Your legs are much bigger muscles that are used to carrying a lot of weight. Because of this, you need a lot of exercises and high intensity to grow your legs.
Whereas your upper body is not naturally as strong as your lower body and not used to carrying as much weight.
I find myself being able to get away with just one or two exercises for each upper body muscle group.
With this I’m still able to create a strong, defined upper body without overdoing things.
Takeaways
Now that you know the truth about training upper body and don’t shy away because of the rumors, you can make the decision for yourself if you want to implement upper body.
Remember, muscle growth is slow so if you’re still scared of becoming too bulky, just give it a try and evaluate your progress.
Some other helpful things to read about women’s weightlifting:
How to eat as a weightlifting women
How to start weight lifting at home
Why all women should weight train
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