Training as a Female: Guest post by Rachel Mac

We recently asked Lawyer/Fitness model and recent Bodybuilding.coms Female Transformation of the week Rachel Mac to let us know her take on training as a female.

I leg press 400 pounds. I bench press 80 pounds. I curl 20 pound
dumbbells.

I'm also a size 2.

Lots of women think that lifting weights is going to make them bulky.
That's not true for lots of reasons. But to demonstrate that, I'll share
my experienc.

I wanted to get into fitness modeling, so I knew I would
have to have a little bit of muscle tone and definition. I had to put on
about ten pounds of muscle. It took me six months of hard, heavy lifting
every single day in the gym, a protein intake over 200 grams a day
(that's the equivalent of about nine chicken breasts a day!), and
carefully targeted supplementation. Putting on muscle as a woman is a
struggle, and a long-term commitment, but those ten pounds of added
muscle look great, have increased my metabolism, and have relieved a lot
of the joint pain I was suffering.

I'm also smaller than I was before I added those ten pounds of muscle.

You've probably heard that muscle weighs more than fat. That's not
really the whole picture. For a given volume, muscle is much denser (and
therefore much heavier) than fat. So, say you had exactly five pounds of
fat and exactly five pounds of muscle and you could compare them. The
pound of muscle would be much smaller. So by adding muscle (and also
decreasing fat), you actually end up smaller at the same weight when
compared to your "before" body. 

When I added 10 lbs of muscle, I also lost fat, which made me end up
smaller than before even though I'm nearly ten pounds heavier. We women
just have to break out of the idea that "building muscle" is for
bodybuilders. Building muscle makes you smaller, tighter, more toned,
and better looking in your clothes, your underwear, and--what really
matters in the upcoming months!--your bikini.

So how do you do it?

First, you have to hit the weights. My general rule is, if I can do ten
reps, the weight is too light. And I use heavier weight with each set
(these are called "add sets"). Say goodbye to the days of 12-20 rep sets
and start making every single rep count. Fight hard in the gym every
day, and you'll get results. Anything less just won't work your muscles
enough for you to see results.

Next, clean up your diet. This means avoiding processed junk and
anything with the words "calorie," "fat," "protein," or "carb" in the
name. Eat single-ingredient foods as much as possible: chicken, eggs,
fish, broccoli, garlic, butter, you get the idea. Artificial sweeteners,
preservatives, and other chemicals found in processed food will get in
your way--and many things (including diet soda) contribute directly to
the dreaded cellulite we're all targeting.

Finally, take care of yourself. Your muscles develop while you're at
rest, so get as much sleep as you can (even though this can be a
challenge). Drink plenty of water so you're always hydrated; this helps
with digestion (makes it quicker!), skin quality (makes it better!), and
appetite (makes it smaller!). Monitor your progress in a way that's
productive--forget the scale, take progress pictures, front and back, in
a bikini (and heels!) once a week. This will keep you motivated and
encourage you to look for the good in your body instead of always
picking yourself apart. Stress gets in the way of fat loss, and the
scale is not a good measure of progress when you're building muscle and
losing fat, but wouldn't you rather be smaller, tighter, and better
looking than just see a smaller number on the scale (that nobody else
but you can see?)

You'll start feeling and looking better really quickly once you take
these three steps. And because muscle burns fat, you won't have to spend
as much time doing cardio. In fact, if your diet is really clean, you
may not need to do cardio at all. In fact, when I started lifting, I
took my body fat from 24% to 18% in just five weeks. So relax, enjoy the
process, and you'll be on your way to looking better, feeling better,
burning more fat, and being more confident in no time at all.

If you'd like to see the plan I followed to get from 24% to 18% body
fat in less than a month and a half, check it out here:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/make-fitness-your-life-sentence.html
http://www.facebook.com/fitnessrachelmac and Twitter at
http://www.twitter.com/rachel__mac