You’ve heard a million times if Women lift heavy weights they will get too bulky. An urban myth that is circulated among regular people as well as gym goers. It is one lie that harms women and demotivates them to Exercise. Many women fear of gaining muscle mass and think that they will lose their feminity.

“One of the main reasons to lift weights is that it’s a great way for women to increase self-confidence” Celebrity and fitness expert Jen Sinkler says, “It ends up changing everything. You might start to get a rounder ass or be able to pick up groceries, but you stick with it because you realize the potential of you. Your emotional and mental strength increases in tandem with your physical strength.”

‘Becoming all muscular is a horrible myth that scares women away from lifting weights,” “Many women are intimidated,” says celebrity trainer and Asics strength coach Michelle Lovitt, who has worked with Courteney Cox and Julianne Moore. “They don’t want to get injured and are afraid they will look too muscular.”

The very first thing you should know is that it is very hard for women to build themselves into a muscular and trained body. Even if you start training really hard and made a complete determination to gain muscles you won’t turn into Arnold Schwarzenegger in a fortnight.

Thus women stick to only cardio exercise where sometimes restrict themselves to only brisk walk. Running is one of the great forms of exercise and has its own benefits of both mental and physical. But running is not the most efficient way to burn those calories. If you want to burn more calories you should combine couple of exercise along with that running schedule of yours.

Cardio exercises contribute to weight loss but don’t help you gain lean and toned physique which is why most of the people focus on endurance exercise.

Building muscle not just tones your muscle but gives a boost to your metabolism and thus improves your health. Yet lot of women stay away from the weight training and even shy away from doing regular exercises. There are lot of exercises that can give you more metabolism and strength compared to running.

Now if you are ready to train and make real gains out it. We suggest you to have a look at these five exercises

1. Yoga: After a tough day at work, one definitely needs timeout and this where Yoga comes to rescue, before you start your running schedule start with yoga.

One of them is Suryanamaskaar or Sun salutation and it comprises of 12 yoga postures, practicing Suryanamaskaar brings the body in balance by strengthening weak muscles and stretching tight ones prevents you from further injury before you start your real exercise. Do this exercise in a much slower pace and can be relaxing as well as meditative and thus gives you much flexibility to your body.

2. Kettlebell Swings:

Before you go for that marathon run, start your weight training exercise with the help of Kettlebell. The most simplest kettlebell swings can yield a great amount of calorie burn.

The movement of kettle bell focuses on some of your body’s largest muscles thus concentrating on those muscles where the help is most needed.

A woman can approximately burn 20 calories per minute with her each kettlebell swings.

3. Jumping Rope:

Jumping rope is never restricted to any particular age or gender. Before you know what Jumping Rope is you should be surprised to see the amount of calories is burnt and the amount of endurance, strength and balance takes place. Jumping rope for 35 minutes a day could easily help you shed 13 calories in a minute without even changing your diet. It’s that effective and that is how jumping rope works.

4. Battling Rope :

This workout exercise is the key to ramping up your fitness. A battling rope does more than calorie burn unless you start whipping them 30 to 60 seconds straight and thus it will make you burn of almost 10.5 calories per minute.

5. Burpees:

Just like kettlebells, burpees are made to burn calories at a great amount. Burpees are like one of those exercises where you can do them anywhere without any equipment. This exercise is better for your heart and combining with your regular jogging and running will help you achieve great bonus.

So lace up your shoes and start pumping yourself