The official sport of competitive female bodybuilding began back in the late 1970s when the equipment was more primitive than it is today and there weren’t many women interested in looking like a female version of the Hulk. Since those early days, competitive female bodybuilding has grown increasingly popular and become a much more commonly accepted sport for women. Today, it is common to see extremely muscular women on televised bodybuilding contests or on the covers of the many fitness magazines at the newsstand. Although the sight of hugely muscular women may be more common today, those well-built, muscular females didn’t acquire their unique physiques casually, as successful bodybuilding for women is hard work, just like it is for male bodybuilders.
Although the results may look similar, the most successful female bodybuilders usually exercise in different ways than men do. Muscle workouts for women focus heavily on weight training as well as all around total body workouts. Building increased muscle mass for women requires frequent and very intense workouts with progressively heavier weights. That “totally-built” appearance didn’t happen by accident, and a woman’s body won’t stay that way once the desired level of muscularity has been achieved. Like the men, a woman can only maintain a totally muscular physique through the use of continued training.
As with all health and fitness programs, a woman’s diet also plays a major factor in bodybuilding. Female bodybuilders serious about their reaching their goals will have to eat small meals every two or three hours a day in order to fuel the body and replace the huge amounts of calories they burn off through their intense workout sessions. And even though a woman bodybuilder may eat many meals a day, it is also important that their diets include a healthy and balanced combination of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. There are also many good bodybuilding supplements available that can be employed to ensure proper muscle maintenance, but some professional weightlifters and bodybuilders try to “cheat” a bit by using illegal performance enhancing steroid drugs. Obviously, this is a bad way to approach bodybuilding for both men and women, and represents a short term fix that can result in serious side effects and long term health problems later in life. The natural methods of bodybuilding may require more discipline, dedication, and effort, but those women who make the commitment to do it the right way will be the ones who reap the true benefits of building muscles the healthy way.