Spring break is just around the corner, and many members of the Wolfpack are thinking about their upcoming vacations. For some, especially women, those thoughts turn to anxiety with swimsuit season on the horizon, and often an onslaught of crash diets and cardio follow.

Enter the best-kept fitness secret: weight lifting. According to Women’s Health magazine, incorporating strength training into a workout program just twice a week can result in a three percent drop in body fat in 10 weeks. Even better, The Journal of Strength and Conditioning found that women who complete strength-training workouts burn 100 more calories in 24 hours post-workout. That adds up to an extra pound of weight loss in roughly four months – without any additional work.

“I’ve been weightlifting since about the ninth grade. It actually started with basketball because weightlifting, when it was implemented, was found to reduce injuries in athletes,” said Taylor Burns, environmental studies freshman.

“I do see some females holding it down and hanging with the guys,” she said. “If there’s 10 people in the gym, I’d probably say maybe two of them are girls.”

Her estimate of Loyola’s female weight lifting population is not far off of the national average. In a study conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, only 21 percent of women weight lift two or more times a week.

What’s keeping women away from the weight room? For theater and mass communication senior Khephra White, it’s intimidation.

“I’ve done a little bit of the leg machines with a friend, a couple years ago,” she said. “So I know how to operate them, but I don’t have anyone with me to correct my form or show me anything. It’s intimidating when you don’t know what you’re doing. I don’t want to hurt myself.”

There is also a widespread misconception that weightlifting will make women become masculine and bulky.

“Just because you weightlift doesn’t mean you’re going to swell up,” Burns said.

A woman would have to put in hours and hours of time in the gym every day – a far cry from the recommended hour of strength training three times a week.

“Try it, but get a trainer. If you use the weights the wrong way, you can bulk up,” said Lisa Martin, certified personal trainer and mass communication professor. “What the trainer will tell you is to use smaller weights and longer repetitions. That’s what tones you.”

Burns said weightlifting has its benefits.

“I think it helps build confidence,” she said. “If you want to check yourself out in the mirror, you want to see your muscles working.”

Danielle Latimer can be reached at [email protected]

Photo illustration by Kevin Zansler / Photo Managing Editor