You sound as though your basic goal is to get/stay healthy.
The generic "Five Areas of Health-Related Fitness" are:
- Cardiovascular Fitness
- Muscular Endurance
- Muscular Strength
- Flexibility
- Body Composition (ie percentage of body fat to lean tissues)
1. It it worth it weight train? Absolutely. It has nothing to do with gender. If anything, women in general may have more to gain because they tend to do fewer muscle-developing activities in general. Weight training will directly increase your muscular strength & endurance, and may indirectly benefit your body composition (bigger/stronger muscles burn more energy/food).
99% of women will never get "bulky" muscles because they simply don't have the hormones to do so. Don't ever compare to female body-builders. They look like men (or overgrown men) because they are injecting testosterone. Plus, they work out 8+ hours a day, eat a TON of food, and take steroids. It's not going to happen....don't worry about. Women are generally more level-headed about their fitness routines than their male counterparts. Men may say they want to "stay in shape," but they mean "I want to get big." That isn't always even possible for most men, and it shouldn't even be a concern for most women.
What you CAN do is make your muscles stronger and increase their endurance. Perceived strength is increased in a couple ways: increasing their effectiveness and increasing the diameter of the muscle fibers (hypertrophy). As a generalization, women will not experience as much hypertrophy or growth as men, but your muscles can and will grow a reasonable amount, and over time, you are bound to be pleased with the results, but in terms of your ability and in terms of aesthetics.
As far as the effectivness of your muscles, you are likely to see really large gains in "strength" during your first few weeks of working out, but it really doesn't mean much. You might start out bench pressing 100 lbs, and 3 weeks later, you can do 130 lbs for a 30% increase. Unfortunately, you didn't get 30% stronger. You simply practiced for a few weeks and essentially got better at bench pressing. Your brain, nervous system and muscles improved their ability to coordinate together in order to do that particular exercise better. Unfortnately, that increase doesn't necessarily transfer over into other activities or even other lifts. In your case, if you had only been working out for a few months, you may have seen a "decrease" after taking a 2-week break, but what likely happened is that you were more "out of practice" than "out of shape." While you might feel a bit of difference after taking two weeks off, it's really not enough time to lose much of your basic fitness level unless you are an athlete trying to maintain a peak level of performance. In your particular situation, you are really just getting to the point (after 4 months) where you might start seeing genuine improvements in your fitness level and health. Long story, short...DON'T STOP!
2. Is personal training worth it? It can be IF you have the money to spend on it AND you get someone who is GENUINELY qualified and GENUINELY cares.
- To be a personal trainer, you do NOT need a college education, much less a degree in Exercise Physiology, Physical Education, or Kinesiology.
- To be a personal trainer, you do NOT need any certification. Some may be "certified," but basically all that means is that they paid some money and MAYBE had to take a test. If your trainer is certified through the National Strength Coaches Association (NSCA), then they at least took a somewhat challenging test to get their certification, but really that's all it means. Other organization are even less demanding.
- To be a personal trainer, you do NOT need to know a darn thing about fitness...you just need to be able to convice people that you do.
During my college days, I was a manager at a local health club (big chain that starts with a B). I was paid strictly on commission. I was not paid if the customers got in shape. I was not paid if the club was clean or people were happy. I was paid to sign up new members and get their money. Period. I personally had a background in exercise science, but most of my peers did not. The training program consisted of 5 days of BASIC fitness information and 5 days of sales training. During about a years time at this club, I was "shopped" by 3 local car dealers. That is, the managers came in and posed as a customer to see how good I was as a salesman. I had a Chevy dealer and a Saturn dealer try to get me to leave the club and come sell cars. When you are dealing with health club people, you are generally dealing with used car dealers. Some may be nice, and some may be knowledgable, but most of the time, they are only paid to sell you something...always keep that in mind. With personal trainers, it can be even worse because most of the time, they don't have to answer to anyone as most work for themselves.
There ARE good trainers out there, but I would go so far as to say that most are not. If you genuinely feel that you benefit from having someone there to "motivate" you and you can afford it, then by all means go for it. If you are simply looking for someone to teach you the basics, you might look into taking a basic weightlifting class through your club, your local rec department or through your local community college. The information will probably be pretty basic, but that's ok. It doesn't have to be complicated.
Sorry if I got a bit overzealous. I've been away from anandtech for several years and just logged back in. I was excited to find this forum. Since I am kind of out of the loop on current computer hardware, I thought I'd chime in on something I do know a little about.
For whatever it's worth...I have a BS in Physical Education, MS in Biomechanics, CSCS (Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist), have been a Physical Education teacher for 11 years (including weight lifting courses) track & field coach for 14 years, and as I mentioned, have many horror stories to share about the health-club industry.
Good Luck !!!
Facebook
Twitter