Even though many ladies work hard to avoid building muscle, women\'s fitness routines should include muscle building. Building muscles isn\'t about bulking up, it\'s about providing balance, a higher metabolism, and increasing your overall health.The Benefits of Building Muscle and Why You Need to Do ItMuscle mass is about more than just making sure you look good.Muscle building will:- Increase your strength and flexibility- Improve your posture- Give you better balance- Increase the number of calories burned with each movement, making it possible to burn more calories overall throughout the day- Make daily tasks easier to perform- Improve body composition- Reduce the amount of muscle mass lost due to inactivity, which becomes more common with ageBuilding Muscle, Balance & the Importance of MovementYou can\'t just focus on a problemdifficult area when you exercise and expect everything to just go away. Quality female fitness workouts have to have one important element: balance. And to maintain this balance, you need to follow workout programs that work every muscle in the body. If you don\'t, and the program focuses on one muscle group more than another, you\'ll form weak muscles and joints, leaving you susceptible to injury.Quadriceps are a common example. If you only worked your quads, without doing the equivalent amount of hamstring and hip exercises, you\'ll end up with pelvic tilt and significant back strain.You\'ll also need to work your core, but not just your upper abs. You need to work your entire core. This involves more than two dozen muscles, including your abdominal, lower back, and hip muscles, which add stability to your spine and keep you upright.Muscles, Metabolism & Body CompositionThere are a few things you need to know about muscles, energy, and metabolism:- Muscles use energy when they contract (they\'re highly metabolic).- The more intense muscle contractions become, the more energy they\'ll use to perform the movement.- Eventually, movements can come so intense that your muscles will use more oxygen than your body can produce. This creates an oxygen deficit that can last for hours after a workout.- Your body needs more nutrients after an oxygen deficit because it needs to replenish its energy and oxygen levels.- To build muscle, you need to be taking in more energy than it\'s putting out.- Resistance training and high intensity exercises prevent muscle loss by stimulating protein synthesis.- Metabolic rates fall for three reasons when you fail to take in enough nutrients: thyroid function slows, there is a reduction in muscle mass, and there is a lower thermic effect of eating.The secret to changing your body composition is making the right lifestyle changes. Simply by adopting a few healthy habits, you can enjoy lean muscle mass, with a lower body-fat percentage.Keep the habits, and these changes will continue to stay with you as you age, making it possible for you to burn calories and enjoy a beautiful body shape at any age. This is quite the opposite of what many people believe.Research shows your metabolism declines with each decade over the age of 25. Your muscle mass also declines between the ages of 25 and 65. And since muscles use energy, we can safely assume the two are related -- the drop in your metabolism (which makes losing weight seem more and more difficult as we age) is the result of a loss of muscle mass.The only way to keep your metabolism at it\'s highest levels and ready to burn calories is through regular resistance training, eating healthy, wholesome meals frequently and consistent, and customizing your workout routines to avoid muscle adaption. And if you stick to these three steps, your body should stay healthy, fit, and young for years to come. Ensure your female fitness workouts include resistance training so you can look and feel your best.

Flavia Del Monte is a Registered Nurse, Certified Physical Trainer, Certified Nutritionist and the creator of Full-Body-Licious. You can read more about her training programs, nutrition advice and workouts for women on her female fitness blog.

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