“The gym and the free weights area can be a daunting place to begin your journey,” says personal trainer and CrossFit coach, Alice-Rose Miller. “But if you know what you are doing and go in with a plan, you can never fail.”

While sculpted abs and and a well-defined shoulder may be a side effect of being in the #girlswholift club, there’s a difference between building muscle and simply toning up. “The two are completely different,” Alice tells us. “Although we can apply the same principles and utilise similar exercises, we change the rep range and training load for building muscle.

“For example, with toning, we are looking for higher rep ranges and more of a light to moderate load. However, when we want to build muscle, we are aiming for 8-12 reps with a heavier weight and we also want to overload the body, so we need to increase the reps, sets and weight as we gets stronger. Using free weights is just one way of training to build muscle, it’s my preferred method and it’s a great way to strengthen imbalances within the body rather than using machines.”

Strength training for beginners: 7 tips and exercises for beginners to help build muscle