It is very common for women to hesitate when approached with the idea of lifting weights. Suddenly, images of Arnold Schwarzenegger-size muscles start popping into their mind. Most women don’t want bulging biceps or mountainous traps. That doesn’t mean they should skip the weight room altogether.
Weightlifting isn’t going to take away femininity; rather it offers a multitude of mental and physical benefits that women should take full advantage of. Major benefits include getting stronger, sculpting lean muscles, improving athletic performance, preventing injuries, enhancing your mood, decreasing stress and reducing the risk of major health issues.
The most obvious reason to lift weights is to increase strength and muscle. Having muscle mass is valuable to every human body, especially women. Strong muscles makes life easier. Being strong and functional allows women to make their daily tasks and activities less fatiguing. When the body is correctly conditioned through weight lifting; it learns proper movement patterns and how to carry a load, thereby reducing the risk of injury.
INCREASED MUSCLE MASS BURNS MORE CALORIES
Focusing on increasing the body’s muscle mass is when body re-composition truly happens and the transformation follows. This can be explained by muscle building; the more you lift, the more muscle you build. Muscle requires more energy, also known as calories, for your body than fat does. So, by lifting weights and adding muscle mass, the body will burn more calories at rest. But, it’s not just about how fast the metabolism is and burning more calories.
Cardio is known for burning more calories than weight lifting and there is absolutely a time and place for aerobic exercise. When doing cardio in order to burn calories, it is so easy to look at food as numbers and fall into restrictive methods of eating and overexercising. Weight lifting helps to open the door to a healthy relationship with food. It allows women to look at food as fuel to grow and maintain their muscles and get the most out of their weight lifting session.
MENTAL BENEFITS
Weightlifting offers gains that aren’t just physical. There is a mental component to weightlifting that is simply unmatched. Watching oneself get physically stronger often results in getting mentally stronger. The endorphins released during weight lifting can help to lift one’s mood as well. Participating in athletic activity and body movement increases serotonin levels, which is a neurotransmitter associated with happiness.
While lifting weights is beneficial for the everyday woman, it is also beneficial for female athletes. Female athletes should partake in a structured strength program at an early age, even earlier than male athletes. The reason being that females tend to physically develop and hit their growth spurt earlier in life. While their bones grow, their muscles are lagging. This, in combination with anatomical structure, makes female athletes more susceptible to injury; especially ACL tears. There is no reason that female athletes should not train with the same intensity as male athletes to increase their sport specific strength, sprint speed, agility, and joint stability.
USE IT OR LOSE IT
The female body is constantly changing through various stages of life. From puberty, to child bearing, through regular aging cycles, the female body evolves much more than the male body does. As the female body ages, muscle mass decreases 3-5% every decade after the age of 30. Muscles have a use it or lose it mentality. Research shows that between the ages of 40 and 70, women lose an average of 22 percent of their total muscle. So, it is better to have built a solid base when dealing with the aging process. Fast twitch muscle fibers specifically deteriorate with age. The fast twitch fibers assist in speed and power movements. Slow twitch muscle fibers help to maintain endurance. It may not seem like a big deal if fast twitch fibers deteriorate. But these fibers are used in simple tasks such as getting up from a chair, getting in and out of the car, or stopping the body from falling. Having increased muscle mass helps to assist your body in the aging process and maximize quality of life and independence.
HEALTHY BONES
Lifting weights isn’t just about muscle. It can also be your best defense against osteoporosis by increasing and protecting your bone density! Osteoporosis is a disease that decreases bone strength and mass which raises the risk of fracture. While everyone’s bones become weaker with age, a key risk factor in developing osteoporosis is simply being female. This disease affects over 10 million Americans, 80 percent of which are women. By lifting weights, you are engaging muscles that then pull tendons, which in turn pull on bones. This domino effect leads to stronger bones!
NEED ADVICE?
All of our Stretch Therapists are certified in personal training and all have varied experiences with the latest fitness studios, workout trends and various sports. If you have a question about which workout routine is best for you, consult a few of the therapists at your local studio. We have relationships with a lot fitness brands so we may even be able to make an introduction for you!
Written by Natalie Veneri. Natalie is a Stretch Therapist in our Darien, CT studio and is a former college athlete.
