For years on end, women have been discouraged from lifting weights and participating in strenuous training.
Various ridiculous myths pervaded common wisdom (“you won’t be able to have kids” is one that comes to mind) up until the 21st century, which had absolutely ZERO scientific basis.
Thankfully, people are a little more sensible and no longer spout such asinine claims. Unfortunately, however, women are still sometimes discouraged from strength training.
The fact of the matter is that there are certain characteristics that females have that make strength training a perfect fit for their needs. Here are 3 reason why women should start strength training today.
#1 – Bone Health
As we get older, our bodies bones become less and less dense, becoming more susceptible to breaks and fractures. This is especially true for females, who are much more prone to developing osteoporosis than men are as they age.
Osteoporosis, for those who don’t know, is a condition in which your bone density decreases so much that the bones actually become porous, like a sponge.
Strength training is synonymous with strong muscles. The fact is that strength training also strengthens your bones too, amongst other things.
Take the bench press for example. When you unrack the weight and perform repetitions, the bones in your arms and torso are supporting this load while the muscles provide movement. This loading is a stressor on the bones, which signal them to adapt over time.
So, strength training may be a potential preventative measure against bone loss and osteoporosis for females as they get older.
#2 – “I want to ‘tone-up’!”
“Toning up” is a concept that is vague as it is annoying, yet it is the most popular goal of females who take up a training regimen.
“Toning” isn’t actually a process that occurs. It’s simply a “look” that folks desire. It’s neither overly-muscular nor is it overly-thin.
Being “toned” is essentially having less bodyfat while maintaining a decent amount of muscle.
Unfortunately, the way most females try to attain the “toned” look will leave them disappointed. Most females think that hours of cardio plus using pink dumbbells for 100s of reps will help them achieve that look.
This is a great way to lose weight, but not hold onto muscle. So, even if the scale moved, a good chunk of those pounds burned off may have been from muscle!
Good news is that strength training (using weights that you can perform for sets of 12 or less reps) will challenge the you in a way that signals your body to hold onto the muscle it has. That way, when you lose weight, you’ll be losing mostly fat and very little muscle!
That’s how you “tone up!”
#3 – Increased Metabolism
Don’t you hate starving yourself to lose any weight at all?
Do you not understand why the guys you know can eat way more food than you can without gaining weight?
One of the reasons why mean can eat more food than women without gaining weight is because men on average weigh more. A portion of this extra weight comes from extra muscle.
Muscles, even at rest, burn through a lot of calories.
So if females want to increase their metabolism and burn more calories, they’d be better off holding on to all of the muscle they have. That way, not only would they burn calories during strength training, they’d be burning them throughout the day!
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So, if you’re a female and looking to improve your fitness, strength training is practically ESSENTIAL for you.
Don’t short-change yourself by excluding strength training from your workouts!
