So you have mastered your cardio routine, and you want to add strength training, or resistance training to your weekly routine, here is what you need to know. Women have a tendency to take a pass when it comes to resistance training. They see men in the gym and magazines all buffed up and think, “That look is not for good me.”
The Myth
It is a myth that resistance training and lifting weights will make women’s bodies bulky and muscular. Of course, the myth is not true. Female bodies are not capable of building bulky muscles. The female body’s hormonal balance is not set up that way.
Women’s bodies have a greater percentage of fat than men and that they preserve more fat, which is healthy. Even if a woman worked out several hours a day, seven days a week, the results would be more lean or athletic than muscular or bulky.
For many women to become bulky, they would need a steady diet and a daily 2-3 hour exercise routine for quite a number of years. The body could not withstand several hours a day of a rigorous workout.
When you train hard, your body needs to recover, which means your body needs time to replace the oxygen you lost. The only way the body could recover that quickly is with drugs.
What is Strength Training?
Now that we have debunked the myth. Let’s take a look at strength training. What is it? What are the benefits? Why is it a healthy idea? Why do women need it?
Strength training is a form of exercise that specializes in resistance training as a method to lose weight. Strength training is a type of exercise that builds strength by contracting the muscles with external resistance.
Proper strength training can improve endurance, increase the size of your muscles and build strength. Additionally, you will improve your well-being and overall health.
Finally, it helps preserve and enhance your muscle mass, regardless of your age. It may be done with minimal or no equipment, for instance, bodyweight exercises.
Benefits of Strength training
There are many benefits to strength training. It is an important part of staying fit and healthy, especially for women. It has been shown to build and maintain lean skeletal muscle which leads to loss of fat.
With the increase in popularity of resistance training recently, it has become an integral part of any exercise program that is well-rounded. Strength training can slow down the aging process and make you look and feel younger by building and maintaining muscle.
Strength training is important for metabolic and cardiovascular wellness. For people with this kind of health condition, can benefit from resistance training. It is a key component of overall health and fitness, and it provides an important balance to aerobic workouts.
Strength training for sports exercise routine and physical activities are becoming more popular as society moves toward a healthy lifestyle. Resistance training is a great motivator because you see progress quickly.
Resistance training is important, no matter the age. It can offer speedy results. It can give you that too. There are ten reasons why women should add this kind of training to their exercise routine. They include the following:
1). Lose Body Fat
Strength training can help women lose fat. When you strength-train, your muscles contract over and over again, burning calories and fat. Once the fat is burned, it will leave the lean muscles. Lean muscles increase resting metabolism, and you can burn calories the entire day.
Studies prove that if an average woman strength-trains two to three times a week for two months. The results will be a gain of two pounds and a loss of a little over three pounds.
Studies have found that if an overweight woman does heavy resistance training minimal of twice a week for 60 days. She would lose on average 14 pounds and gained a little over one pound of muscle.
A control group study showed women who did not lift weights but dieted gained little or no muscles and lost only a little over nine pounds.
With resistance training, your metabolism stays elevated.
The body can continuously burn fat and more calories continuously up to 24 hours after your work out. With regular cardio, the body stops burning the fat immediately after your workout.
2). Increase muscles, joints, back and bone strength
Strength training can increase muscles and bone strength. As your muscles become stronger, bigger and leaner, so does your bones as they have to bear the weight of the muscles. Larger muscles and stronger bones lead to better balance and flexibility, which is needed as women when aged.
This training provides functional benefits such as improve poster, stronger muscles and provide support for joints from daily activities. Resistance training can reduce frailty in older women by preventing loss of muscle mass. They can also regain functional strength and avoid physical disability.
These workouts build muscles, builds connective tissues, increases joints stability and strengthen muscles in the lower back, which can alleviate or eliminate back pain. Weight training also eases osteoarthritis pain and improves the stability of the joint and builds tendons and ligaments.
3). Fight Osteoporosis
Resistance training can boost bone density. If you add a balanced diet of calcium, this can be the best defense for women against osteoporosis. Studies have shown weight training is very beneficial for older women in their 80 and 90s, as well.
4). Improve Athletic Performance
With increased strength, comes a more active life. Daily tasks, laundry, grocery shopping, and caring for kids will become easier.
One study shows that increased strength can reduce the chance of injury when you are performing daily tasks and exercising. Research studies show range 30 to 50 percent improvement in muscle strength with moderate to lightweight training. The study also shows that men and women strength development rates are the same.
5). Reduce Your Risk of Injury and Arthritis
Resistance training can improve physical functions such as arthritis, and it can reduce the chance of injury and improve symptoms of arthritis.
Research showed that a group of people who were disabled lifted weights for more than ten weeks and it increased their intensity and frequency with very little pain and improved array of movement.
Weight lifting can improve the stability of the joints and builds tendons and ligaments that are stronger. Proper training with proper form can decrease your chance of injuries.
6).Increased metabolism
Resistance training can increase your metabolism by increasing muscle mass. Not only does your body burns calories during workouts and afterward. But it forces your body to burn calories while your recovers.
As women get older, the chance of losing muscle increase, especially post the age of 40. Dieting, along with weight training, can preserve and rebuild muscle. Studies have the more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolism will be, and the more calories you will burn all day long.
7). Increased fitness
Whether you want to stay in shape or you are an athlete, resistance training can help increase your fitness. It can help improve your strength and increase muscle mass. Increase fitness can help you with all your daily activities such as skiing, golfing, swimming or bicycling with your family.
8). Reduce the symptoms of heart disease
Many studies suggest that resistance training may reduce cardiovascular disease risk. They have also shown that resistance training can increase blood flow, thereby showing the potential to be a cardiovascular exercise.
According to researchers, strength training can lower LDL, which is the bad cholesterol, and it can increase HDL, which is good cholesterol. It can also lower your blood pressure.
9). Reduce the Symptoms of diabetes
Strength training helps maintain sugar levels in the blood, which can help prevent diabetes. Studies show that training can maintain and improve blood sugar control at the same level as drugs. And, it can improve many processes throughout the body, which include how the body process sugar. Glucose can be removed from the blood more effectively with a leaner body.
10). Fight Depression
Resistance training can increase levels of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, which can improve the feeling that stems from depression and improve your mood.
A study at Harvard found that strength training can reduce depression symptoms better than regular counseling. Women who add strength training to their routine are more capable, confident, and they have more energy, which is important in the fight of depression.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Strength training was seen throughout time as an exercise that only applies to athletes or athletes involved with bodybuilding or team sports.
Today, many women take up some form of exercise to boost their physical attractiveness. Strength training has a unique objective, and that is, you will not gain the same mass as a professional bodybuilder.
There are different kinds of weight training, and you can choose the one that is best for you. Resistance training is among the best workouts because you get the most from it. It consists of controlled movements that are precise for each muscle group. The movements do not require heavy resistance.
Strength training can boost your metabolism, so you burn more calories throughout the day. As time passes, resistance training may aid in improving flexibility. It is good for your health no matter what you eat. It has been proven to raise your metabolism for up to 24 hours after a workout.
We have outlined the reasons why resistance training should be included in your exercise routine. Choose one reason that can motivate you to get started today.
Will it be that strength training can help you lose fat, increase muscles and bone strength, increase bone density, improve athletic performance, reduce the risk of injury and arthritis, boost metabolism, increase fitness, reduce heart disease, reduce risk of diabetes or fight depression?
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