Should Women Lift Weights?

Weight lifting has historically attracted more men than women. Huge men grunting loudly and tossing weights around with reckless abandon can make the gym a pretty intimidating place. I completely sympathize with a lady finding her footing in the weights room, because not so long ago that was me.

Many women hitting the gym do so in the hopes of developing a more feminine, curvaceous or slender figure. Won’t lifting weights on a regular basis make you look masculine and bulky? Absolutely not.

This is a common misconception.

The women you see with huge muscles in bodybuilding shows have worked tirelessly with high intensity and volume for sometimes years, on a very specific diet targeted towards that defining muscle growth. It’s extremely difficult to get to that physique without a massive effort. The average female gym goer won’t just stumble across it after 3-4 resistance sessions per week.

Things you can and will experience from implementing a resistance program include more effective fat loss, a more desired body composition, elevated mood, increased energy and brain function, better sleep quality, heart health, bone density and a developed ability towards stress control.

Effective Fat Loss

Building a leaner body mass will boost your metabolism, as muscle has a higher energy expense to the body to function. So overall, strength training will lead to a higher caloric output in the long run. Increasing your muscle mass will encourage your body to become a more efficient fat burner.

Body Composition

Cardio is important, and it’s something we should all still figure into our routines, but maybe not as often as many women have been led to believe. Running endlessly on the treadmill day after day is likely to lead to less desired results. Sure, cardio burns calories, but at the start of many weight loss journeys it can be typical to lose both muscle and fat, which can lead to a loss of curves. Adding in strength training will ensure the maintenance and development of muscles, leaving with you a well rounded figure.

Better Mood

In one study among a series of participants suffering from depression, there was an 18% drop in depressive symptoms after a 10 week strength training program. Even those not suffering from anxiety or depression can benefit from the elevated mood, heightened energy and mental clarity following a strength session. Weight training releases endorphins and combats the stress related hormone cortisol, leaving us feeling calm and joyful.

Muscle Maintenance

As we grow older, we experience ‘sarcopenia’ - age related muscle loss. After the age of 30 we can experience a loss of 3%-5% muscle loss per decade, and the number gets even higher after the age of 60. This is a huge contributor towards elderly disability. If you want to keep a strong and healthy body throughout your golden years, it is essential to include some sort of resistance training to maintain muscle, mobility and functionality.

Healthy Bones

Bone density is something that also begins to decrease with age, after around the age of 50, especially for women experiencing menopause. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, 80% of the 10 million Americans suffering from Osteoporosis are women. Weight lifting can help to combat this by applying stress to the tendons and bones, which then stimulates the bones to become stronger.

Healthy Heart and Brain

According to studies, weight training and an increase in muscle mass can lead to a decrease in cardiovascular diseases. Improvements in circulation throughout the body can vastly decrease your chance of heart attack or stroke. Resistance training has also been shown to increase cognition and mental acuity. Long term studies have shown benefits linked to decreased degeneration of areas of our hippocampus which are essential for learning and memory. Developing our mind to muscle connection also helps us with balance and mobility.

Sleep Quality

Getting enough sleep is vital for our overall health. Sleep is when our body completes important daily efforts to rid ourselves of toxins, and works towards recovering and repairing itself throughout the night. Quality of sleep is even more important than quantity. Getting the right amount of sleep has been linked to decreased chances of developing Alzheimers and other chronic illnesses. Some research indicates that resistance training may even trump aerobic exercise when it comes to better sleep. The studies suggest that the post workout fatigue and muscle recovery derived from strength exercise leads to a higher quality of sleep.

These are just a few of the reasons why women can and absolutely should lift weights.If you, like I was, are unsure of where to begin when it comes to weightlifting, maybe hiring a personal trainer is a good place to start. Hiring my own trainer when I was starting out gave me confidence to stomp into that weight room each and every day like I belonged, and now you couldn’t keep me away if you tried.

Please feel free to contact me with questions, for advice or if you are interested in trying out some sessions and a program with me.