3 Reasons Why Ladies Need to Lift Weights
Protecting your bones, losing fat, and everyday badassery are just a few of the reasons you should be strength training
What’s the best way to achieve a lean athletic body while increasing your overall health and general badassery?
Strength training.
Before you roll your eyes and say “no thanks, not for me,” read on with an open mind and find out why strength training needs to be a part of your fitness routine.
1. Protect Your Bones
Strong bones are needed to prevent osteoporosis and fractures. Osteoporosis is a common condition in older adults and literally means “porous bones.”
As you age, your ability to build new bone mass declines, especially when you are living a sedentary lifestyle.
Strength training is arguably the best exercise to protect your bone density. It can prevent bone loss and may even help build new bone mass.
So if you want to avoid brittle bones and fractures as you get older, you need to strength train.
2. Muscle Matters
You avoid strength training because you think you will get “bulky”?
Think again.
Once you hit your 30s, your body loses muscle mass and function. Inactive people can lose up to 3–8% of muscle mass per decade, which results in a lower resting metabolic rate and higher fat accumulation.
Sarcopenia is the scientific term for this muscle loss associated with aging, and strength training is an effective way to combat this.
You will not turn into hulk because women have more estrogen and lower testosterone than men — a hormonal environment that makes it harder for women to gain muscle.
Instead, weight training is the best tool for achieving a “toned” look because you are losing fat while keeping muscle.
A nice benefit of more muscle is a higher resting metabolic rate, which means your body burns more calories at rest. And that means more fat loss and a healthier body composition over the long term.
3. Everyday Badassery
Let’s get practical for a moment.
All that health talk might be reason enough for you to start lifting weights (if you aren’t already).
But for me, the real benefit is that strength training gives you enormous freedom in your everyday life.
Carrying your groceries home? No problem.
Moving that piece of furniture yourself when you don’t have a man around? Bring it on.
And let’s not forgot how totally badass you feel when you are handed mason jars or water bottles to open because you are the strongest person in the room.
There are many more benefits of strength training, but I hope these three got you curious about starting to lift. If you have been sticking to cardio or yoga for your fitness routine, then start to pick up heavy stuff and be prepared to be amazed at what your body can do.
