Is strength work critical for females?

If you want to be lean (have less body fat), look toned and healthy, and want to spend less hours exercising each week, then resistance training is going to deliver all that and more!  

When it comes to resistance training, one of the first objections we often hear is “I don’t want to get bulky and look like a man!”  Hot tip – it’s really not that easy!!  Females just don’t produce enough testosterone to grow muscle fast.

We’ve come a long way in the last two decades in dispelling this myth, so listen up… 

If you’re already quite lean, love exercising, then keep doing what you’re doing. We hope this article is going to add to your knowledge and encourage you ensure strength training is part of your your repertoire of training habits!

However, if you’re constantly going on the latest fad diet, battling with your weight despite your best efforts, feel like you’re ageing too fast then you might want to keep reading.  

When you’re in your 20s it’s reasonably easy to get in shape by cutting a few calories, eating a bit cleaner and hitting the gym or track. No worries!  However, your 20’s is the prime time to work with a coach who can teach you how to systemise your training and nutrition habits so you can get the most out of the work you do. It’s a time in your life when you can get amazing results and build habits that will enable you to get in shape and stay in shape for a lifetime.  

Unfortunately, once you hit your mid 30s and 40s staying in shape isn’t as easy as falling off a log also lamented as ‘What used to work doesn’t work anymore’.

This is due to a combination of the muscle wastage that begins to take place from the age of 35 and the compounding effects it has on a woman’s hormonal profile and metabolism.  

Women who haven’t mastered their resistance training and nourishing habits often discover that they are carrying more weight than they are comfortable with, and in their 40s start feeling the effects of excess body fat combined with the ageing process.

They feel weaker, get sick more often, lack energy and just feel blah.

Women commonly tell us through tears that they look in the mirror and can no longer identify the woman staring back at them. We feel you! 

Once you hit your 40s it’s no longer a choice. You either invest in your nutrition and resistance training or you age faster and begin a downward slide into chronic health issues which can cut your life expectancy and enjoyment of life sooner.  

So let’s get down to the benefits of strength training for women: 

1. You will improve your body’s ability to burn more calories from the food you eat. Muscle is active tissue, so the more you have of it the better off you’ll be! 

2. You can spend less time exercising and get better outcomes.

3. You will reap the benefits of how you look, how you feel and how you function so that you can enjoy more of what life has to offer in a body that is bursting with vitality. 

4. You will move more efficiently and naturally regulate your hormones, improve mental health, energy, sleep, immunity and both emotional and appetite regulation. You will also see a reduction in mood swings and the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause will be more manageable.  

5. You will have improved mental health, increased self-esteem, self-confidence, libido (sex drive), stamina, resilience, motivation, self-awareness, physically stronger and feeling well.  

6. Because you feel GREAT you will have greater motivation to look after yourself and make healthier food choices. 

How long and how often is optimal:  

Workouts shouldn’t be any longer than 45 to 60 minutes 2 times per week minimum and 4 times per week maximum. Workouts should consist of approximately 6 exercises with 2-4 sets each, focusing on the correct technique, joint angles, posture and position, the correct weight selection and collecting data to ensure proper progression.   

Find a coach who can help you create a program that works your entire body with a combination of compound lifts (movements that work multiple muscle groups at the same time – like a deadlift or squat) as well as auxiliary exercises that focus on the smaller muscle groups and functionality of the body as a whole.  

Take home message!

• Muscle is where carbs and fat are burned. Remember the more muscle you have the more energy you’re able to burn even when you’re not exercising! Targeted muscle training burns more calories not only in the session but over the next 24 hours. Whereas other forms of training just burn calories while exercising.
  
• Improving your nutrition around your resistance training will speed up results.  A higher protein intake of about 1.5-2g of protein per kg of lean body mass is recommended to help you create greater muscle protein synthesis (build more lean tissue).
• Muscles really are the fountain of youth! The better you take care of your muscles the younger you will feel and look! Resistance training provides a cascade of youthful hormones that will keep you bursting with vitality and vibrancy for the WHOLE of your life! Yes! You want to train in such a way that you can do strength training until your life is completed! 
• Move it or lose it!  Often people age faster than they need too… they become stiff, sore and immobile and lose their independence before their time. The effects of ageing can be drastically reduced if you only we were all educated around the benefits of strength training in our youth!  

• Strength training is great EVEN IF you are rehabbing an injury or have limited mobility.  Your coach can work together with your physio or osteo to create a program that’s just right for you.  
  
• And if you’re still worried about getting bulky from resistance training, be sure to check out our Legacy Transformation Results page and see the benefits of strength training on body composition first hand!

It’s never too early or too late to get started lifting weights! The most important thing is that you make it a part of your week, every week.  

If you want to learn how, you can train with us in our studio or we can teach you online. Just get in touch and let’s start a conversation about getting you started.