Every single woman should lift weights. Yes, every one of them. I don't care if you're 14 or 72, you can still benefit from strength training.
The media has condemned strength training for women for years, saying that lifting heavy weights will make you appear "bulky" or manly, and that is 100% false. Some women seem to think that a dumbbell heavier than 5 pounds will give them magical giant biceps that appear overnight. I've heard so many celebrity fitness trainers perpetuate this myth and say that women are better off lifting really light weight for more repetitions to "tone" their muscles. First of all, the word "tone" does not mean anything. Our muscles either grow (hypertrophy) or deteriorate (atrophy). We can lose body fat to make those muscle more apparent, but we can't "tone." Lifting light weights for a lot of repetitions will not make you stronger or more toned, so you are effectively wasting your time. There, I said it. If you want to make the most out of your time in the gym, you need to lift heavier weights. Our bodies need to adapt to a stimulus. If we are doing the same exercise everyday (i.e. going on the elliptical for 30 minutes, and then doing 15 minutes of crunches and light dumbbell exercises), our bodies will never adapt.
I can promise you that in my two years of strength training so far, I have never been mistaken for a man!
Now that that's out of the way, strength training has tremendous benefits, specifically for women, who already have less muscle mass than men.
Those with more muscle mass burn more energy (calories) at rest. Yes, you read that correctly. If you have more muscle, you can eat more, because your body simply needs more calories to sustain this extra muscle tissue. "Each day, your body uses more than 35 calories to maintain each pound of muscle, while only 2 calories are needed to sustain a pound of fat (Westcott and Baechle 1998)."
Not only will you burn more calories in the course of the day, it has been proven in several studies (see sources below) that individuals with a higher lean body mass live longer, healthier lives. Strength training obviously makes your muscles stronger, but many fail to realize that lifting weights also strengthens our bones, tendons and our ligaments. If you want to avoid degeneration of your bones (osteoporosis) and connective tissue injuries later in life, strength training is extremely important. "Osteoporosis is partially preventable with adequate amounts of calcium in the diet, along with progressive high-intensity resistance training (Graves and Franklin 2001)." For women who are pre or postmenopausal, strength training is especially important to prevent further loss of muscle tissue.
In addition to the physiological benefits, there are many psychological benefits. Personally, I've proved to myself that I am capable of so much more than I realized. I recently set a deadlift personal record at 275 lbs (2 times my own bodyweight). I never would've dreamed of lifting that much weight. I know too many women who are unable to perform a push-up or a pull-up without assistance, which I believe are two movements everyone should be able to do.
Being a woman is not an excuse for being weak! Step out of your comfort zone and try something new. Make sure you have a friend with you who can make sure you are moving correctly. I promise you, you won't regret it!
Sources:
- "Strength Training during Menopause Offers Multiple Benefits." Human Kinetics. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 July 2014.
- Physical Activity Across Adulthood in Relation to Fat and Lean Body Mass in Early Old Age: Findings From the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development, 1946-2010
- Toss F, Wiklund P, Nordström P, Nordström A. Body composition and mortality risk in later life (2012)
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