Why Women Should Lift Weights

Lifting weights is in my opinion the single best thing women can do for their health and fitness!

That's a bold statement but the benefits of strength training are endless and many of these benefits are unique to lifting weights alone. 

Now lifting weights does not need to involve fancy gym machines or expensive equipment. Just a few kettlebells, resistance bands and using your own body weight can give enough stimulus to reap all the benefits of strength training.

So here are my top 5 reasons why ladies must lift weights.

1. Lifting weights is as good as cardio exercise when it comes to burning calories and losing body fat.

Yep, if you lift weights in a circuit, a complex or any other format where you complete different strength exercises with little to no rest, it wont take long to feel your heart rate increase while getting a good sweat on. Additionally, Lifting weights can be way more varied than traditional cardio exercise and therefore make your workouts more enjoyable. 

Another factor to consider is that weight training will continue to burn excess calories long after your workout - This is known as exercise post oxygen consumption (EPOC) and according to the American College of Exercise, weight training burns more calories after exercise than cardio does which is a huge bonus if one of your goals is to lose weight or reduce body fat.

2. Lifting weights reduces the risk of a lot of diseases

According to the ACSM, the world's leading researchers of exercise, Lifting weights helps reduce the risk and manage a whole plethora of diseases from cardiovascular disease, arthritis, depression, cancers, obesity, mental health, risk of falls, dementia, diabetes, stroke and osteoporosis. 

Osteoporosis is a particular disease that affects more females than males due to bone density loss occurring after the menopause. 

This disease puts the bones at much higher risk of breaks and fractures. Luckily, if females strength train on a regular basis, they can vastly reduce their risk of of developing osteoporosis and even manage it if they already suffer with it.

3. Lifting weights make your daily life easier

It will make you stronger at doing everyday activities. Everything from walking up hills, taking the stairs, sitting up out of your chair and carrying your kids. These activities will become much easier from lifting weights. At our bootcamp sessions, we lift weights in a timed interval format to build muscular strength and endurance (MSE) 

Healthline describes muscular strength as how much force you can exert or how much weight you can lift. Building muscular strength uses heavier weights for fewer repetitions and muscular endurance refers to the ability of a muscle to sustain repeated contractions against resistance for an extended period of time.

4. Lifting weights strengthens your joints 

Lifting weights strengthens joints and the cartilage within them as well as the tendons and ligaments creating a joint structure that is at lower risk of injury. Many cardio exercises such as running will improve joint strength too and the Women's health publication suggests lifting weights is a great form of low impact exercise that builds strength in different ranges of motion and functional movements that carry over into everyday life.

5. Lifting weights will not make you bulky

It doesnt make you bulky or muscly. According to the Independent, women need to follow a strict weight training regime and equally strict diet to begin to bulk up from weights and its much harder for them to get bulky because testosterone is a key hormone needed to facilitate muscle growth. 

However, males have 7 to 8 times as much testosterone in their bodies than females which allows them to grow muscle more easily than women. 

So no you won't get bulky or look like a strong woman competitor by lifting weights a few days a week.

So there are my top 5 reasons why women should lift weights but there are many more. At Best Body Bootcamp based in Hednesford, Cannock, we ensure our ladies only bootcamp programme uses a wide variety of strength training techniques and functional strength equipment to mix up the training for clients. 

This ensures they get a complete and whole body workout that not only helps them get fitter, leaner and stronger but also improves their movement and their long term health. The other great benefit of this is that no two sessions are the same which continually challenges the body and prevents boredom.

If you want to know more about our ladies only bootcamp programme or personal training, the first step is to book in for a no sweat intro. This is a chance to come in, see our space and discuss your fitness goals with one of our coaches to find out if we can help you.