If you’ve never tried lifting weights or doing any kind of resistance training (also called strength training) you’re really missing out on one of best ways to reach your optimal health, fitness and even lose weight/body fat! The health benefits are many so why not take advantage?  

(Note: the terms “strength training”, “resistance training” and “weight lifting” are all commonly used so I will use all here.) 

First, let’s get rid of any myths you may have about lifting weights or doing resistance training. There’s a lot of information about exercise for women that is based on unfounded myths and even some outright lies instead of fact or scientific evidence. Here are some of the most common myths:

1. Lifting weights will make you bulky. There is a common misconception that women who strength train will become bulky. This is not true at all and it’s way beyond time this myth gets put to rest for good. In fact, women are actually more likely to lose inches as a result of strength training, not gain them. Strength training not only sheds inches where you don’t want then, it also allows you to build in places where you do. You can actually change your body composition (gaining lean muscle and losing body fat) through regular resistance training! The truth is if you want to grow muscle (add bulk) it can take lifting weights five or six days a week, plus a lot of eating (you actually need to eat more calories) for women to grow muscle. The only weight lifters who get bulky are ones who want to for competitions or other reasons. They add bulk because they follow specific bulking training programs that include thousands of hours of weight lifting sessions, eating specific diets that are designed to help gain bulk, and are often on regimens of supplements that sometimes even include testosterone. This is not going to happen to you doing any kind of regular weight training even if intense. Don’t be afraid of lifting even heavy weights!

   2. You can spot reduce fat with weight training. Our bodies can’t reduce fat in specific, localized areas. Our bodies are already genetically predisposed to store fat in particular areas in a certain order. When the body does start to lose weight, it will also lose fat in a certain order as well. When women weight train to target specific areas (like doing tons of ab crunches every day to try to get rid of belly fat), it doesn’t actually expedite losing fat in that particular area. It will strengthen your ab muscles, so we do want to work our abs, but it won’t in itself help you lose the body fat that is on top of those ab muscles so you won’t see them. Weight training DOES play a part in helping to reduce overall body fat though as it helps you burn more calories as it fires up your metabolism when you have more muscle (muscle burns more calories than fat, per pound).

   3. The only way to lose weight is to do a lot of cardio. The truth is, to lose weight you need to take in less calories than your body uses. While cardio does burn calories and has lots of other health benefits so we do want to have that in our overall fitness program, it is not the only way to lose weight. When you do cardio, you stop burning calories once you stop your cardio sessions. Strength training on the other hand, keeps your metabolism burning calories for a much longer period. The more lean muscle you have the more calories you burn, all day long even at rest. So strength training will produce a more efficient form of weight loss than the same amount of time doing a cardio workout.

   4. Women should do different strength training workouts than men. This is not things true. Women can do the same kinds of weight training programs as men do. And no, this won’t make us bulk up! Obviously there is a difference in ultimate strength between men and women and our bodies have differences in hormones. But for sure women and men can definitely do the same exercises and programs using weights that are suitable for the fitness level they are at. The reality is that women have the ability to lift a tremendous amount of weight, but do not increase lean muscle mass at the same rate as men. That means that adding just two days of resistance training to a weekly exercise regimen can increase lean muscle mass, but it won’t add pounds of “bulky” muscle. Strength training can cause women to produce more somatotropin (otherwise known as human growth hormone), but when you consider that growth hormone helps metabolize fat and is considered an important part of reducing the effects of the biological aging process, this is not a bad thing!

   5. One strength training program will work for all women. There are many different kinds of resistance training programs and even activities. It’s okay to try different ones. For some people, even carrying their kids or groceries is helping build strength. Or doing yoga. You can get an awesome strength training program through just bodyweight exercises alone. (See my post here to learn more about the differences between bodyweight, free weights and weight machines training). You can try different kinds of strength training and change it up!

   6. Women should only lift light weights (for example, only ever using 3 lb. weights). Yes, if you are just starting out you will be lifting lighter weights than those who have been lifting weights much longer. But in order to see any benefits, the whole point of strength training is to work your muscles to where they can be challenged and then rebuild. When lifting weights your muscle fibers get “mini-tears” that repair afterwards (which is why you should incorporate rest days in to your program because it’s the rest period where you are actually making the gains and changes as your muscles repair themselves). Using too-light weights as you get stronger will eventually not get you benefits because your muscles will no longer be challenged. You may find yourself at a “plateau”. You have to challenge and stress our muscles to get improvement. Lifting a weight that is challenging for you by the time you reach the last 2 or so reps in a set (while still keeping proper form so you don’t risk injury) should be your goal. Lifting heavier weights recruits and engages more of the type 2 muscle fibers responsible for generating muscle force. When you lift a heavy weight, you may feel your muscles shaking. This is because your nervous system is working to engage more motor units and muscle fibers to produce the force required to move a weight. Type II muscle fibers are generally responsible for the size and definition of a muscle, so activating more of these fibers can lead help provide immediate results.

   7. There is a false belief that as women get older (and after menopause especially), they shouldn’t strength train. This is another strength training myth that is anything but true. After women go into menopause, the risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis increases, and some women tend to shy away from weight training for fear of injury. The truth is that this is actually the most ideal time for weight training for women. For postmenopausal women, it is especially important to help keep up bone density, mass, and strength. With the right program and guidance, older women should be doing strength training that helps keep them strong and healthy and prevent fractures.

   8. Resistance training any other way than using weights won’t benefit you.  This isn’t true. There are a TON of bodyweight exercises that you can use. Think about it: your body weighs more than most weights you would use, so by doing the right bodyweight exercises you are using your own body’s weight to strengthen it. Don’t ever underestimate how much you can improve your strength and overall fitness level using bodyweight as your strength training method. See more here about the benefits. 

Now, let’s get to the good stuff!! 

Here are some of the wonderful health and fitness benefits of weight training:

1. When you lift weights, your muscles get stronger and more dense. We want this for a functional, long and healthy life! But stronger doesn’t always equal bigger. Women’s bodies naturally create very little testosterone, only about 10% of what a man produces, which helps keep the risk of the dreaded bulk down. For women, strength training tones the muscles and raises their metabolism. With the right training, muscles will show more definition over time without bulking up.

2. Studies have shown that training with heavier weights can actually help you lose weight and body fat. When we strength train, our muscles go through a process of breaking down and then begin the process of rebuilding over the next 24 to 48 hours. While your body is working, it requires more calories and energy; this is often referred to as the “afterburn effect”. This also means your metabolism operates at a faster pace even when you are at rest after a workout. It’s not necessary to run a marathon or bicycle a hundred miles to lose weight. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn, so it’s actually a good idea to build up those muscles if you’re looking to lose weight. The body burns 5 calories of energy for every liter of oxygen consumed. During most traditional aerobic training, the legs are the primary muscles being engaged. Performing a full-body, strength-training circuit with exercises for both the upper and lower body can involve a tremendous amount of muscle tissue, which results in more calories being burned during a workout. When more total calories are burned from strength training, a greater amount of calories are metabolized from fat when compared to only exercising in the “fat burning” zone. Aerobic training can be an efficient way to burn calories, but it often doesn't provide enough stimulus to increase levels of lean muscle, which are metabolically more efficient because they burn calories even when the body is at rest. Strength training creates lean muscle, which burn calories long after your workout. So even though 30 minutes of a cardio session will produce an immediate calorie loss, that burn effect pretty much stops as soon as you do. But when you engage in strength training, you not only burn calories during your workout, but also increase the number of calories you burn at rest. Pound for pound we know that muscle burns more calories than fat even while your body is at rest. So while you may think of cardio as fat burning, putting on more muscle will actually help you burn more fat while you sleep or relax and watch TV. One pound of skeletal muscle expends approximately 5 to 7 calories a day at rest. Adding 5 to 7 pounds of muscle can increase your resting metabolism (how efficiently your body produces and uses energy) up to 50 calories a day. This might not sound like a lot, but over the course of a year that is a difference of approximately two-thirds of a pound of fat that you can burn while doing absolutely nothing.

3. Weight training for women helps build stronger bones. This is super important especially as we age and we naturally lose bone mass and density with the result that our risk of injury increases. Strength training increases bone density and prevents muscle loss in postmenopausal women. Your bones need to stay challenged, just like your brain needs exercise to stay sharp. After about age 30, you start to lose bone density at a small percentage each year. Keep in mind, women make up 80 per cent of osteoporosis cases as they lose bone mass. We want to be able to do the regular activities we love for as long as we possibly can, right? Having strong bones lets us do that.

4. Strength training can help improve overall health. It reduces your risk of disease including osteoporosis, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and even some cancers. Resistance training can help with fighting off inflammation in the body, which is well known to be a contributing factor in many diseases. It also helps with reducing the risk of heart disease.” This is due to the lowered blood pressure, lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels, better sleep, and lessened fat around the heart that are results of regular strength training.

5. Resistance training can improve  your mental health. It leads to better sleep, mood and energy levels. It can lessen insomnia, increase your confidence and it has been shown to ease symptoms of depression.

6. Resistance training is very beneficial to healthy aging. We lose muscle mass as we age and our bones get weaker. Strength training helps with balance and helps protect against falls. It also improves helps with bone density and strength so we can carry out every day tasks. 

7. Using heavier weights that actually challenge you has more benefits. Lifting heavier weights, ones that challenge you towards the end of a given set, improves intramuscular coordination, which is important for improving overall strength. It can can help muscles get stronger without getting bigger and will increase your resting metabolism which burns more calories throughout the day. Lifting heavier weights can help reduce your biological age by helping us maintain muscle mass and bone density as we age and improving our brain function. Testosterone and DHEA, the hormones that affect strength and energy levels, decrease as you age and weight lifting helps with maintaining levels of those hormones (and yes, women have testosterone too, just at a different level than men).  If you’re over the age of 35, you should definitely be using weights in amounts that challenge you.  Resistance training with challenging weights can help women over the age of 35 increase their levels of growth hormone, which is important for developing lean muscle and burning fat. No matter our age, getting stronger is a good thing for our every day lives. Resistance training using weights that challenge our muscles is the key to this. 

8. Weight training can benefit your mental health and your brain! According to Harvard Health, recent studies with animals and humans are being done to see if it can improve memory and reasoning in people with mild cognitive impairment, which is often a precursor to dementia. Results so far are showing that strength training may  indeed cause beneficial changes to the brain. All participants were given cognitive tests at the beginning and end of the study and 12 months after they finished the study. The group that did the weight training scored significantly higher at the end of the study than at the beginning and retained that gain at 12 months. The gain in test scores was also greatest for those who had the greatest gains in strength.

Fitness Spark!:  Lifting weights can have a positive impact on your health now and for years to come so DO incorporate this into your physical fitness program! It will change your body composition so you can lose fat as a result of gaining lean, strong muscles! 

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