6 minute read
Why Women Should Lift
Growing up, I was fed the lie that cardio is the only way to lose weight, that I should only do pilates and yoga otherwise I would get bulky, and I needed to starve myself to achieve what society deemed as an attractive healthy body. After years of trial and error, I am here today to help you skip over all this misinformation and teach you how to build a healthier body, lose fat, and increase your metabolism. Let’s talk about why lifting weights is such a game-changer for women!
we’ll go over the invisible benefits first (which are most important):
injury prevention/longevity:
We care about the effects aging has on our skin, but what about the rest of our body? Lifting weights actually increases your bone density which is vital for preventing osteoporosis and fractures from falls as we age (source). Muscle is also important for a healthy immune system and brain. We want to live long but we also want to live well. Bonus: building muscle requires increasing your protein intake which increases collagen production!
faster metabolism:
Who doesn’t like to eat? Muscle is calorically expensive for your body to maintain so having more muscle on your body burns calories as you exist day-to-day enabling you to eat more without gaining fat. Muscle also helps with insulin sensitivity by soaking up blood sugar to rebuild and recover which reduces your risk of diabetes, lowers inflammation, and helps with fat loss.
strength:
It’s in the name! Strength training increases your strength which makes everyday tasks easier like carrying groceries, moving heavy objects, and putting your carryon in the overhead compartment. Aside from helping us be more capable, muscle is also extremely important to overall health. A body with no muscle is less healthy than a body with more fat but has muscle.
mental health:
The act of weightlifting itself improves mental clarity and reduces stress (source). Lifting heavy weights requires you to be in the moment and stay present. For me, getting stronger and being able to physically do more than I could before increased my self-confidence and bettered my view of myself.
okay, now onto the physique-related benefits:
fat loss:
Muscle is the key to sustainable fat loss. Gone are the days of fad diets and extreme calorie restriction. You will lose fat and keep it off by strength training. Muscle is denser than fat so it takes up less space on your body giving you a more slim physique. As I said before, your body spends calories to maintain muscle which enables you to eat more without gaining fat.
sculpt body parts:
While spot fat reduction is impossible, lifting weights enables you to build the muscle on parts of your body you want to accentuate. For instance, training your shoulders and glutes will give the illusion of a thinner waist in proportion. Strategically building muscle is how you can obtain a physique you’re happy with. Disclaimer: genetics determine how your body distributes fat so this will look different for everyone. Do not compare your body to your favorite influencer’s. Compare yourself to only yourself - even better, just focus on getting stronger and your physique will follow.
MYTH: lifting weights makes you bulky
This is a myth! Lifting will not make you bulky. Unless you’re in the .001% of the population that this happens to, there’s nothing to worry about. If you are, you are extremely genetically gifted. Women don’t have enough testosterone to build that amount of significant muscle. As long as you are watching your nutrition, you should see more shape in your body, not fat gain. If you’ve been training for a while and do feel bulky, simply switching up training volume or losing some fat will help reveal the muscle underneath whether that’s through a reverse diet and cut or just a cut if your metabolism is at a healthy place.
Strength training has truly been life-changing for me and I want other women to experience the same benefits. There is so much misinformation on the internet that prey on women, setting them up for a less enjoyable fitness journey, body image issues, and a skewed view on what is truly healthy. I feel so much happier about my body knowing I am setting it up for a better quality of life in the long run. And while my health should be the priority, I can’t complain about the aesthetic gains I’ve experienced. Being able to eat more while also maintaining my physique alleviates so much of the pressure diet culture has instilled in my brain.
Have I convinced you yet? Continue reading here to learn how to build muscle!
written by: ivy, co-founder of momo®
