Why strength training is essential for women

While all kinds of exercises have advantages, strength training is essential for any goal.

Strength training uses resistance and endurance in order to build stronger muscles and forces the muscles to exert more energy to reach their maximum capacity.

While you’d usually find men at the gym resorting to strength training, it is also essential for women for a number of reasons. 

1. Increase your strength

Using strength training doesn’t mean you’ll end up looking like The Hulk.

On the contrary, it will help you get stronger and leaner, without the bulk. The more you use this technique, the more inches you’ll lose.

And the best thing is, once you get used to it, the daily chores that used to keep you exhausted will be a piece of cake. 

2. Helps Promote and Maintain Bone Health

Consistently lifting weights slows bone deterioration and reduces the chance of - or slows the effects - of osteoporosis.

Our bones respond to the stress we place on them. Therefore, regularly performing weight-bearing and resistance training exercises will increase bone density and reduce the risk of osteoporosis.  On the other hand, if your bones rarely endure any stress or resistance, they’ll grow weak faster and increase the risk of breaks later in life.

3. Lose fat

While strength training is a form of exercise and therefore helps you burn fat, it also comes with another advantage.  As the focus of strength training is to gain more muscle—and muscle mass burns fat—you’ll end up burning even more fat than you would with traditional cardio. 

4. After-burn effect

Strength training boosts your metabolism and helps you burn more calories.

But that’s not even the best part.

When you strength train, you increase your resting metabolic rate by 5%, meaning that after you’re done with your workout, the after-burn effect will continue to increase your metabolic rate even when your body is at rest.

That means that while you’re sitting on your couch doing absolutely nothing, you’ll be burning fat and losing weight due to the previous strength training performed. 

5. It’s more than just cardio

While cardio helps you lose fat, after a while of doing the same type of cardio, your body will hit a plateau. Not only does this make it difficult for you to lose weight, but you’ll also start losing muscle.

Since strength training works on increasing your muscle mass, it also increases your metabolic rate, leading to a healthy metabolism that promotes fat loss.

With every pound of muscle you gain, your body burns 50 more calories than the usual amount it used to, leading to a faster rate of weight loss. 

Many women tend to fear strength training as they do not want to get bulky; however, women do not have the hormones (high testosterone) required to excessively bulk up.

Strength training will not only make you feel better about yourself, your fitness goals, and your weight loss goals, but it will also make you feel stronger throughout your everyday activities.

And as moms, we definitely need our strength.

Whether it’s carrying kids, moving car seats, or hiking with the family, this extra strength can support us in being able to carry out daily activities with energy and ease.