The image of how women should train is changing, thank goodness! Gone are the days of leotards and aerobics classes or hours of cardio to burn off the fat. It’s becoming much more normal for women to participate in strength training. Yes the weight area of most gyms is still dominated by men trying their very best to build bulky muscles but it is every bit as important for women to take advantage of the benefits of weight training.

The fear that has prevented lots of women, which I’ve heard many times in my career is, ‘but I don’t want to get bulky, I just want to tone up’. So lets put this bulky myth to bed.

Here is why as a female you should be spending time doing weights

• You will build lean tissue or muscle which will help you look defined.
• You will reduce body fat.
• You will maintain healthy bone density.
• You will feel stronger which can really help with self esteem and confidence.

Lifting weights increases strength in two ways, as you challenge your muscle by lift more weight (progressive overload) a signal is sent to the muscles to tell them they need to get stronger. This happens by recruitment of more muscle fibres and by thickening of the muscle fibres. Don’t panic, if your muscle fibres thicken it does not mean they will look bulky. What happens is actually the opposite as the first stage of muscle growth is definition and tone. As mentioned above, one of the benefits of weight training is reduced body fat, this is due to muscle being metabolically active tissue, more so than fat, this means it burns more calories even while you are resting. So as you build muscle so you increase your ability to burn calories, creating the toned look many women are seeking.

Testosterone

There is one other hormonal factor that plays a signification part and that’s the role of Testosterone. A natural anabolic steroid, testosterone stimulates muscle growth. Men have seven times more testosterone than women and even they have to work hard to build muscle. Of course this means that women have to work significantly harder to build muscle and really, you don’t really need to be concerned about getting bulky.

How often should you weight train?

Research has shown that you can experience the benefits of weight training with just a couple of sessions a week. Some trainers suggest as women age, we should be training no more than three times a week to give time for recovery. However, in this study on ‘Strength training and body composition in middle-age women’ it was found that the more sessions the participants did, the greater the benefit. This would suggest, as long as you are recovering, sleeping and fuelling well with adequate protein, you can train as many times as feels good for you.

If you are thinking, ‘but I’ve never done weights, I wouldn’t know where to start or even worse I’m too old to start’ find yourself a trusted friend to start with. Studies show that having a training buddy can really help with motivation. If you can afford it, enlist the help of a personal trainer that has a good understanding of female strength training. I say female strength training because women are not little men. We have different hormone profiles and cycles that need consideration when we train. Menstrual cycles, peri-menopause and menopause are all reasons to start weight training but also significant considerations for how you should be training.

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