Why should women weight train?

K

kimyenchu

Cathlete
Sorry everyone for the multiple postings today.

I am compiling a list of reasons why women should take up weight training and would like your input. I will start off with the primary reasons why I do it:

To make your bones stronger thus preventing osteoporosis.
To increase your metabolism helping you to lose weight and keep it off.
To firm and tighten your body.

Yen
 
There was an article on this I believe in Energy magazine in the Summer, a complete listing of the fab things weights do for a body.

When I get home later today I'll look it up and try to remember to get back here and list them.

Lifting weights actually leads to marked improvement in body image and satisfaction with one's body, more than cardio does, is what I have read, because the results are visible. No-one can easily see the results of enhanced cardiovascular endurance unless you are sprinting like a panther for a London bus dodging tourists as you go!

I'll get back here later...

Clare.
 
Woman and weights

Hi Yen! I'm not sure if I read a post from you(or someone else- about a friend who was scared to use weights because they were worried about bulking up! I wanted to reply but couldn't find the thread! I hope you find this helpful--Many women
believe that weight training will cause them to look masculine. Fortunately, this does not happen as easily as many women believe. Despite thousands of examples, some people still believe weights are not for women. That is fiction. The number of women using free weights in America has more than doubled in the past 10 years, from less than 8 million in 1988 to more than 17 million in 1999.
When it comes to weight training, women are getting the information they need, and they're using it. They're learning, for example, that a woman's muscles are capable of doing just about anything a man's can do, in terms of relative strength and growth.
Also, remember this: fat takes up five times as much space as muscle. This means if you replaced the fat on your legs with the same weight in muscle, your thighs get smaller, without losing a pound. Women (and men) worried about "bulking up" with weights need to understand this. It's your body composition that determines how you look. By replacing fat with muscle, you can make an astounding transformation without losing a lot of bodyweight. Women should actually be concerned about not having enough muscle, rather than having too much.
The bottom line is, any woman who is interested in losing fat, gaining strength, increasing muscle tone, and transforming her physique should be weight training.
Your friend in fitness~~Francine
 
I'll pass on some weight training rules from Dr. Scott Connelly:

"If you have limited time to exercise, spend it in the weight room! Weight training is the only exercise that can produce significant changes in your body composition. The positive effects of a well designed weight training program are far reaching and long lasting. The process of making and maintaining muscle has a nearly magical effect on the body.

Muscle acts as your fat-burning furnace. Lean muscle is the body’s main vehicle for fat burning. By increasing your amount of muscle, you are not only eliminating existing fat, but also drastically decreasing the chances of getting fat in the future. And the more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn, not only during times of activity, but during times of rest.

Strength training has all the heart-healthy benefits of aerobics and more! The benefits of aerobics pale in comparison to those of weight training. Contrary to public opinion, the cardiovascular benefit of aerobics is not due to its direct action on your heart. Rather, it is due to its effect on blood pressure—aerobic exercise relaxes the outer arteries delivering blood to your muscle cells. Weight training relaxes those same tiny arteries AND delivers countless more benefits, including increased strength, accelerated fat burning, and a better looking body.

The secret to weight training is to work with the right intensity. Many people mistakenly believe that the right way to lift weights is to do endless repetitions with very low weights. Instead of increasing weight as their work out gets easier, they keep increasing their repetitions. You should lift enough weight to challenge your muscles with each work-out.

Women have to weight train like men. Many women worry that lifting heavy weights will make them big and muscular like men. This is simply not true. Women do not have the same hormones as men and cannot get as big no matter how hard they work out. Lifting heavy weights will produce stronger muscles, but muscle is more compact than fat. The end result is more defined body, not a bigger one."
 
hi everyone
i like the sound of what weight training can do for you, but i hate weights, i love high impact areobics step/cardio, i have just started having to take fosamax i had a bone density test in august she said my bones were getting slightly thin, not because of my age but b/c i had a complete hystorectomy when i was 32 yrs. old, and havent been taking any hrt/horomone replacement therapy for it, i will be the big 50 in may and so i have dicided to start with weights, what would you recomend?
i have lost 34 pounds i weigh 130 without clothes/food lol and i am 5ft 1 inch small bone, i am still trying to loose weight b/c i know the heavier i am the harder on my bones, any suggestions please.
paula
 
Hello Paula,

I think you can start with any of Cathe's weight videos: my personal favourite are MIS and PH as they work the entire muscle groups in just over an hour, but PS and S&H are also good if you want to concerntrate on working one particular muscle groups more than the others in a workout session. I have only been using MIS and PH and BODYMAX so far, but I will be starting a rotation with PS soon.

To start with, you should use the weights that are easy enough for you to go for as many reps as possible and be able to feel your muscles exhausting. Then increase the weights when you can do all the reps and not feel exhausted. (Personally, I started with the heaviest weight I could and then not do all the reps. I just stick with it and increased the reps each time rather than increasing the weights).

Hope this helps

Yen
 
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