Women have to lift weights just as much as men. Like their male counterparts, females lose muscle mass after the third decade of life, and muscle loss speeds up after menopause. Plus, both women and men who aren’t physically active are at higher risk of osteoporosis, diabetes, arthritis, and cardiovascular disease.
So. what’s not to love about strength training? Many women avoid strength training out of concern that they will look bulky or masculine. This simply isn’t true. Women have some muscle-building limitations related to hormonal differences between males and females. Females have about one-tenth the testosterone that men do, and this places them at a muscle-building disadvantage. Even if you train hard, lifting heavy weights won’t turn you into the Incredible Hulk, but it will give you a leaner, more toned physique while lowering your risk for the problems mentioned above. Plus, you’ll become stronger and more functional, which makes life easier and more rewarding in many ways.
But what about a favorite exercise of serious bodybuilders, the bench press? Some women don’t bench press because they don’t want to build their chest. However, not including the bench press in your strength-training routine would be short-sighted. Let’s look at some of the reasons you should include bench press in your strength-training routine.
Bench Press for a Balanced Physique
It’s not uncommon for females to have a better developed lower body than upper body. This is particularly true of runners and people who cycle. Other women are reluctant to do the bench press because it develops the chest muscles. Some even believe that building a stronger chest will make their breasts look smaller. But there’s no basis for that. When you have well-developed chest muscles, your breasts will look more lifted. Some women lose body fat from strength training and that can reduce breast size, but bench press without weight loss won’t change the size of your breasts since the breast is mostly fat tissue.
It’s also important to have upper body strength, as many of the activities you do require you to push with your upper body, and doing bench press will enhance the strength of your pushing muscles.
Bench Press is a Marker for Upper-Body Strength
Did you know how much you can bench press is a good indicator of how strong you are? A young male can bench press around 90% of their body weight while an untrained woman can lift, on average, around 55% of body weight. This, of course, can improve with training. However, bench press, in a sense, is the best upper body exercise for estimating a person’s upper body strength, so it’s not one you should ignore.
Women Need Strong Chest Muscles Too
As mentioned, once you develop stronger and more powerful chest muscles you can carry out activities that require upper body strength at a higher level. Plus, your chest muscles perform a variety of essential tasks, like protecting your rib cage and delicate organs, like the heart and lungs. Few women want to develop a big bulky chest as men strive for, but you don’t want thin, weak chest muscles either.
Because It’s a Good Exercise for Bone Density
Maintaining healthy bone density is a concern for all women and even some men. High-impact exercises boost bone growth but so does high-intensity strength training. Three of the best strength training exercises for building bone is squats, deadlifts, and bench press. The bench press is particularly effective for boosting bone density in the spine. Consistent strength training prevents bone loss, but there’s some evidence that adults can modestly increase bone density in their spine and hips through strength training. That’s important since by age 70, you may have lost up to half of your muscle mass without strength training and bone loss often accompanies muscle loss.
Get Strong to Stay Healthier
Pressing with your arms builds strength and muscle in your deltoids, triceps, and pectoral muscles. When you bench press, you mainly work your chest, and the anterior deltoids by your triceps chip in to push the weight too. You also get some stabilization from your rotator cuff muscles, lats, and the muscles that support your spine. You can place more emphasis on your chest muscles if you use a wider grip.
The bench press is more of a calorie burner than other upper body exercises. It’s a compound exercise that works multiple muscle groups at the same time. More muscle in your upper body makes you stronger and more functional, but having more muscle is linked with better metabolic health too. Strength training and building muscle improve insulin sensitivity for better glucose control and metabolic health.
The Bottom Line
Don’t shy away from the bench press because you think it’ll give you the bulky chest of a male bodybuilder. It won’t. Instead, you’ll build strength and functionality while preserving the health of your bones. You can perform bench press using a barbell, dumbbells, resistance bands, and even kettlebells, but make sure you’re using good form.
References:
Maximal muscle strength and body composition are associated with bone mineral density in chinese adult males. Chen, Fei MDa; Su, Qi MDa; Tu, Yulan MDa; Zhang, Jun MDa,b,c; Chen, Xinji MDb,c,d; Zhao, Tingxiao MDe; Huang, Yazeng MDb,c,e; Xu, Guokang MDa. Medicine: February 2020 – Volume 99 – Issue 6 – p e19050. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000019050.
HealthLine.com. “How Much Can the Average Person Bench Press?”
“Osteoporosis Exercise for Strong Bones – National ….” https://www.nof.org/patients/treatment/exercisesafe-movement/osteoporosis-exercise-for-strong-bones/.
“Exercise for Your Bone Health | NIH Osteoporosis and ….” https://www.bones.nih.gov/health-info/bone/bone-health/exercise/exercise-your-bone-health.
.Almstedt HC, Canepa JA, Ramirez DA, Shoepe TC. Changes in bone mineral density in response to 24 weeks of resistance training in college-age men and women. J Strength Cond Res. 2011 Apr;25(4):1098-103. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181d09e9d. PMID: 20647940.
Rontu, Jari-Pekka1,2; Hannula, Manne I1; Leskinen, Sami1; Linnamo, Vesa2; Salmi, Jukka A2 One-Repetition Maximum Bench Press Performance Estimated With a New Accelerometer Method, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: August 2010 – Volume 24 – Issue 8 – p 2018-2025 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181c7c433.
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