Why women need to lift heavy weights.

 


CrossFit gets a lot of stick, some of it might be justified and some of it not. But perhaps the single greatest positive to come out of CrossFit's WODS are women learning to lift heavy weights. I may or may not agree with a lot of what goes on in CrossFit gyms around the world, that’s irrelevant to this blog, but by introducing heavy weight lifting to the general population, CrossFit has inadvertently created a whole new generation of women who are making being seriously strong achievable and cool.  

Now there is so much more to training for strength and overall lean muscle gain then just being cool though, let me go over some of that below.

1.      Muscles, even at rest, require energy in the form of calories while fat cells do not.  So, the greater amount of lean muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn throughout the day, decreasing the likelihood of excessive fat accumulation and obesity.

2.      Resistance training helps to increase bone density (imagine being in your 70’s  with good strong bone health because you lift weights).

3.      Lean body mass can protect against diabetes and insulin resistance (Muscle is required to clear glucose from the blood and help to maintain healthy blood sugar levels - In a large-scale study of over 13,000 people over a 6-year span conducted by the UCLA School of Medicine, researchers found that higher muscle mass was associated with better insulin sensitivity and a lower risk of developing diabetes).

4.      Lean body mass helps recovery from illness or disease (Illness and disease increase the body’s need for protein in order to heal.  Often times the protein needs are far beyond what we can get from our daily diet, thus the breakdown of muscle occurs to meet the increased protein requirement. Individuals with lower levels of muscle mass will have greater difficulty meeting the demands caused by illness).

5.      Lean body mass reduces your risk of falls and fractures (Reduced lean tissue, especially in the lower-leg muscles, is associated with poor balance and increased risk of falls and fractures).

6.      Add to that a decent eating plan with the right mounts of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates and your body will look and feel like never before.

7.      Hormones (Women commonly produce less estrogen as they grow older, which can increase the risk of osteoporosis, heart disease, and general hormone dysregulation. Strength training has been shown to stimulate production of these sex hormones and help rebalance them for both men and women).

 

Now why am I specifically mentioning women? Well, it’s only because in my experience as a fitness coach I still see lots of women that are afraid of weights and resistance training in general. Some still believe that the key to get healthy is cardio style workouts and minimal if any weight lifting. Now cardio is great for cardiovascular training but absolutely terrible if you are using it as your primary source of exercise.  As you age your body starts to progressively lose muscle mass. Your fight from your 40’s should be to reverse this and the only way is picking up heavy weights, and it’s definitely not pounding the streets or the gyms treadmills for hours on end.

New to weight lifting and resistance training? Get yourself a coach. A good coach will teach you to lift safely and correctly. A good coach will also plan your workouts to get the maximum benefit. Just tell your new coach that all you want to do is get strong, then watch the magic happen.

Thank you for reading my blogs thus far. I am new to this, but I do aim to continue to write on the topics that interest me the most in the health and fitness world. Feeling and looking good doesn’t have to be complicated.

George Georgiades | Coach & Trainer

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