The Benefits of Strength Training for Women over 30

I have put the following information together for you to bring awareness of all the benefits that strength training (training with weights) can give you.

Here is a snap shot.

The benefits of strength training include a decreased risk of:

· Heart problems, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and stroke

· Diabetes and blood sugar regulation

· Developing dementia as you age, including Alzheimer's disease

· Certain cancers due to maintaining a healthy weight

· Bone thinning and osteoporosis, particularly after menopause

· Hot flashes in menopause

· Common urinary issues

· Injury due to falls

Strength training also benefits women by helping to:

· Manage weight and increase metabolism

· Enhance the quality of life and help you maintain independence as you age

· Manage chronic conditions like arthritis or back pain

· Boost mental health and sharpen thinking skills

· Improve sleep quality

· Relieve pain, improve posture and balance

Ladies they say that it’s all downhill from 40 when in fact from the age of 30 you start to lose your muscle mass. Your bone density also starts to decrease which is a process that may lead to a condition called osteopenia in the early stages and osteoporosis in the later stages. If you’ve gone through the menopause, you will have less oestrogen (a hormone produced by your ovaries). This can reduce your bone density and increase muscle loss.

If you lose bone density, you may have a greater chance of getting health conditions, such as osteoporosis and bone fractures. Luckily, exercise, and in particular strength training, can help to keep your bones strong which can reduce your risk of injury.

The benefits of resistance training have been clear for some time for both males and females. We know it supports the maintenance of healthy muscles and joints, improves cardio respiratory function, helps with mental health and cognition, and keeps us feeling younger longer.

As women age, your hormones and muscle composition start to decline. Women naturally have less muscle mass to begin with, but as your hormone production slows, as does your ability to maintain your muscles. To counter this, you need to focus on building strong, resilient muscles, and you can do this by lifting heavy weights.

Strength involves a neuromuscular connection. By placing that stress on our body (AKA heavy weight), our nervous system fires up to adapt to this load. This allows you to move easier, longer. It also boosts your neural pathways, making improvements in cognition.

Another change women experience as they age is their bone density declines. Adding in resistance and strength training has been shown to significantly slow the progression of bone density loss by stimulating the production of bone-building cells.

Yet another benefit to strength training is how it helps reduce the risk of developing heart disease. Strength training is also good for your heart health. This may be because strength training can help to reduce your blood pressure and might lower your risk of obesity too. Your heart is a muscle, after all!

Strength training can also help you to maintain a healthy weight. This type of exercise can improve the way your body processes excess sugar. It can help you to burn more calories when you’re resting too. This is because it can help you to build more lean muscle mass. And having more muscle increases your metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn energy).

Strength training can give you a boost of feel good hormones. And if you do strength exercise regularly, it may help to improve your self-esteem and confidence too. You may also feel more positive about your body image and feel more empowered in your daily life. Strength training has also been linked to a reduction in aches, pains and poor posture.

As you get older, your joints are more likely to experience wear and tear. Sometimes this can cause pain and discomfort when moving. But, strength exercise can support the muscles around your joints, which helps to keep them stable and strong. Studies also show that regular strength training can reduce your risk of sports injuries.

Most women I have met are worried that lifting weights will make them develop more muscles than they want. But, for many women, it is actually quite hard to build muscle. Unless you spend lots of time in the gym lifting heavy weights over a long period of time, strength training will usually lead to a slight muscle definition. This is often referred to as ‘toning up’.

Strength training can affect men differently. They may form new muscle mass more easily because of increased testosterone.

The takeaway here is that your body needs to be challenged to function optimally. This means adding resistance training to your regime, and more importantly, strength training. At the end of the day, if our goal is to be as independent as possible for as long as possible, we need strong muscles to do that. “You want to be the oldest person in the gym, not the youngest person in the nursing home.”

The biggest take away here is making sure that you do what you can now to reap the benefits later in life by having strong bones and a decent amount of muscle in your later years.

The majority of women who I have met with are not aware of these facts and tend to stress about a bit of belly fat when really they should be more concerned with their bone health and stopping the decline in the muscle they have.

I just wanted to bring awareness of this to you so that you have the facts.

If you are over 30 and not already doing some form of strength training I would highly advise that you should start as soon as possible. The benefits are that if you put in the work you will get the body you want now while setting yourself up to be strong and fit later in life.

Train with how ever you like, at whatever gym you like but just start training.

If you would like to take action now and come see me to discuss your training needs in more details you can book a free consultation at a time that suits you at the following link.

https://www.goodvibesfitness.ie/offerings/book?offering=d5ca7b7a-fd3a-445c-9a1d-039c337e6f65

If anything I hope that you find this information useful and that you have a better understanding of why you should be doing something now to help you on later life.