Undisputed Health Reasons Women Should Start Lifting Weights

Few people say that women should not exercise like men, especially when it comes to lifting weights. Well, irrespective of their reasons and logic behind, several studies have proved that there are lots of health benefits that women can gain through regular exercise, even weight lifting.

As it is, regular physical activity is suitable for any person, women, children, and of course, men. Everybody seems to know that as well. But what they do not know is how good it is for them. Well, studies of Mayo Clinic have revealed that regular exercise helps in:

• Toning your muscles
• Keep you fit and agile
• Improves your mood and even
• Boosts your sex life!

You will feel better and have more energy throughout the day. The best part of it is that you can even add years to your life. Therefore, start exercising daily, if you are not into it yet. It will not only help you to control your weight but will also help you to combats many different health conditions and diseases such as:

• Stroke
• High blood pressure
• Metabolic syndrome
• Type 2 diabetes
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Arthritis and even
• Many types of cancer.

It will increase high-density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol, decrease harmful triglycerides, reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, and even prevent falls.

Reason to include lifting weights in your regimen

One significant reason that women should consist of lifting weights in their training schedule just as men do is that women do much better on a higher fat diet, according to research. This means that:

• Women burn more fat, less protein, and carbohydrate than men for the same exercise and intensity. Therefore, with lees on carbohydrate fuel, women also do not store as much glycogen as men during carb refeeds.
• Another reason is that there is a significant difference in the nervous system of women as compared to that of men. They also differ in the hormonal system along with estrogen. All these though may make people suggest that women should not exercise like men, but do not worry.

Since women do not rely less on glycogen in comparison to men, adrenalin burns are more in women, especially in fat women, than men.
It is due to this difference in protein and glycogen sparing metabolism women need fewer carbohydrates or protein in their diet as men for fueling their exercise sessions.

Benefits of strength training

Especially when women reach fifty, they need more strength and balance to prevent falls. It is for this reason strength training and weight lifting are necessary. This will result in greater coordination of the messages emitted from the central nervous system with the ever-shrinking muscle fiber, both in number as well as in size or atrophy.

Apart from that, there are also a few additional benefits of strength training and weight lifting apart from getting a significant boost in health.

These are:

• It will help in reverse aging: This depends on several factors such as diet, genetics, alcohol use, and smoking apart from the degree of muscle atrophy and physical activity level. Strength training will reduce muscle atrophy and age-associated muscle loss to reverse aging due to fewer shrunken muscle fibers.
• It will strengthen bones: With an increase in bone mass, the risk of developing fractures and osteoporosis will be reduced significantly.
• It will ease joint pain: Strength training is suitable for people who have arthritis. Stress goes to the joints directly, helping to alleviate the  symptoms with strengthened muscles, ligaments, and tendons that are around the joints, though it will not reverse arthritic changes. Arthritis Foundation and several rheumatologists, in fact, recommends weight training in older women patients who have arthritis.

In short, it will better your quality of life, helping you to live independently and perform everyday tasks. You will even sleep better to improve your mood.

Other health and fitness benefits

Lifting weights will also provide you with other significant benefits, which is why experts, doctors, and trainers suggest weight-lifting exercises for women. You may even find a few blogs on how to look beautiful wherein such exercises may be included.

• You will have muscles that will look much more defined, and lean, and make you look super-fit. Since women cannot have bigger muscles even if they lift heavier weights due to low testosterone levels, their muscles will look more defined while lifting heavy weights.
• When it comes to burning fat and calories, lifting weights is a much better option than cardio. According to a study report of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, it is found that women burn 100 more calories on average in 24 hours after lifting weights during their training session.

You will also be able to prevent injuries and improve your flexibility. Therefore, join a weightlifting session rather than in a yoga class.

Try challenging weights

Experts also say that women should not only do weight lifting but must also try challenging weights. They support their opinion with the different effects that it would have on the health, physique, fitness level as well as in their personality primarily. They say that:

• It will build confidence pretty quickly as you will be able to see yourself what you are capable of doing. The joy in achievement and the excitement do the magic.
• It will help you to come out of your comfort zone not only in your exercise but in all aspects of life. You will find new ways to challenge yourself and come out of it.

Most importantly, it will help you to build and retain the body that you want to.

A word of caution to end

When you start with your weightlifting exercise, make sure that you do it under the supervision of a qualified trainer or a fitness specialist. They will set up a program according to your physical ability and also explain the basics.

Most importantly, do not be over adventurous to gain more benefits in a short time. Listen to your instructor always and be patient to see the results.