Why Should Women Strength Train?

Maybe you follow a twenty-something-year-old on Instagram who posts about what she eats in a day, as well as her workouts and you think “no way, I couldnt do that” or “I wish I could do that” and scroll on. Strength training is for everyone. These twenty-something-year-olds may be predominantly doing it for aesthetics, but unbeknownst to themselves, they’re also future proofing their old lady bodies (even if they don’t care about it right now).

And you can too.

Strength training CAN be for everyone but I admit, it also can feel intimidating and overwhelming at first. But don’t worry, you don’t have to be doing instagramable circus trick exercises, but instead focus on good, solid compound exercises like squats and lunges. You can transform your body (and mind) now and for the future and in this blog I outline 10 reasons why we should all be lifting and why it’s never too late to start!

🏋🏼‍♀️ After the age of 30 our muscle mass decreases by approximately 3-8% every decade. This involuntary loss of muscle (called sarcopenia) can be a major contributor to decreased strength and over body function, your independence, mobility and quality of life as you age. This further accelerates as you enter menopause and further after the age of 60. So as women we need think about our bodies sooner rather than later and get ahead with building muscle.

🏋🏼‍♀️ It aids in injury prevention. Sore back or hips from lifting heavy buggies, kids and babies around? Time to look at your core strength, glute strength and overall strength - its time to lift and support your daily lifestyle.

🏋🏼‍♀️ Weight training increases life longevity & reduces the risk of degenerative diseases. My mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at the age of 60. Now she is lifting regularly, as well as staying active through running, pickle ball and tennis - the fittest she has ever been and its helping delay her symptoms from getting worse. But she wont mind me saying this, if she knew her risks, she would have lifted weights much sooner to future proof herself. She is even training as a bell ringer to further work on her strength and delay her symptoms further.

🏋🏼‍♀️ We reach our peak bone health in our thirties and after that it plateaus and begins to decline. Weight training increases bone density & reduces the risk of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is where bones become brittle and more fragile, again accelerating as we get older, particularly post menopause. Meaning tripping over a step or curb can land you with a broken hip, not just a nasty bruise. Weight training increases bone density (not just muscle density) which in turn can decrease things like osteoporosis. So time to future proof your old lady bones rather than playing catch up later!

🏋🏼‍♀️ Often after birth mothers complain that they feel more sedentary than before and can have increased fat stores. This is to be expected as we navigate life on little sleep, poor diet and no routine. But if we remain sedentary this can only expect to get worse. When we enter menopause and beyond, it can also be accompanied with further increased fat stored in the body. Lifting weights and staying active will help keep unwanted fat from being stored (along with a balanced diet of course!).

🏋🏼‍♀️ Children are heavy. Fact. I'm currently sporting a 14kg one year old on my hips every day. So no better way to support my daily life of heavy lifting, pushing and pulling than strength training. Lifting helps with functional strength, so it can transfer into every day life making it easier to manage motherhood and help you avoid a sore back, shoulders and aches all over. 

🏋🏼‍♀️ Lifting weights wont make you bulky and instead it will help with muscle development and that 'toned' look we all go for. Toned is just a well exercised and therefore a more structurally developed muscle...FYI

🏋🏼‍♀️ Lifting weights helps with pelvic floor health. I know many mums avoid lifting weights due to fear of leaking. However like any muscle in the body, the pelvic floor needs to be strengthend by being overloaded (put under increased strain) using resistance. Alongside isolated pelvic floor exercises (squeeze and release equally as important), by lifting weights with correct breathing techniques, you are overloading the muscle tissues so they can strengthen and develop even further. All of which you can learn from my training programs which include breathing advice and optimal technique to look after your pelvic floor health (see details on these at the end).

🏋🏼‍♀️ Future proof your body for peri-menopause and menopause. Whether this may feel like the distant future or potentially around the corner, it is never too late to start training to aid your body when it enters menopause. Muscles mass decreases at an even more rapid rate as we enter menopause, so by building a good strength foundation couldn't be important for muscle mass. It also helps with hormone balance so symptoms aren’t as agressive when they do start.

🏋🏼‍♀️ Lifting weights boosts your mental health as well as your physical health. Motherhood is a wonderful but can often be overwhelming at times, so being able to focus your energy on yourself and boost your mental wellbeing as a top reason for me and why I exercise. It helps to reduce stress and also improve sleep (even if your little ones wont allow it) - so sign me up! 

Every body and everybody deserves the opportunity to look after themselves and future proof your mind, muscles and bones. Women need to lift for health, both now and in the future. It can be daunting at first so let me offer you some guidance in your journey and give you somewhere to start which isn’t intimidating, but will transform your outlook on exercise and how it can all be done from home.

If you are ready to start lifting and want some guidance in how to kickstart your journey, I am running my group postnatal program 6 Weeks to Strong Starting 9th September and sign up is now open for 10 mums only. It includes an accountability group, weekly checks ins as well as post-workout check ins, live weekly workouts with me and lifetime access to all workouts and materials.

Or if you’re more advanced and looking for a structured lifting program, The Advanced Postnatal Challenge is the perfect way to get into a routine with lifting with 4 x weekly sessions, group accountability and weekly check ins!