What Does Exercising Mean To You?
I have discovered that many women do not do any form of strength training. You may be able to avoid strength training if you are in your thirties or younger. But when you reach 40, you’ve got to strength train. Around this age, you realize that something needs to change, whether due to a medical diagnosis, stress, unexplained fatigue, or aesthetic reasons. Interestingly, many women still believe that strength training is only for men. They assume that a woman’s physique would magically transform into a man’s if they consistently strength train. Fortunately, this is not true. Today, my goal is to encourage you to start strength training, especially if you are forty years or older.
Growing up, exercising to me meant running, high knees, and jumping jacks. As a matter of fact, P.E was my most dreaded class in school. Things did not get much better when I discovered burpees and mountain climbers later on. Eventually, I found other fun ways of exercising, such as dance, step aerobics, and kickboxing. I wish they had included these in our P.E curriculum in school so I could have avoided all those dreadful hours. Once I found out new and more fun ways to exercise, I only wanted to do aerobic exercises. However, somewhere in my late 30’s, I discovered strength training and all its benefits, and I have never looked back.
What Is Strength Training?
Strength training involves exercising muscles against resistance to build muscle mass, strength, and endurance. The form of resistance used could be your bodyweight or other tools, such as dumbbells, barbells, resistance bands, or even the weight machines found in gyms. If you are a woman over 40 and on the fence about strength training, here are 12 reasons to make you jump over that fence. Incorporating strength training into your health and fitness regimen will help create a healthier, happier you.
12 Reasons Every Woman Over 40 Should Strength Train
1) Improve Your Joint Health
As we get older, we lose our muscle mass and function – a condition called sarcopenia. After age 30, you begin to lose as much as 3 percent to 5 percent of your muscle mass per decade. Muscles help protect our joints from wear and tear as they absorb the forces that impact the joints. When we lose our muscle mass, our joints become more vulnerable to these forces that affect them. Repeated impact on our joints leads to aches and pains, as well as degeneration over time. Joint degeneration over time is called osteoarthritis. The good news is that strength training can help increase our muscle strength, muscle size, and functional capacity.
2) Improve Your Bone Health
Unfortunately, we also lose bone mass as we get older, especially after menopause. With aging, our bones lose calcium and other minerals. This bone mineral loss causes our bones to become more brittle and more prone to fractures. A condition called osteoporosis. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, out of 5 people with osteoporosis, 4 are women. Approximately one in two women over age 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis.
Fortunately, strength training can help you build and maintain bone density, which ultimately reduces your risk of developing osteoporosis and fractures.
3) Improve Your Everyday Function
Strength training increases your functional strength and stamina. As you grow stronger, tasks become easier to complete, and you won’t get tired quickly. That means everyday activities, such as cleaning and cooking, become a lot easier. You will start tackling some “Do it Yourself” (DIY) projects that you never thought you could handle. I used to dread DIY projects so much, but lately, I have been warming up to the idea. My greatest DIY accomplishment so far is a studio that I built from scratch for a video. After watching and re-watching tons of YouTube videos, I purchased PVC pipes, PVC connectors, and a PVC cutter from our local hardware store. Then I got some fabric from a fabric store to create the set-up.
Was it perfect? Absolutely not! But I am so proud of my achievement that I have to share the picture. You have to know how challenged I am in the DIY area to understand how much of a big deal this is. So, anyway, if there is something that you have been planning to do but have lacked the strength to get up and do, maybe all you need is to strength train so you can build up the functional strength to start that project.
4) Boost Your Self-Esteem
Strength training makes you stronger and more confident. Just like everything else, as you begin to see your positive results, you start to believe more in yourself. Research shows that poor body image causes women to diet excessively and invest tons of money in cosmetic surgery. Fortunately, studies also show that strength training is associated with improved body image perceptions and better self-esteem. Better self-esteem enables you to step out of your comfort zone to accomplish more in all areas of your life, including your career and relationships.
5) Reduce Your Risk of Falls and Injuries
When we think about falls, we believe it is a problem for older people in their 70s. We falsely assume that we are still young and agile. However, falls are not just a problem of advanced age. There is a sharp increase in falls after 40, particularly in women, as shown in this table. Therefore, prevention of falls needs to start earlier.
Strength training helps you maintain flexibility and balance, which can help you remain independent as you age. In addition to preventing falls by improving muscle and bone strength, strength training can also improve muscle endurance, flexibility, and reaction time. When we were younger, we could fall and get up right away without breaking anything. Sadly, the risk of falling and breaking a bone is higher when we are older, and we also heal much slower.
Last year, a very close friend had a seemingly minor fall and fractured her foot. It took at least six months for her foot to heal completely. Our goal is to stay safe and avoid falling. If we do fall, we want to reduce the risk of breaking a bone by making sure that we have strong bones and muscles. If all these fail and we fall and break a bone, the healing process is faster if we already have “solid” bones and muscles before the fall.
6) Improve Your Mood and Reduce Depression and Anxiety
Some of us may have been diagnosed with clinical depression. Sometimes, we may also be depressed by circumstances around us. Life can indeed be often stressful. One in eight middle-aged women in the United States has depression. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of depression is highest in women ages 40 to 59 (12.3 percent).
Compared with women who do not exercise, middle-aged women who engage in strength training have lower levels of depression and anxiety. Also, there is evidence to support treating depression with exercise, in addition to medication and psychotherapy.
7) BOOST YOUR IMMUNITY
Aging negatively affects our immune strength. However, strength training helps to mobilize disease-fighting immune cells throughout the body, slowing the effects of aging on the immune system. In fact, one single session of strength training can boost your body’s immunity by increasing your immune cells.
8) Reduce Your Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Aging and weight gain can cause our bodies to become resistant to insulin leading to prediabetes and diabetes. Studies show that strength training can improve your body’s sensitivity to insulin. Strength training and an increase in overall muscle mass can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 32 percent. Also, strength training and increased muscle mass can help manage diabetes by combatting insulin resistance, body fat, and high blood sugar levels. Creating more muscles through strength training means your muscles will use up more glucose, reducing the glucose levels remaining in the blood. Note of caution here. Strength training is NOT a replacement for adequate medical management of diabetes. Still, it can serve as an adjunct in managing your blood glucose levels when you strength train. Please follow your doctor’s treatment plan and recommendations.
9) Reduce Your Risk of High Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Disease
Cardiovascular disorder is the leading cause of death in women. One way strength training can help prevent cardiovascular disease is by lowering your bad cholesterol and increasing your good cholesterol. Overall, strength training can reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease by 17% percent.
People often ask if they should strength train if they have been diagnosed with Hypertension. Strength training can cause a temporary increase in blood pressure. Still, it can also have long-term benefits to blood pressure that outweigh the risk of a brief spike for most people. For example, studies show that dynamic resistance exercise training can significantly decrease blood pressure. My advice is to check with your doctor before you start a strength training program. I would also recommend finding a qualified medical exercise professional trained to adapt exercises to your medical conditions. The adaptations may include more extended resting periods between strength training sets to allow your blood pressure to normalize.
10) Burn More Fat To Look Slimmer and More Toned
Strength training is a proven method to alter your body composition by reducing your body fat and increasing your body’s lean mass. An increase in muscle mass means a faster metabolism because muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue. Strength training helps to improve your muscle tone to create a tighter, trimmed look. You should combine strength training with cardio if your goal is to achieve a toned, healthy physique.
When you start strength training, please don’t pay too much attention to the number on the scale. The number will go up because muscle is denser than fat, but your clothes will feel better, and you will look slimmer.
Performing the right strength training exercises in the proper sequence can help create a more streamlined appearance. Several articles say it’s a myth that lifting weights bulk you up and that you have to have testosterone to build muscles. If this is true, why then do female weight-lifters lift weight to gain muscle mass? Or why do some actresses go on a strength training program to change their physiques before playing specific roles? The correct answer is that you can perform weightlifting exercises to obtain any desired outcome. Our desired outcome can vary from time to time. There are times that we want the very feminine dancer-type look, and there are times when we want the beautiful, ripped, no-nonsense look. It just depends on the occasion.
There is nothing wrong with women having muscles or “bulking up,” as some would call it. To me, all bodies are beautiful. It’s whatever makes you feel strong, healthy, and happy. I always like to throw a note of caution here. We are more than our physical bodies and shapes. True beauty comes from within. If your only motivation to strength train is to look a certain way, sooner or later, you will be disappointed. Your body will change as you age. So, strength train to stay healthy, and think about getting the body you want as the icing on the cake.
11) Become Smarter
Strength training can help reduce or prevent the decline in brain function in older people. Studies show that strength training benefits brain functioning to improve attention and reasoning. Strength training also slows down brain degeneration and can even reduce the risk for dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
12) Sleep Better and Avoid Insomnia
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of American adults are not getting enough sleep regularly. Adults over 18 should get 7 to 9 hours of sleep daily. Strength training can help combat insomnia and help you achieve this amount of restful sleep. Now, do I sleep 7 to 9 hours each day? No. But that is the goal. How much sleep do you really need? 7? 8? 9? My recommendation is to check with your body. First, are you getting quality sleep? Second, do you get enough sleep to function at your best, daily and long term? If you answered yes to these two questions, you are probably getting adequate sleep.
7 different ways to strength train at home
Strength training can be done using various equipment. Using the different weight machines at the gym is a great option. However, if you don’t have a gym membership or cannot visit your gym, you can also strength train at home with minimal equipment. In the video below, I demonstrate how you can strength train at home using 1) your body weight, 2) a pair of dumbbells, 3) a resistance tubing, 4) a resistance band, 5) a medicine ball, 6) a kettlebell and 7) a barbell.
Final Pitch
Strength training for me is not only about all these reasons above but also about empowerment. Once you start strength training, you start focusing less on your appearance. Instead, you begin to appreciate what your body can do and, ultimately, what you can do. Through strength training, you can open doors of greatness and rule your world because you are pumping fresh blood, and your cognition is top-notch. Hey, I am doing all I can to convince you to give strength training a chance here!
A final thought – what is your best body? It is not what looks best on other women. Your best body is one that makes you feel healthy, empowered, happy, functional, and ready to take on the world. So, aim to stay healthy and find that best body!
Yours in health and fitness
Doctor Abi.
