3 Reasons Why Women Should Do Heavy Strength Training
Hey Angels and Alphas,
Ever since the dawn of bodybuilding and female fitness, women have broken down into two groups: those who strength train and those who don’t. It’s hard to believe how so many women, to this day, avoid weightlifting and strength training because of their fear that they will become too muscular. If you’re in that way of thinking, there’s one simple realization you have to make – if you’re not incorporating strength training into your routine, your training routine is essentially incomplete.
If your overall goal is to tone your body, become more athletic, lose weight, look good, feel good, and be more energetic, you can’t go on spending countless hours on the treadmill expecting this to happen. You’re missing out on one very important aspect of training – resistance. It offers massive physical and mental health benefits that will not only help you achieve your desired goals faster but will also allow you to push yourself past your potential and into new, undiscovered territory for your body.
In case you’re still skeptical, here are my top three reasons why more women should be incorporating strength training into their routine… as soon as possible!
You’ll actually achieve better weight loss results.
If you’re training to slim down and lean out, and everything you’re doing is some slow, steady, low-intensity cardio, you’re not going at this in the most productive way possible.
If you simply add some weight training into your routine, you will immediately see a vast difference in the number of calories (and fat) you burn on a daily basis.
This is because strength training leaves an “afterburn” effect that will have you burning calories for the rest of the day after you’ve finished training. This effect can also be produced with high-intensity cardio (or HIIT), though if you want to maximize it, you can simply incorporate a few resistance training exercises into your post-run routine. Ultimately, strength training will lead you to burn more fat, not less.
When you’re strength training, your body remains in a fat-burning state long after you’ve finished your workout. This translates to burning up to twice as fast as you would if you only did low-intensity cardio sessions. And on top of that, building some lean muscle will actually help you burn more calories in the long-run (and look better) since muscle is more metabolically active than fat – meaning the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest.
More strength and more curves!
Muscle strength and muscle power are incredibly underrated. If you’re using resistance bands, barbells, dumbbells, even your own body weight, you’ll not only be building up muscle strength and endurance… you’ll also be adding more lean muscle mass to your body’s natural build, allowing you to get the curves you want exactly where you want them.
Less stress and more energy.
Countless studies have linked the positive impacts of weightlifting to mental health. When you’re in the gym, you’ll be passionately focused on your reps, sets, and exercises, and your mind falls into a near-meditative state.
Not to mention, if you start your day off with a workout, you’ll be energized throughout the whole day because of the inertia of movement you’ve created. People have this misconception that exercise will make you tired, whereas the exact opposite is true – a workout will fuel you with energy and have you fired up and ready to go for the rest of the day. Training has also been shown to alleviate depression and lower anxiety due to its strong anti-stress effects.
Ultimately, once you get the snowball rolling down the hill, and you see yourself struggle, push past plateaus, and grow into a new you… you will find yourself reaching a point where you let go of all your worries and you just focus on improving yourself. That’s exactly what I want for you, and I think strength training is one amazing way to achieve it.