Building strength and stamina is KEY for women. While I am all for chivalry letting my husband take care of the “boy jobs” the reality is there very well could be a day when I am having to do these things for myself. I want to be prepared.
We so often go about our days not really thinking about the strength and stamina it takes for us to get our daily chores, errands, cleaning, cooking and general running around done. Not to mention extra things that pop up such as raking, gardening, mowing the lawn snow shoveling, fixing a broken fence, changing a tire, putting away and taking out the lawn furniture every year.
Building strength and stamina with resistance training is essential for overall fitness. Without it, your muscles will begin to lose tone, this is called muscle atrophy.
If you aren’t actively building muscle, you are most likely losing it. Muscle requires constant work to keep it’s tone, definition and strength.
When we pass the age of 20 we begin to lose our ability every decade to naturally keep our muscle mass due to gradual hormone changes. If 20 or older, you are definitely losing muscle, unless you are working hard to build it.
AND, if you are peri or menopausal, you have less and less estrogen working for you to help you maintain that muscle (That is just ONE of estrogens’ many important jobs you may not have known about!)
I know, it’s just not fair, but it’s true!
Just a few weeks of not using them actively can cause our muscles to begin atrophying. This is why and we get older, things just don’t look the same… or hold their shape, or dare I say sag a little bit.
Just a few of the benefits of resistance training:
- Stops muscle loss and helps begin the rebuilding process.
- Makes daily activities easier, from carrying groceries to rearranging your furniture.
- Gives you a sculpted look.
- Increases bone density, giving you a strong, stable skeleton.
- Improves balance and coordination.
- Prevents decay of the pads between your bones, so that you do not hurt when you move.
- Causes the tendons to grow deeper into your bones, reducing the chance of tearing.
- Builds muscles which will burn more calories, even while you are resting.
- Reduces blood pressure by making your heart stronger.
- Increases your metabolism.
- Decreases blood sugar, which helps prevent insulin resistance (the precursor to diabetes).
- Improves your aerobic capacity: the stronger your muscles, the better your endurance.
- Gives you a general feeling of confidence – If you are strong, you feel strong.!
- Prevents the weak, frail “skinny-fat” look.
- Raises your energy level. The more muscle you have, the less effort you have to exert and the more energy you have available.
- Secures future protection against falls and fractures. If you age with dense bones, strong muscles and good balance, your risk of injury plummets.
- Creates 22% more afterburn than aerobic exercise does. (the afterburn is the fat and calories that your body burns in the hours after you have finished your workout.)
Why aerobic exercise is not enough
“ “Can’t I just go for a run and build muscle? I’m using muscles when I run!”
The answer is NO!
Running or other aerobic exercise will not work as a replacement for resistance training. They are different exercises and provide different benefits. While running, biking and other aerobic exercises do help in building strength and endurance in your heart muscle, these types of exercise do not deliver the needed stress to your bones, muscles and tendons. The stress applied to them through strength training causes your muscles, tendons and even bones to have to adapt by getting stronger… and better looking!
In order to build strength, you have to pull hard on tendons, do microscopic damage to your muscles and literally bend your bones. Going out for a run or putting in an hour on the treadmill will not do this sufficiently.
This is not to say that aerobic exercise is not important: It is! But it is not resistance training. You need both.
Have you heard about “skinny fat”?
Another danger of focusing on cardio or aerobic exercise and letting resistance training slide is the situation of what is known as “skinny fat.” Skinny fat is a condition in which a person appears thin on the outside, but inside they are unhealthy and at risk for illness.
If you are losing weight through diet and exercise but not simultaneously doing resistance training, you are not only losing fat: you are losing muscle as well. Your body will burn through your muscles tissue as certainly as it will burn through your fat stores. As you lose muscle, you lose a major source of energy, muscle definition and you slow down your metabolism.
Did you also know that as you lose muscle, your bones become weak, because they do not have to do as much work. After the age of 50, the risk of osteoporosis is 42% in women and 27% in men.
Hidden fat is also a risk for the “skinny fat” person. Many slim people actually have excessive amounts of visceral fat. This is the fat that surrounds the organs. This is the most dangerous fat to have because as it builds up around the organs the chance of disease increases drastically.
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There is no substitute for lifting heavy weights a minimum of 2 to 3 times each week in addition to your aerobic exercise. To read the article about the benefits of using dumbbells vs resistance machines CLICK HERE
If you are ready to get some help and guidance with your training I would love to work with you in my private Sandpoint studio where I help women (only 🙂 in small group and private training sessions. CLICK HERE to learn more about how you can try the studio our to see if it is a good fit for you!
