Feeling a little weaker these days? Is it getting harder to pick up that overstuffed grocery bag?
You may be losing muscle mass, and that’s not a good thing. Women begin to lose muscle in their 40s, and without stimulation, it continues to diminish into old age.
But maintaining your overall strength is essential! After consistent weight lifting, women are less likely to fall and develop osteoporosis. Weight-lifting women even have a slower rate of weight gain after menopause.
Most importantly, your muscle mass is a major predictor of your “health span” — how long you live well, live independently, and can accomplish everything you want.
Let’s look at four major health benefits when you hang onto muscle:
Benefit #1: Blood Sugar
More muscle is better for your metabolism. It lowers your risk of diabetes by removing more glucose from the blood to improve insulin sensitivity.
Benefit #2: Fat Burn
More muscle slows down the metabolic decline that occurs with aging. It increases your basal metabolic rate, so you burn more calories and stave off weight gain.
Weight-lifting women tend to have less visceral fat — the fat around our organs that contributes to diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, inflammation, and heart disease. Women who regularly strength-train reduce their cardiovascular risk by some 30%!
Benefit #3: Mood
Menopausal women with less visceral fat also tend to have fewer mood swings and hot flashes.
For all women, weight lifting elevates mood, reduces depression and anxiety, improves sleep, and encourages well-being, among other mental health benefits, just like walking or running does.
Benefit #4: Bone Strength
Building muscle strength stimulates healthy bone density. Through your lifespan, your bone remodels itself, continually building a new scaffold to manage the stresses of daily movement.
Certain cells break down bone while others construct new bone. As you age, the builder cells become lazier, so there’s more breakdown than reconstruction. When you strength-train, you create the right stresses to keep bones dense and lower your osteoporosis risk.
Getting Started
As a lifelong athlete and exercise enthusiast, I’m a fan of all forms of full-body exercise. I find that, for most women (especially those new to working out), strength training in a structured setting — with a personal trainer or in a group fitness class — can be especially helpful.
Most gyms and fitness centers feature instruction suitable for various abilities and age groups. For older women, SilverSneakers classes are designed to keep senior hearts, brains, bones, muscles, and joints healthy. Younger people with more flexibility, range of motion, and ability to do explosive movements may benefit most from Tabata or HIIT classes.
The real key is a willingness to start!
If you’re new to weight lifting, perhaps engage with a coach or personal trainer for a few sessions to learn proper form and determine the exertion level right for you. After this introduction, you can easily transition to an excellent, convenient, and cost-effective online strength-training program.
To start seeing benefits, complete an online or in-person strength-training session at least twice a week for at least 20 minutes per session. In each session, include moves that work both the upper and lower body and the core (abdominal) muscles.
A Word About Bulk
My female patients sometimes tell me they’re afraid lifting weights — even hand weights — will make them bulky like men. But for most women, the result is simply better toning and more muscle power.
For a long time, the fitness world emphasized endurance-type cardio training to benefit the heart. But exercise physiologists now find that endurance cardio can’t impart the same benefits as applied strength training in building and retaining muscle mass.
Increasingly, studies recommend that we all incorporate strength training into our workout regimen, balanced with a cardio effort. Each week, two to three days of weight training plus two to three days of cardio deliver a healthy muscular and respiratory fitness balance.
We’re Here to Help Weight-Lifting Women!
It won’t do you any good to build muscle for three months and then quit because you hate weight lifting. That’s why your close relationship with a concierge physician is so beneficial.
As an athlete with a sports medicine fellowship under my belt, I’m excited to provide personal guidance to my patients on the strength and exercise strategies most feasible for them.
It’s worthwhile for us to chat about your previous experiences — what you liked or didn’t like. Then, together, we figure out the best fit for your needs (perhaps even starting with a brief rehabilitation program if a problem joint or muscle group needs attention).
If you’ve never strength-trained before, our team can introduce you to trainers who’ll make you comfortable and help you enjoy your workout. If you haven’t lifted a weight in 20 years, jumping into a group strength class may be key. We can also advise more seasoned athletes who may just need a word of advice to stay motivated with their daily exercise regimen.
Your Priority Physicians doctor will also hold you accountable for following your workout strategy — and that’s important. We’re here to enrich your quality of life, even as you age.
Time to build — or rebuild — some muscle? Give us a call to get started.
