Lifting weights is MORE important for women….Today's post:  Thursday, 12-14-2017 

This is still surprisingly little known!

Some men strength train because they want to be strong and capable.  Many men want to look good and want their muscles to make them look strong.  So, from their teens, many men do strength training.

Many women think that only men do strength training and that women don’t.  Many women think strength training will make them look less feminine.

Even women who exercise and include strength training tend to use tiny weights and exercise their arms a bit but do not do the exercises that use their largest muscles and heavier weights. They also rarely increase how much they lift to make progress and get stronger.

The now very large set of evidence that this is the REVERSE of what keeps women healthy and protects their mobility and longevity is growing every day.

1.  A bit over two weeks ago on Tuesday, 11-28, this study was listed by Medical News Today:

Women at higher cardiometabolic risk due to fat distribution

http://mnt.to/du/4KnF

This study shows that older women tend to lose muscle mass and had less than men to begin with.

They point out that lean tissue in bones and muscles is protective against type 2 diabetes and heart disease and that women tend to have less lean tissue than men.

They don't say so; but past menopause, women lose a good bit of the lean tissue they have in their bones and muscle on top of this initial disadvantage!

This tends to make women become fatter and fatter each year without feeling this as it happens or having a clue why they keep getting fatter!

Their bones become lighter and smaller and begin to contain more fat and less bone.  Their muscles lose size and mass each year too.

Active, lean bone tissue and muscles burn calories besides being protective. When they are lost, women burn fewer calories each day.  And, every year they burn even less.

Meanwhile many women continue to eat as much as they did before.  Then every month the calories that used to feed the lean tissue they no longer have, add more and more to their fat deposits!

As this study points out, this increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and strokes and heart attacks in women.  (They don’t add that this also causes fragile and easily broken bones; but it does.)

Lean muscle is protective and past a certain point this extra fat tends to be harmful.

Paradoxically, this means that to protect their health it is essential for such women to do effective strength training!

At the same time, many women have no cultural models for doing strength training and either do none or do too easy and ineffective strength training.

2.  More recently, last Friday, 12-8-2017 I got an email from Steve & Becky Holman,

steve@steveholman.com .

It had this!

“Researchers followed people age 65 or older for 15 years--and they discovered something startling about longevity…

After adjusting for BMI, chronic conditions and habits like total physical activity, drinking and smoking, subjects who used resistance training (like lifting weights) consistently were…

46 percent less likely to die during the study than other subjects...

Leader of the study, Jennifer Kraschnewski, M.D., says training muscles against resistance can keep you independent and active as you age.

You stay stronger longer—with better balance, stamina and bone density.

In other words, resistance training is critical as you age for health, mobility and independence.”

Yes that means that strength training.”

3.  There are two resources for women who want to do something about this that have some key good points:

a) Mike Matthews uses a protocol for both men and women that stresses using progressive strength training in exercises that uses the larger muscles of your legs and buttocks and lower back and upper back and chest.

He’s not perfect; but most of his advice is both well researched and tested as effective with his clients.

You do have to have or get access to a gym that has a leg press machine and barbells that can be used for deadlifts and enough weight to stay challenging as you get stronger.

You may be surprised to know that as you get stronger, you will need and be quite able to lift hundreds of pounds in these lifts.

https://www.muscleforlife.com/ is his website to access his information.

b) What if you need a very time efficient way to exercise and are paid well enough to use one that gives you the triple of quite short sessions only once or twice a week; a coach to ensure you make progress; and a quiet place with all the needed equipment.

A resource that provides exactly that and which works very well for women is called:  The Perfect Workout.

https://www.theperfectworkout.com/ 

(888) 878-1808

(408) 899-5812

The sessions only last about half an hour. 

Depending on how busy you are and what you can afford, you only go once or twice a week.

You come in and get to the first machine in about five minutes.  Sometimes during that five minutes your trainer will be finishing with the last client who got started a bit late.

Then the actual exercise session only lasts about 20 minutes.

The last five minutes is recovery time and when you and your trainer set up what you need to do next time.

It’s a bit expensive.  But that ensures that quiet space with all the needed equipment AND the trainer who only works with you.

For women who don’t have any background in strength training or even exercise, it’s extremely effective.

Many of the trainers are women.  And the men trainers are all experienced training women.

If you need that kind of expert help to do it at all, it’s “perfect.”   If you need something that time efficient to fit it into your very busy schedule, it’s “perfect.”   If you need something that is a quiet place with all the equipment set to the exact size your body needs, it’s “perfect” too!

Personal comment:  When I went until I learned enough to do it on my own, I found that having them always have me do the leg press first and do it every time instead of every other time, made it easier to make progress AND get it out of the way first  because it is their most challenging exercise.

That way you ensure you always do the exercise that women need most every time.  AND, once it’s done even though the exercises can be challenging too, you can focus on them instead of being distracted by worrying about the leg press yet to come!