Why Strength Training is Definitely for Girls
There are so many moments in every day life where women think to themselves, “I wish I were stronger."
Strength training, or as I’ll affectionately refer to it as “lifting,” has so many perks that extend beyond just opening jars and carrying stuff.
Some of these are:
• Improving your body composition
• The health benefits and links with longevity are endless (just ask your GP!)
• Learning new skills and hobbies
• Become increasingly impressed with what your body is capable of
• It’s actually really fun!
The girls of The Booty Parlour are a testament to so many of these benefits, in particular enjoying themselves and feeling constantly challenged and engaged with their training programs.
Before I give my overview of the benefits of resistance training, I wanted to touch on one of the major obstacles I find when discussing strength training with women. It’s this outdated and unnecessary fear of becoming masculine or bulky.
The “lifting weights will make me bulky” theory
First of all, those of us who have muscle have worked bloody hard to get it. Please don’t diss what we work really hard to achieve. As Sheri Stiles points out in her blog on Eat to Perform, saying that lifting weights won’t make you bulky is actually downplaying the hard work and dedication it takes to be strong, as growing muscle is what is referring to as “bulk”. So I won’t suggest that you won’t get bulky by lifting, because that might be what you are after. You might have different goals, and that is totally fine too!
Secondly, if it were that easy to become very bulky, and we put muscle on in an instant, wouldn’t there be a whole lot more healthy, muscly people around rather than overweight and unfit ones? You are not going to become Arnie by doing a few weights sessions a week. Think about it.
Strength training is for everyone. This piece is a response to the suggestions that girls shouldn’t lift heavy. Wrong.
Why your body loves strength training (and why you should want some bulk!)
1. Increased muscle mass
Resistance training helps you grow muscle, which in turn gives you the capacity to get stronger, look better naked and burn fat more efficiently. But I'm not talking about 3kg dumbbells. Heavy weights mean your muscles will adapt and grow.
2. Shape your rig
You’ll be amazed at how lifting actually changes your body shape. Most girls are surprised when they start loving their shape and curves more after they start to lift. Forget skinny fat. When you train with weights clothes fit differently, you’ll feel leaner (because you are) and boy, do I love the exclamations from my girls when they screech “look at my baby muscles! They’re showing!”
3. Burn fat & improve your metabolism
Yep, lifting weights means you’ll be expending more energy, even when you rest after your squat session (which is when the magic happens by the way, so make sure you're getting enough rest!).
The more muscle mass that you have, the better your resting metabolic rate is, A.K.A, burning more calories daily, so you get more bang for your buck when you want to burn body fat.
4. Think of your bones
Resistance training assists with maintaining bone density & bone remodelling. Our bones are thirsty for it. Basically, bones need an external load to keep regenerating, to prevent them from becoming weak and fragile, and from impending doom. Science.
As women, we are prone to reduced bone density as we age, particularly as the hormone estrogen has an effect on peak bone mass. Strength training will assist in preventing bone loss.
5. Age well
One of the major causes of death and injuries in the elderly is from a simple fall and having poor balance and coordination, weak muscles and brittle bones isn’t helping matters. Targeted strength training can help with all of the above.
After the age of 40, people lose around 8% of their muscle mass each decade, but physical exercise that promotes increased muscle mass has been proven to slow down this process.
Feel-good neurotransmitters that can be created by exercise, such as serotonin, endorphins and dopamine, assist in maintaining brain vitality during the aging process, give us more energy and drive, are associated with cellular healing and other cognitive functions.
Exercise, in particular weight bearing exercise, helps people age gracefully, recover faster and stay energetic.
Strength training is good for the soul (So much more to it than just the physical benefits!)
1. It’s uplifting
Brooke Rockefeller from Barbell Babes nailed this one: “Learning new movements is humbling and takes patience; they teach you dedication. Celebrating the dedication to these movements when you finally succeed is uplifting.”
Uplifting. Hehe.
2. Improve your self esteem
Strength training has been shown to improve self-esteem in healthy younger and older adults as well in cancer, cardiac rehabilitation and depression patient populations.
Over time as you get better at it and start to feel and perceive yourself as getting stronger, you develop a sense of mastery and confidence. Similarly, seeing the results and hearing from others that they can see the changes taking place is a great motivator and a way to boost your confidence. You’ll be flexing in the mirror in no time!.
3. New challenges
Just like learning new movements and skills, striving for continual improvement and progress across your strength training means that you’re constantly challenging yourself to be better. You’ll take greater pride in what you and your body can achieve. It also helps you set goals and keeps you focused.
As well as keeping my broader goals written down and creating vision boards, I’ve got a note on my phone where I store my training-specific goals, and it gets added on to all the time. I don’t replace my old goals or delete anything, I just add my new or modified goals, because it’s awesome to look back and see how far I’ve come
4. Lifting is therapy
When shit hits the fan, you’re stressed out or just feel “blah” then you know you can go to the gym or to your personal training space, focus on your program, give it your all (or everything you’re capable of, that day), sweat it out, and feel better for it afterward.
Strength training can help relieve stress, lack of energy, sleeping difficulties, and can - and probably will - improve your mood. Notably, strength training has been proven to assist with reducing anxiety and assists many of my clients in coping with anxiety and depression weekly.
5. Be part of a community
Being part of a group of people who encourage each other, inspire each other and share their progress and challenges is like having a second family. Hence the emergence of terms and hashtags such as “fit fam.”
Our community was inspired by the way fitness and lifting brings people together and provides a way for women who lift to feel connected with others, as well as to continue to educate and develop themselves as lifters
Come and get strong with us!
We love how strength training for women has grown in recent years! We’re so proud of the community we’ve been able to build through this time at The Booty Parlour #teamBooty. If you’re interested in joining us, check out our HQ @thebootyparlour on Instagram and feel free to join our waitlist to come and check out our new studio once we are open in Newport, Sydney!
Jess Z is founder of The Booty Parlour, a crazy dog lady and a big fan of lifting weights. Check out her Instagram @jess.zukowski to check out what Jess is up to and see her latest lifts.