Pink dumbbells, fat burners, and weight-controlling powders. Selling us products is all that the fitness industry is about. To sell more products, companies in the fitness industry are trying to convince women that resistance training makes them look bulky, is not good for their health, and can affect their fertility in the future.
But thanks to scientists and scientific journals, we now know it is not the truth. In fact, adding resistance training to your physical activity can have a great health benefit, especially for us women.
Alone in the USA 80% of the individuals who have osteoporosis are women. That is 8 million women. According to Harvard Health Publishing, age-related changes, being inactive and having a poor nutrition style will lead to a decrease in bone mass by 1% per year after the age of 40. Here is where resistance training comes into play. As some studies have shown, having a strong muscle mass will not only help you reduce potential injuries but also build bone. Putting your bones under stress can stimulate bone-forming cells into action.
Losing bone mass is not the only thing we might experience as we age. Studies have shown that inactive individuals might experience a 3-8% reduction in muscle mass per decade and, as a result, also a reduction in the resting metabolic rate (RMR), which is how many calories your body needs to function at rest, and an increase in fat accumulation.
You might be saying: "well, I am active, I do cardio, this should be enough." It is not.
What you need to know is that muscle tissues need more energy to function at rest than fat. So, having lower muscle mass means having a lower resting metabolic rate.
To make it easier to understand, consider the following scenario:
After calculating her total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), Sarah knows she needs 2000 kcal to maintain her weight.
TDEE= non-resting energy expenditure (NREE) + resting energy expenditure (REE)
As Sarah gets older, she might be losing 3–8% of her muscle mass per decade. Now, losing muscle mass means her resting metabolic rate will go down, and consequently her TDEE. Instead of needing 2000 kcal to maintain her weight, 1800 kcals would be enough for her. Not having the knowledge, Sarah might continue consuming 2000 kcals which means eating in a surplus. Before she even notices, Sarah will be gaining around 2 pounds each month.
Weight gain = Calories in > Calories out
As studies have shown, incorporating resistance training into your workout schedule may help you increase lean weight by 1.4 kg, increase resting metabolic rate by 7%, and reduce fat weight by 1.8 kg in a period of ten weeks.
Putting the muscles under tension and resistance will cause damage to the muscle tissues. As a result, your body will try to repair the damage as quickly as possible and build a stronger, bigger muscle. In this process, you will be burning fat in two ways:
Firstly, and in contrast to steady state cardio, you will be burning calories up to 24 hours after working out. This process is called (EPOC). The acronym stands for "Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption" or what many refer to as the after-burn effect. EPOC is caused by an increase in oxygen consumption and metabolism (resting energy expenditure) when the body recovers, repairs, and returns to its pre-exercise state after activity.
Secondly, and as mentioned before, the muscle mass plays an important role in determining the RMR. So, as your body is building bigger muscles, you are promising yourself a successful weight control plan in the long term.
If someone had told me 10 years ago that lifting heavy would help me be in shape, I would have walked away before they finished talking, but educating myself and approaching this with curiosity rather than saying no from the beginning has helped me improve and grow.
Resistance training has not only helped me improve physically but also mentally. I learned how to be more disciplined, consistent, and most importantly, patient.
You need to make sure that your goal is YOUR goal, not what people think it should be. Don’t seek a certain body image, instead seek to be strong, and know that you are beautiful exactly as you are right now. After all, being strong and passionate, Princess Fiona was beautiful in both ways 😉
So, take the decision now to educate yourself, email us at fitandfeature@gmail.com if you need any help with your strength training routine, sign up to our workshop, and keep reading our blog posts to learn as much as you possibly can. You might not see a result from the first day but trusting the process will eventually bring you to places you never thought you would reach💙💪🏼
Your Fit & Feat. team!
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