Strength training offers many unique health benefits to women besides making them feel stronger and growing their muscles. Here’s a comprehensive guide on the benefits of strength training for women. With these valuable insights, you’ll be motivated to start resistance training workouts.
What is Strength Training?
Let’s first understand what strength training is before we go any further. Strength training refers to workouts that force your muscles to move against resisting force to boost your strength and endurance. The best exercises for doing so include:
Single-leg box squat
Reverse lunge
Pushup
Upright row
Deadlift
Kettlebell swing
Renegade row
Lateral lunge
Goblet squat
The best thing about these resistance exercises is that you can still do them at home. Dr. Susan Lasch advises women new to strength exercises to start with weight resistance workouts such as squats and sit-ups without weights. They should only proceed to use low-resistance bands or weights after several to lower the risk of injury.
Benefits of Strength Training for Women
If you’re still unsure of the benefits of strength training for women, look no further. Here’s a look at several ways strength training will help you.
Enhances Your Mood
Research shows that resistance training among tween and teen girls between 10 and 16 years old helps boost self-esteem. The JAMA Psychiatry journal, published in 2018, further supports this claim with over 30 clinical trials that show doing strength training at least two times a week lowers the chances of depression. This shows why you should partake in resistance exercises to boost your mood and reduce the risk of any depressive symptoms.
Resistance Training Helps Protect Joints
Physical therapists advise their patients to perform strength training exercises to reduce hip and joint pain. These exercises work by strengthening your muscles, which in turn offer better joint support. The enhanced joint support leads to reduced stress and pain across your body.
Reduced joint pain is especially beneficial to women during their childbearing years as it relieves the body’s fatigue. This aids in promoting healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery.
Resistance Training Boosts Bone Density
Another advantage of strength training is that it assists in boosting bone density. Alison Schroeder, a sports medicine specialist at the University Hospitals, further supports this claim by arguing that resistance training activates bone-forming cells, resulting in denser and steadier bones. The higher bone density helps women be less likely to suffer from osteoporosis and bone thinning when they are older.
Builds and Maintains Muscle Mass
One report shows that most Americans, particularly women, suffer from muscle mass loss. According to Corinne Bazella, MD, resistance workouts that build and maintain muscles are especially important to women in their peri- and post-menopausal women stages. Otherwise, there’s a greater risk of weight gain experienced during menopause or metabolic infections such as diabetes.
Other reasons why women need to build and strengthen their muscles through strength training include:
Enhanced balance and protection against falls and injuries
Better range of mobility and motion
Improved muscle and joint pain management
As you can see, strength training offers many benefits for women that help improve their quality of life. Therefore, it’s wise to incorporate resistance exercises into your routine to enhance your overall well-being.
