10 Reasons Why You Should Lift Weights #StrongNotSkinny

It’s frustrating that so many women feel more pressure to be thin than they feel encouraged to be strong. Walk into a gym and you’ll see far more women on cardio machines than men. Not because we women have discovered some magic to cardio machines, but because we think it’s what we’re supposed to be doing. But the benefits of weight lifting (on it’s own) out weigh the benefits of endless cardio (on it’s own). So here’s why you should lift weights – no matter what goal you are trying to achieve in the gym.

10 Reasons Why You Should Lift Weights

My exercise lifespan has come full circle. I grew up as a gymnast – unknowingly spending 12 hours of my week building strength, mobility and skill. In my late teens and early 20s I decided cardio was the way to go. I wanted skinny – regardless of the harm I’d end up doing my body to achieve that. And then I began to seriously lift weights. And it transformed my life.

#1: Boost fat loss even after your workout.

In comparison to a 30 minute run, a 30 minute lifting session is not going to burn as many intra-workout calories. There’s no denying that. BUT…the after-burn of weight lifting far exceeds the after-burn of a run.

Cardio – such as long sweat sessions on the elliptical or treadmill – burns calories while you workout. But as soon as you stop, so does the calorie burn. On the other hand when you lift weights, your body continues to burn calories even after the workout is over.

EPOC, excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, is the amount of oxygen required to restore your body to normal. It takes work for your body to get back to homeostasis. It takes more work to repair muscle and recover from big lifts. The result? More calories burned even after you’ve left the gym.

#2: Accelerate your metabolism.

Metabolism is an oft-misused term. We talk about having a slow or fast metabolism. Or like metabolism is this static machine that is great, or doesn’t work right. It’s easy to believe that exercise is the biggest factor in maintaining a healthy but the reality is metabolism but the reality is…that’s not really how metabolism works.

Your metabolism is essentially the total caloric expenditure it takes to run your body. First and foremost, that includes the energy it takes to keep your organs running (20% of your metabolism goes just to keeping your brain happy and healthy!), lungs breathing, blood pumping and muscle moving. It also includes the energy that goes into digesting and absorbing food (yes, it takes calories to digest calories). And then comes the energy you use to workout.

Muscle is metabolically active tissue. That means that the more muscle you have, the harder your body has to work just to maintain it. That hard work contributes to your resting – basic, everyday, all day long – metabolism.

#3: Build muscle (aka: shape up).

Toned. Shape and define. Perky butt. Cut. These are phrases we’re all familiar with. I use them, you use them, fitness magazines use them. They’re appealing. They indicate sexiness and health.

Guess what they all actually mean?

MUSCLE.

Muscle creates that toned look. The shape and definition. Perkier butts, hourglass shapes and toned triceps? Pants that fit in all the right places? Muscle.

If your goal is to look curvy in all the right places…you should lift weights! Muscle has shape. So when you do lose body fat, what you reveal is toned, defined, shapely muscle.

Plus, it takes more energy (read: calories) for your body to maintain muscle mass than it does fat. So the more muscle that you can build, and the more fat that you can reduce, the bigger the burn throughout everyday life.

#4: Increase strength.

Why talk about building and muscle and building strength as two different things? Because even though the two are very much related and you can definitely gain both at the same time, they are in fact two different outcomes determined by the variables of your workout.

Muscle building, aka hypertrophy, aims to increase the size of muscle cells and tissue. Increasing strength, on the other hand, is all about building the ability of your muscle to undergo more tension, aka more weight.

Why is strength training important? Well, it’s connected to a number to the other benefits on this page including improved bone health, reduced risk of injury and improved health markers. But personally, I love feeling strong. The idea that I don’t need anyone’s help to move what I want, build what I need, or open any gosh darn jar is an huge boost of self-confidence.

#5: Improve bone health.

Women are especially vulnerable to osteoporosis. In fact, of the 10 million people who have osteoporosis in America, 80% of them are female! You can reduce your risk of this disease, and improve bone health now by lifting weights.

When you lift weights you don’t just work the muscles. Your muscles are connected by tendons to bones and joints. Just as gradually applied stress and challenge triggers your muscles to grow and adapt, they trigger bone to grow and adapt too.

#6: Decrease stress and anxiety.

You’ve heard of “runner’s high”. Well, the same endorphins that cause that post-workout jolt of happiness and energy for runner’s work their magic when you lift weights, too.

Endorphins, feel-good neurotransmitters, are released by the brain into the blood stream. The best way to release endorphins? Moderate intensity exercise, like resistance training.

#7: Build confidence.

It can be intimidating to walk into a gym and head to a weight room still typically dominated by males. Doing it anyways? Game changing. And then continuing to go back to learn skills, and improve on those skills, is where the real transformation takes place.

When you start to lift weights that you never imagined you could before…

When you hit personal bests and recognize how obvious the changes in your strength and your body are…

When you recognize that the only person that can really take charge – or take credit – is YOU…

That’s empowering. Lifting weights builds a confidence that never goes away.

#8: Improve health markers.

The benefits you reap when you lift weights reach far beyond the ones that you can see in the mirror. Weight lifting helps to prevent some chronic diseases like diabetes, and even some cancers, by decreasing LDL cholesterol, improving blood pressure and lowering inflammation. Strength training is a great way to maintain healthy blood sugar levels too.

When you lift weights, you improve your chances of living a long, high-quality and disease free life.

#9: Reduce risk of injury.

Did you know that most injuries – even in dedicated exercisers – happen outside of the gym? When you’re at the gym you’re focused. You understand the risks of picking up a barbell and you’re body and brain are tuned in to your form and strength. Every day life – picking up a kid or a box, slipping on ice, sitting at a desk all day – is when your mind wanders and injury is more likely to occur.

Strength training improves your quality of life. It builds bone strength, core strength, stability, endurance, resilience and awareness. You’re less likely to fall because you have what it takes to catch yourself. If you do fall, you’re less likely to do serious damage because your bones and joints are healthy. Live long – live happy.

#10: Prevent age-related muscle loss.

Women (and men) tend to lose muscle mass as they get older. Sarcopenia, the term used in reference to this age related loss, has both physiological and lifestyle causes. The stats are eye-opening. An average of 22% of muscle mass is lost between the ages of 30 and 70. One of the big indicators of potential sarcopenia: a lack of physical activity.

High up on the list of things that you can do to protect yourself from sarcopenia: lift weights. Lifting weights, in conjunction with good nutrition, builds muscle. The more muscle you have, and the harder you work to maintain it, the easier it will be to stay lean.