Benefits of weight lifting for women - By MD Thordis Berger
Some women avoid lifting weights and weight training. Some fear that this kind of exercise can increase muscle mass too much and make the body look more "masculine"; others stick to cardio only.
It's about time we challenge these myths. There has been a lot of questions like should women do strength training? In this article, we list the differences between men and women, and we list the benefits of weight lifting for women.
Strength training is critical and translates into many benefits. In fact, strength training helps reduce body fat and increases lean body mass.
These changes may result in a slight increase in weight as lean mass is denser than fat.
However, women have different physiological characteristics than men. For this reason, it is harder for women to gain muscle compared to men.
Differences in hormone concentrations
The most obvious difference in the mechanism that determines adaptations to the training of men and women is the male hormone, testosterone. Both men as women produce testosterone; the difference is that men have concentrations that are 10 to 20 times higher than in women! Testosterone is a natural anabolic steroid and provides man with always higher superior muscle development. This assures man an advantage of strength, power and speed that is projected in any sport depending on these variables. In other words, man is always stronger and consequently faster.
Differences in muscle fibres
There are two main types of muscle fibres: slow twitch fibres (type I) that are used primarily in endurance efforts; and slow contraction muscle fibres (type II) that are used primarily in rapid and explosive movements.
Although women have the same types of muscle fibres as men (fast twitch fibres and slow twitch fibres), the number and size of the muscle fibres in women are smaller and shorter than in men.
Differences in strength and power
For the reasons explained above, women simply do not have the same genetic profile and hormonal factors.
On average, a woman's total body strength is about 60% of the overall body strength of a man. The average upper trunk strength of the women is between 25 to 55% when compared to men. As for lower body strength, the average is 70-75% in relation to men. So it is not surprising that most women have greater difficulty lifting weights with arms and upper body than with the legs and lower body.
In conclusion, women can and should train bodybuilding without worrying.
There are numerous benefits of weight lifting for women, such as:
• Increase in lean mass (muscles), decrease in fat percentage.
• Increased functional strength for day-to-day activities (for example: play with children, carry groceries, climb stairs);
• Increased bone strength, i.e. reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
• Fighting muscle loss due to age: without training strength, adults lose 6 to 10 pounds of muscle every decade.
