I’m almost 50 years old and I haven’t experienced any of the negative symptoms of menopause like a tanking metabolism, hot flashes, night sweats etc.
While I’d like to credit super human powers, I’m pretty sure I have NONE of those and need to give credit where credit is due…iron.
I’m not talking about dietary iron, I’m talking resistance or weight training. And I should specify that you don’t need to heave iron to benefit, it can be body weight, water jugs, sand bags, what ever you use you’ll reap the rewards of lifting.
I truly believe that the MAIN reason that I haven’t experienced menopausal symptoms is due to the fact that I’ve maintained my lean muscle through body weight and resistance training over the years.
The fact that I’ve worked out INTENSELY and been sensible about nutrition has helped me and I think this addition to your lifestyle will do the same for you.
If you’re not sold on resistance training, here are 11 reasons you need to be:
1. Burn more fat. When you do a resistance training program, your metabolism will stay elevated and you continue to burn fat for several hours afterward. During regular cardio exercise, you stop burning fat shortly after the workout.
2. Change your body shape. Resistance training can slim you down, create new curves, and help avoid the “middle-age spread”.
3. Boost your metabolism. The less muscle you have, the slower your metabolism will be. As women age, they lose muscle at increasing rates, especially after the age of 40. When you diet without doing resistance training, up to 25% of the weight loss may be muscle loss. Resistance training while dieting can help you preserve and even rebuild muscle fibers. The more lean mass you have, the higher your metabolism will be and the more calories you’ll burn all day long.
4. Increases strength and confidence. Resistance training increases functional fitness, which makes everyday tasks much easier. Being strong is also empowering. Not only does it improve your physical activities, it builds emotional strength by boosting self-esteem and confidence.
5. Builds strong bones. Weight bearing exercise helps build and maintain bone mass, and prevents osteoporosis.
6. Fight depression. Endorphins are released during resistance training and can lessen depression symptoms substantially.
7. Improve sports fitness. Resistance training equals more strength which will equate to better sports performance whether that be your golf game or skiing or whatever sport you enjoy.
8. Reduce injuries and arthritis. Resistance training improves joint stability and builds stronger ligaments and tendons. Keeping joints strong and mobile is always beneficial.
9. Help your heart. Resistance training also benefits the heart by increasing your “good” (HDL) cholesterol and decreasing your “bad” (LDL) cholesterol. It also lowers your blood pressure.
10. Guard against diabetes. The more lean mass you have, the more efficient your body is at removing glucose from the blood.
11. It Helps You Sleep. Nearly everything you do requires an adequate amount of sleep. A great way to increase your likelihood to get a good night of sleep is to lift weights.
I hope you’re adding resistance training to your fitness program. If you need some support with this, keep close to my blog and get my home program to keep you going.
What are the reasons YOU resistance train? What benefits have you enjoyed? Do tell…