As women we need to do strength training. Building some muscle boosts our metabolism, aids in fat loss and sculpts a great shape!
Yet, most women offer reasons for why they’re still not strength training including lack of time to get to the gym, the intimidation factor of all those machines at the gym, and costs of a gym membership.
Yet the best “machine” you could possibly use is right there at hand – absolutely free and available 24/7. You don’t need much room and no special facilities are required.
Yes, it’s YOU. Or to be precise, your body.
Bodyweight training offers the benefits of traditional strength training using your body instead of weights. The whole point of strength or resistance training is to progressively “overload” your muscles, which in turns makes you stronger.
There are so many benefits to this kind of training that it would be crazy not to give it a go.
Strength training using your bodyweight:
- helps keep the weight off for longer and is the fastest, most effective way to lose body fat
- protects your bone density and muscle mass
- makes you stronger and fitter
- improves balance, coordination and posture
- plays an important part in disease prevention
- boosts energy levels and mood with “happy” hormones
- improves quality of sleep
- the EPOC or Afterburn effect means you keep burning calories AFTER the workout, so more calories are burned overall
- slows the natural decline of Human Growth Hormone. Growth hormones are often referred to as the natural Fountain of Youth, helping us maintain lean body mass and assisting in fat burning
- hormones are naturally released that repress appetite (slow steady cardio tends to increase appetite)
Let’s consider the pushup as an example of a bodyweight exercise. One of the most common of all strength movements but one of the most challenging for women. Women typically have less pound for pound upper body strength than males so achieving pushups on toes can be quite a goal to achieve.
But because we’re talking “progressive” overload, it’s probably more appropriate to start with incline pushups against a wall or bench. “Progressive” simply means that we’ll build gradually towards the goal rather than going all in and being injured.
Using this same exercise we can progress pushups from knees or an incline up to toes. Or maybe using different hand positions right through to super challenging exercises like the Spiderman pushups where you bring your knee round to your elbow as you lower in the pushup. This is a movement that will challenge the strongest of athletes.
And it’s all with your bodyweight.
Using your bodyweight for exercises and then gradually adding more and more challenge will keep your workouts fresh and your muscles challenging and constantly working to get stronger.
And because we know that exercise and progression of exercise in particular can be overwhelming, we’ve tried to make it as simple as possible with the Menopause Belly Fix workout program.
It’s designed specifically for women who are new or returning to exercise after a long break. We show you exactly how to modify each exercise so it’s right for your level of fitness. Whether you have a little equipment or just use your bodyweight, you’ll find all those strength benefits from training with Menopause Belly Fix.
Research very clearly shows that bottom line – diet and exercise play an increasingly important role in relief of menopausal symptoms in women over 40.
If taking back control of your body and your health is important to you, then read through the Menopause Belly Fix website and see how Rachel turned her health around dropping two dress sizes. . Elizabeth lost over 20 pounds and is fitter than she’s ever been before, while Margaret claims the workouts are her “precious me time” (and don’t we all need that! ).
>> Click here to read more about how Menopause Belly Fix can help you.