According to the Mayo Clinic, strength training offers all sorts of physical and psychological benefits, especially to women. Strength training offers improved muscle and bone health, increased metabolism, and an improved feeling of well being. Forget any preconceived notions about weight lifting and start a strength training program today.
Warm Up
Before lifting weights, use a light warm-up to get your body ready for exercise. A warm up can be brisk walking, cycling or the elliptical trainer. Warming your muscles up makes them more elastic and helps prevent injury during training. With improved blood flow supplying energy, a warm-up will also improve strength and performance, as well as reducing soreness.
Lift Heavy Weights
Drop the pink dumbbells and lift some serious iron. Light weights with lots of reps don't do much for strength or muscle tone, according to the National Strength and Conditioning Association. In order to stimulate muscles to strengthen and grow, you'll need to use challenging weights. If you are able to complete more than 15 repetitions with a weight, it's probably too light. Don't worry about getting bulky or musclebound. Most women do not produce enough testosterone to grow an abundance of muscle.
Use Compound Exercises
Women are often taught light, single joint exercises because they are less intimidating. They can also be a waste of time. To keep your training sessions as efficient as possible, choose exercises that work more than one joint at a time. Exercises like the overhead press, squat and deadlift stimulate lots of muscle at one time, producing faster results. By forcing multiple muscles to coordinate, you'll provide a greater neuromuscular stimulus, leading to faster strength gain. For more information on designing your strength training program, visit the American Council on Exercise.
References
- The mayo Clinic: Strength training: Get stronger, leaner and healthier
- "Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning - 3rd Edition"; National Strength and Conditioning Association; 2008
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