Do you do resistance / strength training? 🏋🏼♀️
For me, resistance training is an essential form of movement for every woman. That can be lifting your own body weight, using resistance machines or a resistance band or, my absolute favourite, lifting free weights (dumbbells).
So many women worry that if they lift heavy weights they will bulk up but we don’t have enough testosterone, even before levels start to decline, for that to happen.
Lifting weights will instead ‘rev up’ your metabolism in a way that causes your body to continue to burn fat at rest. This just doesn’t happen from cardio training. It is therefore a game changer for our body shape and if inch loss is your goal, I strongly encourage you to start lifting weights.
But there are so many more benefits of resistance training related to declining hormones.
💪🏻 Whilst estrogen is the fiery hormone it has over 400 other functions including maintaining the structure and function of the muscle, tendon and ligament tissue. When it declines the tendons can feel it. Resistance training is great for building and maintaining healthy muscles and tendons.
☠️ Our bone health is reliant on estrogen, (alongside optimum nutrient absorption). We can lose as much as 20% of our bone density in the first few years of menopause due to the decline in estrogen. BUT… Bones are alive and re-modelling is a lifelong process. Poor bone density does not have to mean poor bone quality and resistance training will keep your bones strong.
🥵 AND resistance training can decrease hot flushes by up to 39%!
With all that said, below is a short Weights for Women full body workout from my online Weights for Women programme.
You will need to complete a warm up before you begin.