Strength Training?
Posted by Danielle Bean in Health on Monday, February 09, 2009 7:30 AM
With each passing decade, the average woman loses 5 pounds of muscle, and gains 15 pounds of fat.
Don’t like those numbers? You shouldn’t. They add up to a very bad health report—with weakened bones and an increased risk of heart disease at the top of the list.
The good news is that you can take steps toward countering this trend right now—no matter what size you are, no matter how old you are, and no matter what kind of shape you’re in.
A little over year ago, when I first started looking into strength training, I was intimidated. I hadn’t lifted weights since I was on the high school track team and something about the very idea felt ludicrous to me. I was a mom, not a weight lifter!
But I got over my hesitation and I’m so glad I did. Some good things about strength training are that you can start out small, a work out doesn’t have to take much time, and adding even just a little muscle to your frame boosts your metabolism and your body’s ability to burn fat, even when you are at rest.
Whenever I skip workouts for any length of time (and I do—I am no fitness guru) I feel a significant difference in my body. But when I get back into a lifting routine, I feel much better and much fitter fast.
If you are a beginner, the workouts described in The Abs Diet for Women
There is also a good list of beginner exercises demonstrated at the end of this article at Woman’s Day (click the arrows to go through the whole thing).
How about you? Do you do strength training? If not, what’s holding you back?
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