I almost hate that I even have to write an article on why women should lift weights.
Not because I do not want to educate you on it, that there is even a stigma that women should not lift weights.
Being a coach that trains majority women, the physical, emotional, and mental health benefits lifting weights can bring a woman in particular is through the roof.
For those who may have been on the fence whether to lift weights or not, or who have heard reasons as to why women shouldn’t lift weights, I am here to clear all of that up for you.
I am going to give you 4 proven reasons why women should lift weights.
By the end of this article you are going to be ready to start deadlifting up cars.
Okay, maybe that not extreme, but you get the point.
Let’s dive in.
4 Reasons Why Women Should Lift Weights
Before We Get Started…
The biggest issue I hear when people talk about females lifting weights is that they don’t want to get big and bulky.
Let me put it to you like this.
Just because you drive your car to and from work everyday, doesn’t make you a Nascar driver.
Just because you played soccer on the middle or high school team, doesn’t mean you are going to play on the Olympic team.
Point being, lifting weights does not inherently make you look like a professional bodybuilder.
Trust me, if it was that easy, I would be huge by now.
I have dedicated my entire life to trying to get “big and bulky” and I am no where close to what a professional bodybuilder looks like.
Why?
Because it is hard. It takes time. It takes a ton of effort.
You lifting weights 3-4x a week for 45-70 minutes is not enough to make you big and bulky. I promise you.
On top of that, gaining actual size to your frame is done via nutrition as well.
If you are not eating more calories than your body burns, aka being in a calorie surplus, you will not gain that much muscle size if any at all.
All of this to say
Lifting weights does not inherently make you big and bulky. There are multiple other factors that come into play.
Do not be afraid of lifting weights for this reason.
Actually, it is the exact opposite. You should be looking to lift weights to attain the physique you want. Let’s talk about that now.
Reason #1 Why Women Should Lift Weights – Aesthetic Appearance
Most women want to “lose weight”, which I totally understand.
There is nothing wrong with that, again I coach mainly women in their weight loss journeys.
Yet here is the thing, you don’t actually want to just lose weight.
You want to look a certain way.
You want defined shoulders and arms in your dress.
You want bigger glutes.
You want leg definition.
Hell let’s just say it, you want to look good naked.
There is nothing wrong with that, at all.
Yet I am here to tell, you are not going to achieve that through nutrition and cardio alone.
Why?
Because you need to build lean muscle mass in order to show the definition in your shoulders, or to have bigger glutes.
If you solely do cardio and change your nutrition, you will be able to lose weight, but you will end up being “skinny fat”.
You won’t be fat necessarily, but you also won’t look the way you want to look. You won’t have the definition in your shoulders or arms.
This is where lifting weights comes in.
If you are wanting that “look”, as opposed to just losing weight, I would highly suggest making best friends with the weights.
I did an entire YouTube video on how to set up your own workout routine. If you want to watch that you can head HERE.
Now onto the next point, a concern for many women, your metabolism.
Reason #2 Why Women Should Lift Weights – Boosting Metabolism
“My metabolism is just so slow! That is why I can’t lose weight!”.
Sound familiar?
First off I would double check that video by watching this YouTube video here.
Second, even if your metabolism is a tad slow, don’t worry because I got your back.
One of the great things about lifting weights is being able to boost your metabolism.
When you add lean muscle mass to your body, you automatically boost your metabolism.
Lean muscle requires more oxygen to get pumped to it, which means more work for your body, which means more calories burned, aka boosting metabolism.
Yet, truthfully, it is not that much.
The reason building lean muscle mass can help your metabolism is because of the other things you also have to do to acquire this new lean muscle that compounds on top of each other to have a great effect.
For starters you have to push yourself in the gym by having intense workouts.
I don’t mean being out of breath and jumping around like a kangaroo, I mean pushing heavier weights to muscle failure.
This in itself is burns calories, before and after your workout. That is why it can be so beneficial for boosting your metabolism.
If you want to know how much weight you should be lifting during your workouts you can read my article I wrote on that HERE .
Therefore now not only are you physically adding lean muscle which is going to help boost your metabolism, but also the workouts you are doing are going to burn calories before and after your workout.
Yet we aren’t done there.
To build lean muscle mass you are going to have to eat high protein.
This is because protein is the only macronutrient that can build and retain lean muscle mass.
Protein has the highest TEF, Thermic Effect of Food.
What does this mean? Your body has to burn calories to digest the food you eat throughout the day.
Yet your body has to burn the most calories when it digests protein, over carbs and fats.
Therefore if you are eating a high protein diet you are automatically going to be burning more calories.
I did an entire YouTube video on how eating high proteins helps burn fat, you can watch it HERE.
So now you have the fact that you are pushing yourself during your workouts, you are eating high protein, and you are building lean muscle mass.
All of this compiles to have a great “boosting” effect on your metabolism.
Which means you can eat more food without gaining weight and your body basically burns more calories doing nothing. Who doesn’t want to do that?
If you want a more in depth look at what you can do to boost your metabolism, I did an in-depth YouTube video on that topic you can check out HERE .
Long story short, if you want a healthy and high metabolism, make sure you are following a structured weight training program.
Reason #3 Why Women Should Lift Weights – Strong Bones
One of the most common medical conditions women deal with as they age is dealing with some sort of osteoporosis.
As you age your bone density decreases, muscle mass decreases, and you become more susceptible to osteoporosis.
Resistance training has been shown to to aid in the maintenance of musculoskeletal health as we age.
This means if you stick with a consistent weight lifting program, not only are you going to be able to look and feel good in the short term, but you will improve the quality of your life in the long term.
On top of that, think about the exercises done in a strength training program.
Squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, push ups, etc.
Don’t you think as you age, it would be a good idea to be strong in picking things up off of the ground, or reaching over your head to put something on or get something off the cabinet?
You know, everyday normal life occurrences?
Again this will maintain or improve the quality of life as you age.
So you aren’t on a walker at 60 years old or cannot play with your grandkids or travel the world at age 70.
Truly, that is what matters to me and all of the clients I coach.
Losing weight and looking good is awesome, but what you do 30 40 50 years from now, that matters too.
Lifting weights is not just a short term fix, yet a long term solution.
Reason #4 Why Women Should Lift Weights- Mental Health
This is by far the most important reason for me, which is why I saved the best for last.
It seems that every single time I get onboard a new online coaching client, get them set up, and shoot them over their workout program, within the next 1-3 weeks they are telling me how accomplished they feel.
How strong they feel.
How empowered they from completing the workouts. From lifting weights. From pushing themselves to lift as heavy as they can in their workouts.
They tell me they feel confident in themselves. They are proud of themselves.
All from completing the workouts and lifting weights.
This matters. This matters a lot.
I distinctly remember coaching ladies in person and telling them to go pick up the 100lb kettlebell.
Every single one would look at me like I had 6 heads.
Me, knowing they are a bad a** and could do it, insisted once again they they do it.
The moment they picked that heavy kettlebell off of the ground and their face lit up like a Christmas tree, those are images I will never forget.
That sense of feeling strong and feeling empowered that you get from lifting weights is just something, anecdotally speaking, you can’t seem to replicate anywhere else.
The most important part of this is this translates to other areas of your life.
Let’s keep it in the realm of fitness for now.
If you feel accomplished, proud, and confident, guarantee it will be a hell of a lot easier to have “motivation” or “willpower” to stick to your diet.
Not because of any magic sorcery, simply because you completed your weight training workout and feel good. This gives you all of the motivation and willpower you need because you want to keep it up.
Now take it outside of fitness.
If you get done a heavy, intense, weight training session, you now know you can overcome obstacles.
You can push through hard times. You believe in yourself.
Therefore when other obstacles or hard times come up, you will have the confidence to tackle them.
Whether be at work, in relationships, in school, or wherever.
Again, to me and my clients, that is what this fitness game is about.
This is why women should lift weights. It is not only changing your body, but changing you entire life, for the better.
Understand Now Why Women Should Lift Weights?
I hope this article gave you some mental, physical, and emotional insight on why women should lift weights.
If you enjoyed this article, I have one ask of you, and for those who know me I don’t ask much.
Share this article with a lady who needs it. Please.
I want women to feel empowered, to feel strong, to realize how much of a bad ass they are.
By coaching majority women for 4+ years now, some of the things I have seen women do in the gym is something I still struggle to believe if it is real to this day.
You are incredibly strong. You are a bad a**. Own it. Embrace it.
I promise it will make your journey a hell of a lot more enjoyable.
Look to talk soon. -E.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6279907/ resistance training osteoporosis
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5335887/ 1 in 3 women experience osteoporosis fractures