31 Aug Top five reasons why women should get into weight lifting

(Written for Missfits Magazine by Vicky Hadley)

For way too long, I’ve witnessed the saying, ‘weights will make me bulky or look like a man’, take effect on my clients. Women are so often afraid or intimidated by the weight section labelling it as the ‘men’s area’. Resistance, aka, weight training exercises when partnered with an adequate protein intake makes up the fundamentals for building womanly curves in all the right areas; yes, that is including bum – legs and bingo wings!

For near enough 45 minutes of every single one of my personal training sessions I make it up primarily with weight lifting. It does not make you bulky – in fact, since I’ve been lifting weights I’ve never been smaller.

Vicky training – back day!

Weights can impact women’s lives in so many beneficial ways, combined with a healthy diet, a good source of protein and a balanced macronutrient split you can achieve the body you desire. So, without further ado, here’s my…

1.    Build the body shape you want

As you build muscle, your body begins to take a nice hourglass shape. Though endurance exercise can help you lose weight, that weight comes in the form of both fat and muscle tissue. If you’re losing both fat and muscle, you can lose your curves otherwise known as ‘gains’ as well and we don’t want that! However, resistance training can help create and sustain them.

2.    Quicker fat loss

It may come as a surprise to you that weight lifting can burn fat even more efficiently than hardcore cardio. Running for hours on end is very detrimental to the body as puts you under serious stress. Swap to an hour of weight lifting and you will get your heart rate up, tone your body and aid fat burning for up to two days after your workout without that added stress

3.    Increases your energy levels

Even though most people assume exercise will make us more tired when we are already feeling fatigued, it is quite the contrary. Weight training can in fact cause an increase in your energy levels even hours after you finish training. Lifting weights can strengthen our circulation and our heart muscle which in return will help to improve our energy levels.

Vicky and Deni shot for Missfits Magazine

4. Promotes healthy bones 

It’s not just aesthetically strength training can help. Weightlifting also promotes healthy bone density meaning you’re likely to suffer osteoporosis and bone fractures as we age and the protein addition helps keep skin, hair and nails radiant and stronger.

 5. Acts as a stress release

Exercise altogether is a great way to manage stress. Researchers have consistently found that those who weight train regularly tend to manage stress better and experience fewer adverse reactions to stressful situations. It is important to get your magnesium intake in though – as you lose magnesium through sweat and can become depleted from lots of strength training or stressful situations in your life. So, add a supplement form into your diet mixed with regular weight training sessions and reap the benefits of controlling stress.