All of us want to feel strong, determined, and confident in everything we do: from fitting into jeans, to moving heavy furniture, to playing with kids / grandkids, to dealing with a stressful career.
If you knew that a certain type of exercise could benefit your heart, improve your balance, strengthen your bones, and help you lose weight all while it made you look and feel better, wouldn't you want to get started?
Well, studies show that strength training can do all of that and more.
Flex your right arm. Assuming you have an average build, your arm represents nearly 10 percent of the total muscle on your body.
Now, imagine that muscle gone. No biceps, no triceps – only a jiggly mass of skin and fat covering your bones. A bit of a gross visual, right?
That amount of muscle is about the same amount most women lose between the ages of 24 and 50. And that number doubles by the time they're 60.
But there's no reason you can't maintain a healthy, strong musculature.
You simply need to do progressive strength (resistance) training.
Every woman should be lifting weights even if she doesn't care about the size of her biceps.
When I was nursing, I looked after many frail, little old ladies who had fractured their hip. A very painful break, and a very painful surgery.
And in most cases, osteoporosis can be prevented by doing resistance training.
Lifting weights is definitely not just for the lads.
As a woman, should you be training a particular way? Should you be going hard out doing cardio day in and day out to achieve the body that you want?
In this podcast episode I discuss the dangerous misconception among women that you have to be 'Hard Core' and take an 'All out attitude' when it comes to health and fitness, and give you a clear way forward to keep you moving towards your health, weight loss and fitness goals.
These workouts are designed to be done in the gym environment where you have the use of equipment. They take only 30 minutes with each workout following on and building upon the previous.