Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!
Why Strength Training Actually Isn't Optional for Women
Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for hiking podcast. What's up you guys? Welcome back to another episode of the show. This is your host, Brady. Today we are going to be talking about why strength training is actually a non-negotiable for women. And a lot of women try to kind of work around this and they're like, well, I'm a big runner. I'm really into Pilates, I'm into yoga, I don't like to do heavy stuff, blah, blah, blah. And while I understand the concept of having preferences, this is really something that you cannot negotiate with when you look at the health benefits and what you when you look at what is actually mandatory for our bodies to maintain strength, function, bone density, and overall health as we get older. This isn't something that you really can debate about whether or not this is important, and if we can just kind of skip it and do the stuff that we like instead. So if you are not actively strength training, this one is for you. And I'm not I'm not saying this at all because that's my preferred form of exercise or anything like that. I actually have not always loved lifting weights. In fact, I really love classes, and I've traditionally loved hair workouts and cardio and things that, while they can be fun and have some aerobic benefits, they are not actually the most effective forms of exercise for health, especially as we get older. So I've had to really shift my focus onto the the type of exercise that will move the needle the most for my health, for my body composition, my metabolism, my bone density, my muscle mass, all of these things. Because you have to look at what is the goal, what's the priority here with your with your time that you're spending in your workouts. And yes, you can absolutely still mix in things like yoga, pilates, running, cycling, whatever that is. But you cannot neglect. Standard basic strength training. Okay. It is just too important. So today we're going to talk about why what this actually looks like. All of the benefits ranging from you know, benefits as we age are metabolic health, hormone health, um aesthetics. And also if you're a hiker, the benefits there. Okay. So let's dive into it. Um, why can women not afford to skip strength training if you're a woman and you're not doing some form of progressive, overload style strength training, which we'll get into what that means later. You are honestly choosing a weaker and less resilient future. I'm not saying that to be harsh. That's just the facts. And there's a lot of myths around what weight training looks like for women and the whole, like, I just want to be toned. I want to be like long and lean. I don't want to be bulky. I prefer, you know, the cardio or the yoga type of body frame. But strength training is not optional. It's foundational for female health. So you have to kind of look past some of those myths and some of those thought processes and really think about what type of body you want to have, not just now if you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s, but thinking beyond that, like how you work out and fuel and treat your body currently will affect your functionality and health. When you are 50, 60, 70, 80. Okay, so let's look at the big picture here. Strength training is preventative medicine. So it's basically like long term health insurance compared with cardio which is going to be very important for heart health. Strength and muscle is what protects our bones, our metabolism, our independence and longevity. Being able to get up off the floor, being able to pick up our kids and grandkids and great grandkids. Right. Being able to put away our own groceries, live in our own home, all of these things. So I know that it's hard sometimes when you're young, especially like in your 20s, to really think about long term. All you think is like, I want to look hot in a bikini or whatever, but once you start doing in your 30s like I am now, you really do. You start to see family members and what that looks like for them as as they get older and this unfolds. And if you are not actively preserving your muscle, it's not a pretty future for you. Okay. So we're going to talk about what that looks like. Bone density and osteoporosis prevention. This is very, very huge and a big part of why strength training is important. Women are significantly higher for risk of osteoporosis. We have lower baseline bone density. We have rapidly declining bone density, especially during and after menopause. And osteoporosis is four times more common in women than men. That is a large amount. Okay, so during menopause, women are losing 7 to 10% of spinal bone mass and 1 to 5% of that is at the hips, which is why women are so susceptible for hip fractures. So bone loss is just ongoing after midlife. And this starts in our 30s. Girls like this is not only after menopause. This can start really, really early. Bone and muscle loss. So especially after midlife, bone density is just going to continue to decline. Here's a caveat without intervention. And what intervention looks like is putting enough load on your bones and muscles frequently enough to prevent that loss. Okay, so osteoporosis here's the tricky thing. Oftentimes shows no symptoms until you have a fracture. So you can think that you're doing fine and you're not. You're actually very vulnerable. Hip fractures in older women are strongly linked to loss of independence, long term disability and unfortunately, one fourth of hip fractures in women lead to death. Like it is a serious, serious matter. Okay, so here's the important thing that you have to understand here. Bones respond to load. So lifting weights is what stimulates bone density maintenance and growth okay. So without strength training you are going to have increased fracture risk and loss of independence later in life. It's not an if it's a it will like it is for sure going to lead to less independence as you get older. Okay, so your future mobility truly depends on your load bearing activities today. So how does muscle fit into this? Let's look at the longevity and capability. When we are looking at maintaining muscle. It's not just aesthetic it's functional tissue. So some of the benefits as we get older especially are being able to actually pick up and carry your groceries, transport your luggage, do activities long term with your family. Uh, pick up, like I said, pick up your grandkids like that is important. Preventing falls or actually just being able to get yourself up off of the ground faster recovery from injury, things like that. Okay, so muscle loss with age is called sarcopenia. And about 31% of postmenopausal women have sarcopenia. 50% of women will have a bone break after age 50. Okay. That is huge. 50%. And like I mentioned before, one fourth of hip breaks and fractures lead to mortality for women. Okay, so this is a very serious issue. We don't want to take this lightly. Guys like you ought to really think about your future here, and not just the aesthetics of the of the here and now, which we will get to, because obviously that does matter. We all want to look good. We all want to look lean and toned. So weight training also plays a huge role in that. Okay. But muscle loss and bone loss almost always show up together. So these things are almost always going hand in hand. And strength training is the best remedy for both of these okay. So muscle decline happens starting in your 30s. So if you don't build it now you lose it faster, especially as we start to get older. So if you are in your 30s and you are not strength training, please, please, please consider starting today. Just get going with a program. Anyone can do this. It doesn't have to be super intimidating. And we'll talk about what this looks like later. So now let's talk about the body composition, the aesthetic side. Um, because scale weight does not always equate to health. Okay. So a lot of women are so afraid to gain weight, to do anything that will cause weight gain. And the reality is sometimes when you start lifting weights, you might actually see a spike on the scale, but you also might not. I have been strength training as my main form of exercise for years, and that is the time when I've lost between 25 to £30, been able to keep it off even after multiple pregnancies, and I actually haven't seen an increase on the scale. I've seen the scale go down while maintaining a very lean frame and keeping my muscle. Okay, so while you might see a bump up on the scale, you also might not. Or you might see an initial spike, and then it will level out and you'll start to see the scale turning down, especially if you're dialing in your diet. At the same time, if your goal is fat loss or getting leaner. Okay, so strength training will build lean muscle. It's going to in turn reduce your body fat percentage. So this is where body recomposition comes into play, where we don't want to just focus on weight loss. We want to focus on fat loss while maintaining muscle so that you can still look lean and toned. Because when people say that they want to look toned, but they're missing that muscular part of the equation, you're not going to be able to lift toned without having muscle tone, right? So you've got to be lean enough to show that that muscle. But you have to actually build muscle. It's very important to have both, even if you're purely looking at the aesthetics and not looking at all at like the long term longevity health. Cardio alone is just not going to do it, okay? And neither will things like Pilates or yoga or super, super lightweight training. Um, this is just going to kind of lead to what people might refer to as like a skinny fat look. And again, nothing wrong with that. But if your goal is to actually look toned and lean, then you need to be putting enough tension and load on your muscles to cause them to hypertrophy and grow. Um, very, very important. And that's why I say that Pilates and yoga and things like that aren't going to do it, because they do have diminishing returns. If you're not progressively overloading the muscles and challenging yourself, you will start to plateau. So while you might see an initial change and you might notice health benefits, and that's amazing. I'm not saying that these forms and modalities of exercise are pointless, but if you want to really see crazy body recomposition, you will notice that you just start to kind of hit plateaus and you're going to have diminishing results as you continue because you can't really continue progressing. Just body weight. Okay. So muscle is going to be what really shapes the body. This is what I always try to help people understand because it was really like life changing for me. Think of your workouts and exercise as what shapes your body and creates the general shape of your actual physique. Right. And your nutrition and your lifestyle and your meat. So you're not exercise activity. That is what is going to determine the size of your body. Okay. So you can truly do the exact same workout program. And you can gain weight. And another person gets super lean and toned depending on how much you're eating right, how consistently you're eating that amount, if you're actually moving when you're not working out, are you actually creating a good amount of activity thermogenesis throughout your day and just other lifestyle components like sleep recovery, stress, things like that? Okay. So you can absolutely get toned and lean. Doing just lifting workouts. I am living proof of that. And that is really the the format that we follow in in my program, other than the necessary amount of conditioning work to get people ready for big hikes, if that's what they're trying to focus on. You don't need to be doing tons of super lightweight, high rep circuits things where you're not resting at all. You don't need to do 20 hit classes. You don't need to do a ton of running. You can get lean without all of that, okay, and still shape your body, maintain your muscle and see abs. If that's if that's your goal, you can absolutely do that. Okay. So now let's talk about the metabolic health when we're looking at muscle. Okay. So muscle is metabolically active tissue meaning that it's going to increase your basic basal metabolic rate just in order to keep the muscle on your frame your body needs to have more fuel. So it's going to increase the amount that you can eat and maintain your weight, which is pretty cool. So it's kind of like a long term investment when you're looking at just like the fast burn calorie type of exercise, you might burn more calories in that moment than you will in like at the same amount of time in a lifting workout, but it's kind of like just making some fast cash versus investing in the long term wealth. And that is what building muscle does for you. Okay. So it's going to create for you a higher resting calorie burn. It will also improve your insulin sensitivity which is tied to prevention of type two diabetes. Okay. So strength training helps your body use food better and not just burn it. So it really kind of changes your whole outlook on exercise. Once I started to understand this, I shift my I shifted my focus so much on my workouts, I was no longer just trying to like, do as many high calorie burn things of just like running from one exercise to the next, which really never got me great results. And I started to just focus on like, I need to build some freaking muscle. And once I started doing that, you guys, I got less bulky because what was making me bulky wasn't muscle. It was having muscle with tons of fat on top and not having as much muscle as I actually thought I did. Right. Okay, so you got to make sure that you're paying attention to your metabolism and building muscle with your workouts instead of just trying to burn calories. Let's talk about kind of how hormones and female physiology plays into this. So strength training actually supports estrogen balance, progesterone regulation stress resilience through cortisol regulation which is especially important during times like perimenopause and post menopause. Okay. So lifting weights does not mess up your hormones like some people think it does. It actually helps regulate stress and regulate your progesterone estrogen, which is also so important, especially when we go through big hormonal changes. I seriously swear by that. It made such a difference for me in my postpartum periods because I continued to lift weights all through my pregnancies, thank God like I was able to do that. Obviously not everyone is cleared to do that, so I'm not saying that everyone can, but most women still can. As long as their doctor clears it, they don't have a high risk pregnancy. And then I picked it up again postpartum as soon as I got cleared at six weeks. Right. I didn't take off years just because I was having babies, and I do think that it really helped me regulate my hormones quickly and be able to feel lean and strong again, fast postpartum. So definitely, definitely see benefits in the hormone aspect as well. Um, now let's talk through mental health and confidence, because this is also an amazing, amazing benefit that I've personally seen. And I know that our clients have seen from getting stronger is you see psychological benefits, increased confidence, reduce anxiety, and symptoms of depression. Empowerment. Physical strength really does translate to mental resilience. You realize like, wow, I am actually a lot stronger and I can take on more than I thought I could, and that translates to other areas of life. I really feel like I would not have a thriving business or have like a very tenacious mindset if it weren't for lifting weights and exercise, because it has shown me, wow, I can do this even through pregnancy, even through postpartum, even through really hard mental times. If I show up for myself, I realize I am so pretty freaking strong and my body can do way more than I thought that it could. Okay, so that identity shift of not just trying to be smaller, but truly trying to step into your most powerful self and see what your body is capable of. That's why I love and highly recommend setting goals that are not at all aesthetic. They have nothing to do with how you look and having a few that really are all about performance, what you can do, how strong you can get a hike that you're trying to conquer, whatever that looks like for you. Um, that has really helped my mindset shift away from just like using exercise for calorie burn to using exercise to see what I'm capable of and see how strong I can really be. So why do some women still avoid strength training in our current age? There are still some, like marketing type of things going around that are all about, um, you know, getting longer and leaner muscles being small. This whole like, skinny movement is back, unfortunately. So a lot of women that you're seeing in the media are stick skinny. And I've even seen people who are coaches and, and, you know, working with women who are like, well, if you really want to get skinny and get small model legs, you have to stop lifting, which is just so, so harmful and opposite of what is helpful and and benefiting women's health. So these are major barriers. What you're seeing in the media, the fear of bulking, lack of education or so much education out there that's actually not helpful and wrong misinformation that you're bombarded with. And it's almost just confusing us more because there's so much out there and also intimidation in gyms. This can be very real. Not knowing what the heck to do when you show up at the gym, not feeling confident stepping into that, things like that. Um, which is all stuff that we can help you with in Mountain Metabolic coaching, from working out at home, showing you exactly what to do if you are to go to the gym. Sticking with just like a dumbbell section so that you don't feel like you have to veer into the heavier areas just yet, kind of working our way up to that. Um, so much of that confidence comes through knowledge repetition, realizing, oh, I belong here to like, I am allowed to take up space in the gym. Um, so those are some of the barriers. But let's talk about the bulking one again. Building large muscle mass is incredibly difficult. I have been trying to build muscle mass for years, and it still sometimes feels like an uphill battle, especially for women. We just do not have the hormone profile to build crazy massive muscles. And when you see women maybe on in the media or CrossFit or athletes that are what you would consider bulky, and maybe you don't necessarily want that, that type of body for yourself, just remember that they are training for that. Specifically, they are working out multiple times a day trying to get massive muscles. They could also be taking in some sort of, you know, hormones or drugs, things like that. Um, so you don't need to worry about accidentally getting bulky from lifting weights 3 to 4 times a week. It's just not going to happen. What oftentimes we confuse as bulk is actually just excess body fat, okay. And that we can remedy through proper nutrition programming, lifestyle changes and just a really solid fat loss protocol, which is what we do in mountain metabolic coaching if our clients have fat loss goals. So avoiding strength training truly is going to hinder your long term health. And I get it. I understand having those fears around it because I've been there, but that is something that you got to work through if you want to really optimize your health, especially as you get older. So what does strength training really even look like? How do we simplify this. So really you need to only be doing 2 to 4 sessions per week. Some weeks you might hit two, some weeks you might hit four. That's just life. It's never going to be perfect or linear, but trying to shoot for that average all year, every year that is going to be absolutely crucial. And what does this look like? You've got to think about your starting point. If you are doing absolutely nothing, then you're going to want to start with just some body weight. If you are already doing body weight and classes and some cardio, then you can start with some dumbbell work, maybe tables TRX. This doesn't mean you have to go straight into the deep end and do these crazy barbell lifts. I hardly even lift with barbells and I've been doing this for years. I just don't love that style of training. Okay, so you got to think about where you're starting out, what you're comfortable with. Are you working out at home? Are you working out at a gym and then you're going to build up from there? As you get stronger, as you get more confident, as you accrue more equipment, or maybe you start to go to a gym and transition from all at home workouts, you're going to want to focus on compound lifts like squats. Deadlifts. Hip thrusts. Lunges. Split squats. Leg presses. Hamstring curls, things like that. Um, for upper body, you're going to want to make sure you're getting a good pull to push ratio. So your pull is going to be back and bicep type of exercises rows lat pull downs. Um bicep curls things like that. And then for push movements that's going to be chest triceps and shoulders. So things like chest press, chest flies overhead presses and then tricep extensions kickbacks things like that. And there's so many different varieties. I'm really simplifying here, but having some type of structure where you are always hitting all of those different muscle groups every single week, that can be done in different types of splits. So maybe you're doing three full body days. Um, if you are only doing like three workouts a week, I love full body workouts. I think that's a great way to make sure that you are hitting the muscles frequently enough to stimulate change. If you're doing more than that, you can always do like an upper pull, lower push type of split. I really, really love that. And then you hit the opposite muscle groups the next day, and you have four different workouts where you're kind of repeating that same type of sequence. Um, so there are different ways to do it. But I'm a big advocate of frequency. I don't love just doing like a quad day and then an ab day because your muscles are going to respond to frequency. They're not going to grow as well if you're only hitting them once per week. Okay. So it's better to hit them more frequently. So twice three times per week, something like that. Even if you're doing less overall volume on the muscle groups in that particular session, because you're mixing it in with other muscle groups, if that makes sense. Um, if you are a hiker, you definitely want to incorporate lots of single leg movement. This is so, so important for single leg stability and strength and stamina when you are on the trails. So your important muscle groups are going to be calves, quads, glutes, hips, hamstrings, back and core. Those are going to be the most important. Okay. So you want to make sure that you are training those. Multiple times a week in multiple different varieties. I have so many different exercises that I work on with my clients who are training for big hikes. Um, of course you also want to work in some conditioning, some intervals, some incline work, standard steady state cardio. But as far as the strength components, you got to be doing at least 2 to 3 days a week. Of the muscle groups that I was just talking about, progressive overload is crucial. So that just means that you are slowly increasing the weight, the load, the intensity that you're using over time. This doesn't mean every single time you work out you're jumping up £10. That's not realistic, but especially with your bigger muscle group exercises like your hip thrust, deadlifts, squats, lunges, chest presses, um, rows, things like that. So bigger muscles, you will be able to progress faster than you would with like your triceps, your biceps, your shoulders. Right. Smaller muscles, slower rate of change. Um, so that's to be expected. You don't need to be doing two hour workouts. You don't need extreme programs where you're at the gym seven days a week, but you do need to be consistently trying to hit 2 to 3, maybe four, as you get better at this times per week. If you do that all year long, I promise you you will see changes, but you have to make sure you have proper smart programming. And that's where a lot of people get this wrong, is they just kind of show up at the gym, dawdle around, go from machine to machine, and really don't have a strategy or structure. They don't know how to progress this themselves and that's totally understandable. But that's where you've got to invest. You got to outsource. You got to find somebody who knows what they're doing, because otherwise you're going to waste years of your time just trying to piece it together instead of just investing once, getting the best possible results out of it. And then you have that knowledge to do this yourself for the rest of your life. And that is so, so valuable. Um, I'm really glad that I have invested in myself over the years to figure this all out so that I can optimize and do it on my own. And now that's a skill that no one can take away from me. And I'll be able to do this the rest of my life. Right. So this is exactly what we help people with in Mountain Metabolic coaching. And if you're like, I just don't know where to start, or I've been trying to put it together and it's just not that effective. I don't know if what I'm doing is getting results. We can help you learn how to strength train what effective training looks like for leaning out or for performance body recommit all of that maintaining muscle within mountain metabolic coaching. So if you're curious about what that looks like, you've heard me talk about it on here, but you are a little bit unsure, you can apply at the link in the show notes. And what we do with that application is basically look it over. See if it sounds like you're a good fit. If you are. Then I will hop on a call with you and we'll just kind of talk through what the vision for your results looks like, what the program offers, and really see if it makes sense for you based on your goals. Um, so I would love to talk with you about that. Just keep in mind that strength training isn't all about aesthetics. It's about staying capable, independent, and healthy for life. Whether you're a big hiker or you just want your basic health to maintain over time, um, it is something that you do not want to skip out on, and I really cannot state that enough. So hopefully today has been helpful for you to really see what the hype is all about and encourage you to at least start incorporating it in. Even if you just start with one day a week and then you build from there Your lifelong health will. Thank you so, so much. So I hope that this has been helpful and informative and that it gets you excited about strength training and seeing what your body is capable of. If you guys have questions about workouts or the program or anything like that, shoot me a message at the Fit Underscore for Hiking Instagram page. I love chatting with you guys there. I would also love to hear if there's any particular topic you guys want to hear on the show. Um, your input and feedback is so helpful for me, so please shoot me a message there and I will chat with you guys in the next episode. Thanks for being here. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this. Be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at ponytail on Etrailer.com. Happy and healthy trails.