Strength training is the most crucial exercise women should be doing to lose weight and improve their health and wellness and libido. Strength training should be the most important component of every woman’s fitness routine, and especially so, if they are over 30.
Why is strength training important?
Women start to lose muscle mass once they hit 30 and the majority of women don’t train in a way that actually builds or maintains muscle. Muscle is metabolically expensive as it requires more calories to maintain and burns fat at rest. While strength training doesn’t burn that many calories during a session it’s the recovery process that is energy intensive.
Women spend a lot of their adult years on a diet. They thus lose muscle mass, which in turn lowers their resting metabolic rate. This means you have to eat less or you will gain body fat.
So many women cut calories or reduce their carb intake thinking this will help them lose weight, but all this does is set them up to binge eat, causes nutrient deficiencies and creates a hormonal disaster. Most women end up regaining the weight they lost plus more and suffer from low energy, sleep issues, digestive issues, low libido and hormonal imbalances.
The best way to lose weight is to eat to achieve a small calorie deficit and maintain or increase muscle mass through strength training. Progressive overload is the secret to muscle gain! Over time, you need t increase the weight lifted or keep the weight the same and do more reps. This is how you build muscle and achieve the desired body composition.
The benefits of having more muscle
The benefits of strength training go beyond just being strong. Increased muscle mass can help boost metabolism and improve overall metabolic health. This can lead to better weight management, improved insulin sensitivity and reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Strength training and increasing muscle mass helps maintain and increase bone density, reducing the risk of osteoporosis and fractures as women age. Stronger muscles improve balance and stability, reducing the risk of falls, which become more common as women age.
Stronger muscles can help women maintain their ability to perform daily tasks, such as carrying groceries, climbing stairs, or getting up from a chair, with greater ease and independence. Higher levels of muscle mass have been associated with a reduced risk of developing chronic conditions such as heart disease, obesity and some types of cancer.
How can one achieve more muscle?
Having more muscle increases your resting metabolic rate (RMR) because muscle tissue is more metabolically expensive. Muscle tissue requires more energy to maintain itself compared to fat tissue. This means that the more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body will burn at rest. It can also help with your mental wellbeing by preventing and managing mental health problems and even provides you with social opportunities.
Weights and training to failure
A common reason why women are not gaining muscle and losing fat is because they are using weights that are too light. The ideal approach is to use a heavier weight and push to failure, take your sets to the point where you can’t do another rep with proper form.
Walk more
In your endeavor in creasing muscle mass, walking is so important for our body. It is low-impact and gets everything moving. Try and walk at least three to four times a week. Walking not only helps to keep us moving, it is great for our mental health as well.
Avoid undereating
So many diets focus on drastically cutting calories. We need to stop this toxic mindset about starving ourselves into thinness. It should be about getting stronger and leaner and increasing your metabolic rate. If you’re tired of feeling drained, it’s time to stop starving yourself.
Filling your diet with food that supports metabolism and gives your body with vital nutrients will help increase your energy levels, improve your skin and hair health, and help restore your libido. The body goes into conservation mode when it is starved of nutrients. It focuses on survival and processes that support core function. Hair and libido don’t fall into this category.
Stress management and sleep
Unfortunately, stress is part of our daily lives, but chronic ongoing stress is something that can slow down your metabolism and makes it harder to stick to your nutrition plan and inhibit muscle gain. Whichever way you use to manage stress, remember to factor it in often. Rest days are also an essential part of any exercise routine, so take this time to relax and recover.
Sleep is also part of a complete wholistic fitness program. Good quality sleep is vital to our immune health and mental cognition, our exercise recovery and even our insulin sensitivity. It’s also part of building muscles and losing fat. By increasing muscle, adding nourishing foods back into the diet and supporting the body with a more holistic approach to health and wellness, this assists to reactivate and re-energise hair growth, energy levels and the libido.
Kitty’s Eat More, Train Less and Get Results 7-Day Challenge
Kitty’s iconic 7-Day Eat More, Train Less and Get Results Challenge was purposely built for women to achieve sustainable results without drastically cutting calories, carbs and working out nonstop. It’s been developed over years and unlike other online programs, this holistic approach gives women everything they need for long-term success.
Challenge participants receive a meal plan, a workout plan for the home and the gym, as well as training exercise videos to guide them through the workouts. In addition, it also includes advanced supplement guides, direct support and a private community to help participants along. It’s time for women to stop starving themselves and take back control of their bodies.
Kitty Blomfield, Founder of NuStrength, and creator of her iconic Kitty’s 7-Day Challenge. Blomfield is a world-leading expert in wellness and weight loss. NuStrength helps women transform their bodies through improved metabolic functioning and strength training. By focusing on educating and empowering people, Kitty Blomfield helps people to achieve the body they want with long-term results.
