Women tend to forget about their muscle strength but every activity we do depends on them , from our everyday household tasks to our leisure or sporting activities. We need that strength even more if we wish have abundant energy to exercise on a regular basis and live an active lifestyle.
When Fitness Professionals ask women about their fitness goals, many mention personal goals such as decreasing body fat, having a firmer body, feeling better, and improving energy levels. Often, women try to achieve these goals by focusing mainly on aerobic exercise such as walking or jogging because either they do not understand what strength training can do for them or they fear that strength training exercise will give them larger muscles. Thanks to female hormones it is highly unlikely lean muscle tissue will increase very much. In fact only a small amount of extra muscle maybe a kilo or two is needed to help achieve a loss of excess body fat. If one of your health and fitness goals is weight loss, strength training exercise may be the answer to achieving the strong, fit, firm and youthful body you long for.
Many women miss out on the incredible benefits that strength training has to offer because of myths and false beliefs regarding this very important element of fitness. Done properly a strength training program that focus's on major muscle groups of the body such as the back and legs increases the amount of toned lean muscle tissue. This will require more calories to be burned both during exercise and throughout the rest of your day. This is how excess body fat with be reduced. Many women incorrectly think they need to spend their exercise time walking on the treadmill or other similar aerobic activities . This will not produce the body fat reduction as muscle tissue cannot be maintained or increased with aerobic (heart/lung) training alone. And an increased metabolism is the key to weight loss.
Without strength training, an adult will lose approximately 1% of their muscle tissue per year after 30 years if age. For example:. If you are 55 years old and you've lost 25% of your muscle mass, you might be expending 250 calories less per day. You now have two options either you will always have to restrict what you eat so that you do not gain extra body fat, or you can begin a strength training program to raise your metabolism.
Strength training works because toning up muscle ignites your metabolism and keeps your body running like a zippy sports car. Every 500 grams of muscle on your body burns between 30 and 50 calories a day even when you're watching TV or sleeping. Women often blame excess body fat on a sluggish metabolism when what's really to blame is dwindling muscle mass. This loss of muscle is so slow and happens over such a long period of time that it goes unnoticed. This reduces the metabolic rate which allows sneaky body fat to start to accumulate.
If you're not strength training already, don't delay any longer, get started right away. No matter what your age you can become a strong, fit and more youthful woman. Make sure you see a Fitness Professional so you can learn the correct technique of the exercises and to ensure you get your results quickly and safely.
Responsible for robbing both women and men of their strength, health, mobility and independence in their senior years, sarcopenia is a significant global health problem and is one of the most serious long term threats to being able to remain healthy as adult's age.
Usually seen in physically inactive people, sarcopenia exerts its debilitating effects in a slow, sneaky fashion over a period of decades. This loss of muscle begins at around the age of 30 at the rate of 10% per decade increasing to 15 % per decade in the 60's and 70's then about 30% per decade thereafter.
This insidious and crippling process not only robs people of their functional health and mobility but further pushes them into unhealthy and inactive lifestyles. This vicious cycle continues with increased risk of other diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Research in the anti aging field is finding ways to prevent and treat muscle loss in aging adults and concludes that strength training exercise has a remarkable effect on recovering lost strength.
The negative attitude towards strength training by older adults has changed over time as they are learning how they can benefit from this old but proven form of exercise.
Strength training is exercise that uses resistance - to strengthen and condition the muscular system. This can be achieved with resistance training machines or free weights found in your local gym. The amount of resistance a muscle has to work against determines how strong it will get.
Strength training is not running on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, or using an elliptical machine. Although those types of aerobic machines use "resistance" to increase your workout intensity, it's not the same as strength training and will not strengthen muscles.
Any exercise that involves contracting your muscles many times with little or no resistance such as walking or cycling doesn't prevent loss of muscle mass. Runners still lose muscle mass even if they're highly active. When challenged by strength training exercise your muscles and bones are continually forced to renew themselves, sweeping out old, degenerated cells and rebuilding new tissue that is younger, stronger, and healthier.
To get started a properly prescribed exercise program should be set up and the initial sessions monitored by an Exercise Professional at your local gym or health club. This program should include both strength training and cardiovascular exercise at about a 60/40 ratio.
If you risk losing your functional health and mobility as you get older, you risk losing your precious independence - and your dignity along with it. The good news is, as a health-conscious adult you can take immediate steps to get started on a strength training program to ensure this will never happen to you.
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