Why women should work to get stronger
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
It’s widely reported that women should strength train if they’re trying to lose weight. Using free weights, a weigh machine, body weight exercise or isometric exercise builds muscle and jumpstarts the metabolism. But women have many more reasons to increase their strength.
Luke Barnes, doctor of physical therapy at St. Joseph’s Health, said that the benefits of strength training beyond weight management include “improvements in cardiovascular health and circulation, decrease risk for diabetes or cardiovascular events, improved mental wellbeing and decreased overall pain through release of endorphins in the brain.”
While these benefits are for both men and women, Barnes noted that women also have unique benefits from strength training, like combating the bone density related to declining estrogen levels in post-menopausal women.
“Some studies cite that women can lose up to 20% of their bone density in the first five years following menopause,” Barnes said. “Weight-bearing exercise and resistance training can be an excellent way to combat this, as this positively impacts bone density.”
Loading bones through resistance training helps increase bone density. Strength training also helps reduce women’s age-related muscle loss in women.
Resistance exercises can also help stabilize hormone production. Nora Greeley pelvic floor physical therapist for St. Joseph’s Health, said that strength training can “create a homeostatic environment for hormone production. The fluctuation of hormones as women age is often to blame for hot flashes, mood swings, depression and changes in libido. With strength training, the unpleasant episodes often reduce in frequency and intensity and libido often improves.”
Many women older than 65 struggle to experience quality sleep. Strength training can help with this problem as well. Greeley noted that a 2019 study correlated greater hand grip strength with better psychological functioning and sleep.
Lack of pelvic floor strength can cause urinary leaking. Gaining muscle strength “affects not only the muscles of the legs and arms, but also the pelvic floor muscles,” Greeley said. “When women focus on performing squats, lunges, leg lifts and other hip strengthening movements with weights or resistance, they often notice an improvement in their pelvic floor symptoms.”