Ladies- Have You Done Your Strength Training This Week?

Numerous experts have told us for years now about the importance of muscle strengthening to good health.  We even know strengthening is important to a weight loss program.  Yet too often, women especially, dutifully pursue aerobic exercise while ignoring strength training. 

Here is a really great list of the Benefits of Strength Training for Women from Strength-Training-Woman.com: 

1-Increased metabolic rate

2-Increased and restored bone density

3-Increased lean muscle mass

4-Injury prevention

5-Improved balance

6-Decreased coronary disease risks

7-Improved rehabilitation and recovery

8-Improved performance in exercise, sports, and life

9-Graceful aging

10-Looking and feeling better

So ladies, don’t ignore the importance of strength training in your weight loss program.  Strength training does not mean spending hours in the gym body building, or developing a freakish physique.  You can tone and strengthen your muscles, enhance your metabolism for weight loss, and improve your overall health in as little as 20 to 30 minutes, 2 to 3 times a week. 

Still reluctant?  Allow me, a self-professed couch potato, introduce you to a few very do-able strengthening routines. 

Yoga is excellent for relaxation and increasing flexibility. I’ve recommended Yoga for my desk worker clients for stretches that open up the chest. Both Yoga and Pilates are great for improving strength, especially core abdominal strength. I’m partial to the “For Dummies” series. If you’ve never done Yoga or Pilates, I highly recommend watching your DVD several times, making notes. When you do the routines with the DVD, stop it between exercises and go at your own pace. Only do what you can do with your core engaged. Especially with Yoga, the instructors, who have been fit their entire lives, frequently infer that the stretch and flexibility are the goal. I’m flexible like freak, but I have weak abdominals. If I stretched into the poses to the limits of my flexibility, I would be past my abdominal control, and could not go back to upright without stressing my back. So be safe, not silly!

You can read more about my takes on Yoga and Pilates in my hub, Choosing a Workout- For Occasional Joint Pain and Oldness, Chronic Laziness, and Absent Motivation.

Tamilee Webb’s I Want That Body DVD set is divided into 3 workouts, arms, legs and buns, and abdominals.  The exercises were selected based on lab testing, to give you the most bang for your buck. 

The leg and bun routine is too much lunging and squatting for my knees.  Us “knee people” have to be forever careful of lunges and squats.  Do not just grit your teeth and bear it if you feel knee pain.  For me, pushing these limits just makes me predisposed to get the “knee cap” tendonitis over and over again.  Use a chair or a wall for stability, and squat or lunge ½ or 1/3 of the full movement. 

The arm workout I can vouch for.  If you do Tamilee’s triceps routine 3 times a week, you will be able to tell a difference in 2 to 3 weeks.  No kiddin’!

Kathy Smith is another veteran video fitness instructor.  I like her temperament.  She’s motivating, but soothing.  Denise Austin always seems manic to me, and drives me to distraction.  Kathy’s more my speed. 

Give Kathy Smith’s Lift Weights to Lose Weight set a try.  There are upper body and lower body workouts, with plenty of room for modifications based on your fitness level. 

I’d also suggest Kathy’s Moving Through Menopause.  She has aerobic, strengthening, and Yoga relaxation routines especially for perimenopausal and menopausal women. 

The poor upper body strength of women has become a cliché.  You can do push-ups to build upper body strength, without doing regulation military push-ups.  Push-ups are also a good way to work on core abdominal strength.  Start out doing push-ups against a wall.  Stand about 1 ½ to 2 feet from the wall.  Work on wall push-ups until you can easily do 3 sets of 15 to 20 wall push-ups.  

Graduate to push-ups over a Swiss ball.  The closer the ball toward your chest, the easier the push-up.  Gradually move the ball towards your abdomen and hips as you get stronger. 

Look for my future hub, detailing my full graduated progression from no push-ups, to full regulation push-ups.