We’ve been long searching for the fountain of youth, but it’s been right in front of our faces this entire time — and it’s strength training. Based on research, strength training delivers numerous anti-aging benefits for women, including preserving muscle mass, supporting skin health, improving brain health, and even improving body composition.
Read on for the perks of strength training for women, including how it keeps you in age-defying shape and how to make it a consistent part of your routine.
The Anti-Aging Benefits of Strength Training For Women
When you pick up a weight or lower your body into a squat, it’s not just your glutes that get a big benefit. Here are just some of the perks of getting strong:
Preserves Muscle Mass
If you want a body that seemingly defies aging (and gravity!), start strength training. Your body naturally loses muscle with age, and skipping regular strength workouts can mean that you lose four to six pounds of muscle per decade, according to Harvard Health. That makes it more difficult to live an active, healthy, and functional life well into your older years. Research indicates that resistance exercise plays a key part in preventing a condition called sarcopenia, which is a loss of muscle mass and function that causes weakness and frailty. So here’s to being the woman today who can lug all her groceries from the car like a boss and rep out push-ups like a pro — and the future grandmother who can lift her grandkids as well as a set of dumbbells with no problem.
Torches Belly Fat
Visceral fat is the type of fat that doctors are always warning people about — the one that hugs your organs, causing inflammation that puts you at risk for heart disease, according to the American Heart Association. That rings true even if your weight is in the healthy range. But the beauty about resistance exercise is that it has a special way of trimming this dangerous fat — and this type of workout has been shown to decrease overall body fat percentage, too, according to research.
Slows Skin Aging
One bonus beauty benefit: Resistance exercise has been shown to enhance skin health. Data on 56 women found that strength training improved skin elasticity, structure, and thickness, appearing to activate certain genes associated with the creation of collagen, a protein that keeps skin smooth and springy. Not to mention, in improving blood flow, weight training can help to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the skin, helping to reduce inflammation and boost skin rejuvenation.
Helps Keep You Sharp
Exercise changes your brain — for the better. Not only does it give you an awesome mood boost, but it protects your brain. In fact, studies show that just 12 weeks of resistance exercise actually stimulates brain changes that safeguard your smarts.
How to Add Strength Training to Your Fitness Routine
Whether you’re currently a cardio junkie, or are new to exercise entirely, if you find that strength training is missing from your current routine, you’ll want to build up to at least two days of strength training per week and hit all the major muscle groups.
What You Need To Get Started
There are so many awesome tools you can use to build muscle, so choose the one that appeals to you most. That can be weight machines at the gym, free weights (at home or the gym), resistance bands, or using your own body weight. Use a weight or resistance that allows you to complete 8 to 12 reps of an exercise. Once you start building muscle and feel as if you can perform more than 12 reps of that exercise easy-peasy, then go up a weight. (And celebrate your newfound strength while you’re at it!) Make it your goal to do two to three sets of each exercise.
Putting It All Together: Building Your Routine
But the biggest question is: How do I know what exercises to do? While you’re probably familiar with pushups, squats, lunges, and sit-ups — and they’re all great — it helps to know how to combine specific exercises into a routine and ensure that you’re targeting all the muscles you need for a comprehensive workout. Open the FitOn app and browse the strength category to find a strength class suited to your abilities — and one that you find fun, too.
Strength Training is One of the Best Habits That Helps Keep Your Body Young For Life
Ladies, it’s okay if you haven’t done resistance exercise up until now or you’ve found yourself in a rut — you can find and start a strength training routine that builds muscle and makes you feel good for years to come.
