Strength Training For Women - Building Muscles For A Better Health

Strength training works well for women over 40 who desire a more toned and firmer body that is less injury- prone. It will help a woman develop a stronger heart and connective tissue. It also gives women more control over her own life by improving her self-esteem and strength to manage her own physical activities.

Muscle is three times more dense than fat. To lose fat and slim down permanently, you've got to build muscle which will increase your metabolism. Lean body mass takes more energy to sustain than fat does. Muscle tissue is highly active even when it is resting, where fat tissue is fairly inactive.

When you lift weights, you build up lean muscle. Consequently, your body will burn 30 to 50 more calories every day for each pound of muscle you put on.

As you become more muscular, you become more of a calorie-burning machine. Since weight training is the single most effective way to increase your lean muscles, it is a great tool for strengthening the muscle tissue that will automatically burn fat all through the day, even on days you are not working out.

When thinking about strength training for women, Karen crosses my mind.

Karen is an attractive, 5’8, over 40 woman who was getting a little chunky around the mid-section and hips during her entrance to mid-life. She got fed up and hired a personal trainer to help her strength train.

Two months later I ran into her and teasing her, I asked her to “show me your muscles”. She promptly flexed her right bicep and I was speechless!

She looked like a model but not the skinny ones. She was beautiful. Confident. Proud. And caused heads to turn.

An effective strength training for women program should be around 30 –45 minutes for a basic workout.

You start out with warm-up exercises to warm the muscles and prevent them from tearing or pulling. Try to do 1 to 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions. Rest between the sets for approximately 1 –2 minutes.

Try to do strength training at least two days during the week but no more than three. Be sure that you have at least one day off in between each weight lifting session for muscle recovery and repair.

Your initial goals in the program are to learn the proper technique. If you are straining and the weight is too heavy then you are increasing the chance of injuring yourself.

Begin with 1 pound weights and build up to 10 pounds maximum. This is sufficient for toning as opposed to “bulking up”.

You should feel the burn and muscle fatigue at the end of a repetition but there should never be muscle pain.

Strength training for women programs can begin with exercises that use body weight resistance and rubber bands. Although machines are effective, inexpensive weights and rubber weight bands with a DVD training video is just as effective as a gym membership.

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