As is common with most Personal Trainers, the majority of
my clients over the years have been female.
It’s fair to say that most of them have had the same aims; to ‘tone up’
and to lose weight.
Some of them have never taken part in any kind of
structured exercise program, while most have tried the usual slimming clubs
and/or ‘Zumba’ classes before getting in touch with me.
Some people make good progress with a slimming club, but
it’s only one side of the fat loss coin.
We should all adopt healthy eating habits, but to make a long term
difference to our body composition, health and wellbeing, we really need to do
the correct
kind of exercise too.
It’s fair to say that I’ve had a mixed reaction when I’ve
introduced my female clients to the concept of training with weights. While some of them are very keen to try,
others are initially reluctant. The most common reason being that weight
training will make them look ‘manly’.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Men naturally carry more muscle (lean mass) because of
the male hormone, testosterone.
Women also produce testosterone, but in far smaller
quantities than men. In fact, men have
testosterone levels 7 to 8 times greater than the levels found in women.
This is the fundamental reason why, with very few
exceptions, women couldn’t develop and maintain the same amount of lean mass as
a man, even if they wanted to. At least
not without the help of artificial substances such as steroids (which are,
basically, synthetic testosterone).
So, why do I encourage my female clients to do weight
training?
The
simple answer is that it is the single, most effective way of burning off body
fat and keeping it off.
When we say that we want to ‘lose weight’, what we really
mean is ‘lose fat’. We want to reduce
our excess body fat levels.
The most effective tool that we have to burn off this
excess body fat is our lean mass. Muscle tissue burns calories 24 hours a day,
7 days a week simply to maintain and repair itself and stay alive. Take exercise
into account and the number of calories increases considerably.
As we age, it’s estimated that we lose around 7% of our
lean mass every 10 years. This is one of
the main causes of ‘middle-age spread’.
We lose lean mass, which slows our metabolism, which causes us to burn
fewer of the calories that we consume, which means we store them as body fat.
Unless we do something about it, of course!
Weight training is the primary method of developing and
maintaining our lean mass. This extra lean mass also means that any aerobic
exercise that you do, such as Zumba classes, swimming or running, will be even
more effective at burning away the calories.
If this wasn’t reason enough, the list of benefits goes
on;
·
More lean mass means that you’re less likely
to put on body fat in the future.
·
Your posture will improve.
·
Your bone density will improve, reducing the
risk of osteoporosis in later life.
·
You’ll look and feel better and firmer.
·
The combination of all of these will improve
your self-image and self-confidence.
