Question: I have heard that it is really important for women to lift weights to maintain strength. I want to give myself a Mother's Day gift of a better body. Could you address this issue in a column? Thank you.
Answer: Women do need to train their muscles as they get older. Women in their mid-30s begin losing about a third of a pound of muscle a year. At the same time, they begin to lose a significant amount of bone mass (this gets worse after menopause). Strength training slow both of these processes.
An article in the May issue of Consumer Reports Onhealth magazine listed some of the benefits of strength training.
1. It makes life easier. If you are strong, you can carry groceries easier, lift kids or grandkids, participate more effectively in games or open bottles easier.
2. It helps control fat. Since muscles use more energy than fat, the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism. And the metabolic rate during exercise will be increased as well.
3. It builds better bones. With increasing age, people generally lose from 0.5 percent to 0.9 percent of bone mass a year. This loss of bone can significantly increase the chance of detrimental structural changes in women's bodies, especially after menopause. Strength training helps bones because it stresses them as you work on the muscles.
4. It improves digestion. Waste that moves too slowly through the colon may increase the risk of constipation, hemorrhoids, diverticulitis and possibly colon cancer. Studies show that strength training, like aerobic exercise, helps move food through the body at a higher rate.
5. It helps your heart. It is not clear if strength training alone raises HDL, the good cholesterol, or lowers LDL, the bad cholesterol. The combination of strength training and aerobics exercise may offer the biggest benefit. In any case, the increase in muscle mass due to strength training will make aerobics easier and more effective.
6. It relieves back pain. Exercises that strengthen the lower back, stomach, hip and thigh muscles can lessen back pain and keep it from getting worse.
7. It helps manage diabetes. Like aerobic exercise, strength training improves the body's response to insulin, helping to prevent or manage diabetes.
The benefits of strength training far outweigh the risk of injury associated with it, but there are some common sense things you can do to lower the risk of hurting yourself:
Have a checkup: See your doctor if you have any questions about your health, if you are inactive, or if you have heart disease, hypertension or a chronic illness.
Learn how to lift properly: You could see a trainer, read a book or join a health club.
Increase gradually: If you are not fit, you need to begin at a low level and progress slowly.
Warm up and cool down: It is a good idea to get blood flowing into the muscles before beginning to lift and to cool down from the workout.
Protect your back and joints: Proper lifting techniques will keep the joint aligned and decrease the chance of injury.
Don't hold your breath: Holding the breath during lifting (Valsalva maneuver) increases blood pressure. Most lifters "blow" the bar away during lifts.
Heed warnings: See your doctor if you feel a sudden pain during exercise or if a joint hurts during the lift.
In the next column, I'll discuss the best equipment choices for strength training and describe a series of exercises that can be used by women (or men).
Garth Fisher is the former director of the Human Performance Research Center at Brigham Young University.