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It’s a sad scene when you walk into many gyms. Oftentimes, you see almost all the weights taken up by men and the majority of cardio equipment claimed by the women. If you’ve never noticed, check it out next time. It’s invariably the case.
As a personal trainer, you know how vital it is for women to engage in weightlifting. Not just any weight lifting either, but lifting heavy. In addition to building stronger muscles, lifting heavy weights is one of the only ways to increase bone density.
Many female clients are so afraid of “bulking up” and building big muscles if they lift weights. As a result, they stay away from resistance training altogether. But fear not!
It’s Good for Your Bones and Body, and It Won’t Result in Big Bulky Muscles
Women are at the highest risk of osteoporosis as time goes on. Taking calcium supplements is helpful but nothing improves bone mass like lifting weights. In fact, there is a specific biological process that makes your body lay down more bone material in response to the kind of stress that women only get from heavy weight training.
Check out this ISSA blog to learn more about increasing bone density.
What Do We Mean By “Lifting Heavy”?
Here we’re referring to keeping your reps in the 6-10 range. This also involves reaching muscle failure—being unable to perform another complete repetition—by the final rep of the set.
When lifting heavy resistance and keeping reps lower, rest periods need to be increased. This helps fully regenerate ATP to its highest potential.
When lifting a lighter resistance for more reps (around 40-50% of your 1-rep max for 20 reps), rest periods can be kept to around 20-30 seconds.
When lifting 75-90% of your 1RM, rest periods need to be extended to 2-5 minutes. If they aren’t, your strength will be heavily compromised during the next set attempt.