TOP 8 THINGS EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT STRENGTH TRAINING
Inside of each of us lies untapped potential. We are all capable of superhuman strength and performance. Strength training helps to enhance your freedom as a woman to think, feel, and move stronger in your mind and your bodies. It takes your independence to the next level.
I’ve put together 8 things that you should know about strength training to help you understand how to get the most out of it.
1. What is strength training?
When you hear ‘strength training’ it’s not uncommon for you to think of loaded barbells and female athletes with huge muscles, but there is a lot more to it than that. There are many options available, no matter where you’re at in your journey with weights and strength training to heavy squats and deadlifts.
Strength training is recruiting more muscle fibres to build a stronger contraction and preserve the neuromuscular integrity. The more strength we have, the bigger and better the contraction we have to build muscle and keep lean mass. You will come across the technical terms resistance and strength training where essentially your muscles work against some form of resistance. These types of exercises impose an increased demand on your muscles and central nervous system, which causes an adaptation. This adaption is, essentially, your body getting stronger.
Here’s how it works.
When you apply a stressor (Goblet Squat with a Kettlebell for example), your muscles respond to and work against the stress. This movement against resistance causes microtears in your muscle fibres and these tears are what stimulate the body to begin rebuilding the muscle. When you repeatedly perform such exercises, you stress and rebuild, stress and rebuild, and so end up gaining muscle and increasing the efficiency of your neural pathways. By repeating the muscles contractions, techniques, and the basic movement patterns you are able to more efficiently perform the same (or similar) task in the future.
Let’s say, for example, that you find bodyweight walking lunges challenging. With practice, and by repeatedly performing these (repeated stress), your body is forced to rebuild those recruited muscles to be bigger and stronger. Over time your brain learns and refines that movement pattern – the movement becomes easier. That’s why practicing the basic movement patterns time and time again goes a long way. Even the top athletes are constantly working on the fundamentals. Strong principles are the foundation of improvement, and it starts with the basics.
Whilst this is the most common form of training for building strength, it is important to recognise it may not always be the goal (or only goal) to be stronger. Strength training is useful for building muscle mass, strengthening post injury, improving runners’ stability, losing body fat, as well as functional day-to-day fitness like carrying the groceries upstairs.
2. What are the benefits of strength training
Strength training has so many benefits for optimal health. I am a huge advocate myself for strength training as a woman and the independence it has given me. Here are some of the incredible benefits for you:
IMPROVED FAT LOSS, INCREASED METABOLISM
IMPROVES PHYSICAL STRENGTH & ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
PREVENTING ILLNESS
INCREASED INTEGRITY OF BONE AND CONNECTIVE TISSUES
REDUCED RISK OF INJURY, BACK PAIN & IMPROVING POSTURE
ENHANCED MOOD, REDUCED STRESS
SLOW AGE-RELATED DECLINES LIKE STRENGTH AND BONE LOSS
EMPOWERING MINDSET – FEELING STRONGER, THINKING STRONGER, FEELING CAPABLE
Find out more of the benefits of strength training here. (link)
Strength training is essential in helping us stay active, but also as we age to help prevent falls.
There is also a psychological component – strength training can be incredibly empowering because it shows all the amazing things our incredible bodies are capable of, as opposed to always focusing on aesthetics. I have had so many women wish they had started strength training when they were younger.
3. Do I need to always use weights to strength train?
In short: no. Since strength training is all about challenging your muscles through resistance, you can use, well, anything that creates resistance. The world’s your oyster!
For example, you could use:
Resistance bands
Exercise machines
Bodyweight exercises
Barbells and plates
Kettlebells
Dumbbells
Medicine balls/Sandbags
TRX, Pull Up Bars
Or look at what you have in the house to safely use (especially with Covid-19)
Strength training doesn’t need to be confined to the gym. There are so many options: playgrounds, home, parks, or anywhere else you find.
If you’re limited for time and don’t have the resources at home, bodyweight workouts could be the answer. If you’re curious to learn more get in touch with me to find out more.
4. How often should I train?
This is very specific to you as an individual, as everyone has a different training background and is at a different level.
Learn to listen to your body and the signals. Sometimes rest is far more beneficial to you than ‘overtraining’. Other common factors that often don’t get considered are these pillars listed below. They are just as essential as the training you’re doing:
1. Sleep length and quality
2. Nutrition
3. Stress Levels
4. What exercise are you currently doing
5. Breathwork
6. Recovery
5. Do I need to do any other exercise if I am strength training?
In my experience, it works well for most women to combine strength training with:
Moderate-intensity cardio
HIIT (High-intensity training)
Remember, though, that everyone is different – so it’s important to focus on what works for you
HIIT is great for women who are more intermediate or advanced as they have a good sense of movement, muscle contraction, co-ordination, and self. For beginners it is possible to join in, of course, but I would highly recommend that you take the weights lightly, ask questions if you’re ever unsure, or talk to your coach after the session for more guidance.
Combine one of the above 1-2 times a week to compliment your strength training.
As for moderate-intensity cardio, there are so many options out there. These include:
Hiking
Biking
Swimming
Rowing
Circuit training
Aim to work at a 60-80% output when doing the above activities. In addition to this I would recommend as much NEAT movement as you can, as well as adding in mobility or yoga to help strengthen your joints and range.
Your training programme should also be something you enjoy – love what you’re doing. I believe that training should not have to be a chore. Know and educate yourself on what is good for you but also recognize that doing something fun can be a real stress releasor, especially if your lifestyle is stressful.
Suggestions would be to include NEAT training (Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis) into your day. Especially when you’re working in an office and tend to sit in a chair more often. Doing the housework, getting a daily step count of 10,000, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator will help to keep your joints moving.
It’s very common that training more is better, but think about cardio in terms of sustainability.
You should enjoy the exercise that you do and be able to fit it into your life in a way that enhances it. If you don’t feel like you can sustain the amount of cardio you’re currently doing, both in terms of time commitment and enjoyment, stop and head back to the drawing board.
6. Do I need to bother with a warm-up?
There are moments when I’ve been short on time and would just count a short run as the warm up. Whilst this raises your heart rate, it doesn’t help your body perform at it’s best – especially as we get older. Incorporating a warm-up into your workouts gives our bodies a chance to prepare and activates the muscles we will use in the session to get the most out of them.
A good warm-up should include some breath work, aerobics, muscle activation, and practiced movement patterns used in the session. For a large proportion of us, our bodies are used to doing one thing: sitting. Especially during this period of Covid-19, as a coach I have been sitting much more, which doesn’t get me ready to perform. A warm-up helps prepare us mentally as well as physically. Additional benefits include building efficient movement patterns and mobility work.
Components of an ideal warm-up include (in order):
Self-myofascial release (optional)
Diaphragmatic breathing / cardiovascular warm-up
Mobility work e.g. opening up hips and tight hamstrings from sitting down all day
Dynamic warm-up, muscle activation and movement preparation
Warm-up sets
Bear in mind you may not always have time to do all of these exercises so it’s up to you each training session to apply what you know in the best way you can to prepare your body for movement. Take a couple of minutes ahead of your training plan to write down your warm-up which will make it easier to get into it and follow.
7. What kinds of movements shall I do?
To help you get a better understanding of movement patterns, I have listed them below to get you familiar. Exercises typically fall into six major movement patterns.
A well-rounded strength training plan includes movements from all six categories. You don’t have to do all of the movement patterns in one session but just be aware of making sure they’re included throughout.
The six major movement patterns are:
Squat/knee-dominant
Hinge/hip-dominant
Single-leg or split-stance
Upper-body pull (horizontal and vertical)
Upper-body push (horizontal and vertical)
Core (rotation; anti-rotation; anti-extension; anti-lateral flexion; and hip flexion with neutral spine, hip, and spine extension)
Here are just a few examples of each movement pattern:
Squat or Knee-Dominant
Bodyweight squat
Barbell back squat
Barbell front squat
Hinge or Hip-Dominant
Romanian deadlift
Conventional deadlift
Barbell glute bridge
Single-Leg or Split-Stance
Reverse lunge
Split squat
Single-leg squat to box
Upper-Body Push
Push-ups (horizontal)
Dumbbell bench press (horizontal)
Overhead press (vertical)
Barbell corner press (vertical)
Upper-Body Pull
Inverted rows (horizontal)
Lat pull-downs (vertical)
Pull-ups (vertical)
Core
Half-kneeling chop (rotation)
Pallof press (standing, tall-kneeling, or half-kneeling/anti-rotation)
Front planks and variations (anti-extension)
Side planks (anti-lateral flexion)
Bear crawls (hip flexion with neutral spine)
Prone back extension (extension)
There are two types of movements in training:
1. Compound Movements (multi-joint movements)
2. Isolation Movements (single joint movements)
Compound movements involve more than one muscle group and joint. For example, if a person’s primary focus is to get stronger they can strengthen their biceps by doing Chin Ups as opposed to just doing Bicep Curls.
When setting up your training, prioritise your compound movements versus your isolation movements. Why? Because you will get your biggest bang for your buck by recruiting several different muscle groups at once. They will use up more energy so you’re better off doing them before your isolation movements.
For example, the deadlift is considered a total body movement because there are several muscles used in both the lower and upper body. The muscles used in the deadlift are:
Quadriceps
Glutes
Adductor Magnus (Inner Thigh)
Hamstrings
Erectors
Lats
Traps
Rhomboids
Abdominals & Obliques
Some examples of compound, or multi-joint, movements are:
Squat variations
Deadlift variations
Push-ups
Pull-ups
Isolation movements are typically used to target a certain muscle group for muscle growth. Compound movements should be your priority if your goal is gaining strength or using maximum energy expenditure to change your body composition. Again, it is all relevant depending on what your goals are to get the maximum return when you’re training.
After your compound lifts you can work in some isolation, or single-joint, movements. Some examples include:
Bicep curls
Tricep press-downs
Calf raises
8. How do I get started? {Bullet points – link to next article}
Great question! My top tip is to just start and try. Check out these body weight workouts below:
YouTube Link 1: Push ups tutorial - https://youtu.be/HjhQqHwJUUY
YouTube Link 2: Coming soon