Strength training is not just for men.
Strength and balance training is hugely important for women, particularly as you age, from both a physical and mental health perspective.
However, a lot of older women find gyms intimidating and find the thought of lifting weights scary or are held back by the idea of weight and strength training being “not for women”.
On the contrary it absolutely is, for the following reasons, and a whole lot more!
Improves your bone density and reduces risk of osteoporosis
Improves mobility and reduces your falls risk as you age
Improves some menopausal and pelvic floor symptoms
Improves your sleep quality and mood
Improves your cardiovascular health
Can help with weight fluctuations due to hormone changes
Empowers you to do more independently and feel safer within yourself
As you start to reach menopause your levels of oestrogen and other hormones drop. Because oestrogen helps maintain bone density, this drop can lead to significant bone loss and to low bone density over time.
Weight bearing and resistance (strength) training signals to the body to keep regenerating bone which helps to maintain your bone density. It also builds muscle, tendon and ligament strength to support your joints, and lift heavy things on your own!
Improved strength, balance and agility means you are less likely to fall, and also less likely to injure yourself badly if you were to fall. You will also be able to get yourself up off the ground after a fall, which is extremely important particularly if you live alone.
Menopause can also cause an increase in pelvic floor and incontinence symptoms as you begin to lose elasticity of the muscles of the pelvic floor.
Combining pelvic floor exercises with your strength training, and adding in things like small jumps and change of direction movements teaches your pelvic floor how to contract and relax quickly. This can be helpful for situations in life like jumping off a small wall, sneezing or running small distances.
Why you might avoid strength training, even when you know the benefits.
Often it can feel intimidating going into the gym or the weights section. It may feel like lifting weights is just for men or people in their 20s!
While there are many gyms, bootcamps and group exercise classes that are designed for women, we know that sometimes even the thought of starting those without any previous experience, or “knowing what you are doing” can be rather terrifying.
You’re possibly worried about injuring yourself or don’t believe that you can lift the heavy weights.
You’re worried about getting “bulky” or “too muscular”.
You might avoid doing classes because they involve jumping or running, which very often causes stress urinary incontinence (leaking urine).
You might have even been told in the past that lifting weights would damage the pelvic floor. However we now know that with the correct technique and slow progression of weights, you can actually improve your symptoms by strengthening the pelvic floor along with the rest of the body.
How we can help you move beyond these (sometimes literal!) hurdles:
We start off with one-on-one sessions so you will be completely supported and not have to worry about “knowing what to do”.
As Physiotherapists we are experienced with training around pain and injuries and can modify almost anything to allow you to still exercise safely.
As we have extra experience in strength training we are able to help you progress from injury or a low baseline in strength, right up to competence in doing things you probably never realised you were capable of!
You will not get bulky or big with the kind of exercise we’ll be doing, the kind of training needed to build visibly big muscles requires a specific kind of training and diet, repeated for years! You will likely just improve your muscle tone.
We are all trained in pelvic floor rehabilitation and so can incorporate exercises that will improve your function, as well as give you appropriate exercises that won’t stress the pelvic floor beyond your current capabilities.
