Whether young or old, small in stature or of more ample proportions, all women should have strength training as a part of their daily to do, well perhaps not every day but at minimum 4 days of every week.

I know, I know, a simple exercise such as walking takes a huge amount of effort and if you are like me, well let’s say, adding strength training to that…it gets closer to impossible to begin to fathom.

Can I share with you that, the effort will outweigh any challenge we may feel in the present.

Strength training is not about getting hard and muscular (which is a myth and an excuse for many of us), it goes beyond that, I will get into the benefits in a bit. My Journey with my last child, a girl, after having two boys, was different. She wasn’t clingy but what I can definitely say is that she liked to be in arms a lot. As I look back at that period in my life two things come to mind.

1. When we get into the habit of doing a thing, that “thing” becomes second nature, therefore easier. Having to tout her around daily was not an easy feat but became a habit after a while. And when she got beyond a certain age and certainly heavier, it didn’t feel like a chore. It was habitual, I did it without thinking.

2. We are stronger than we give ourselves credit for. While I may accredit this moment to physical strength it goes beyond that. Having to cater to this baby who was more demanding than her siblings taught me that I have a greater capacity to handle hard things, things that I never thought I could.

Side note : Having her up in arms throughout the day gave me great arms and shoulders… can’t beat that!

Now, I want you to think about your life, and the different scenarios you have encountered; looking back, would you say you possessed the capability to do many things you thought you couldn’t. That’s right, you do! I believe that whatever we put our minds to we can do.

So now that I have that covered, let’s talk about the benefits of strength training for us women and how it mirrors our lives.

• I think I will start with one that I saw in my research that I love – Building physical strength can help you build major confidence. Additionally you become a badass. A woman that can conquer the world. Wouldn’t you want that feeling? How do you think that would affect your interactions with others and help you to live a life of quality? Do I need to say anything else? This may give you the confidence to leave that bad relationship or that meaningless career or write the book!
• How about, It allows you to grow…hold on, the explanation is coming. Think about it this way, I never gave serious thought to strength training separate from my physical routine. I mean yeah I know, I do the occasional push-ups which is the starting point of strength training; but I never thought about level 2-4 that uses actual weights. Once I did, I was taken outside of my comfort zone and I did not back down. It has helped me to identify other areas in my life, the other comfort zones that I need to step out of. I am now pushed to grow in other areas of my life. What do you say, do you want to be pushed?
• Life is about taking small even steps towards our goals. – Anyone who has started strength training will tell you that you can’t immediately go for the heavy weights, you must start with the light weights first. As you master those you graduate to the successive bigger ones. And so it is with some of us, in order to achieve our goals, big or small, we must tackle the smaller easier ones and work our way to the more difficult ones. This works because as we achieve each successive goal we celebrate our victories and gain the confidence to move on. Also we know that the struggle of life (lifting) can get overwhelming but we learn to stick to the task and keep moving.
• Let’s talk about the health benefits for a moment – as I researched I found a couple myths floating around, one of which is that as you get to a certain age, women ought to be concerned about strength training and injury. Injury happens when we jump into the deep end rather than wade in the shallow area … did you get that? And that is true of life in general. So yes, with strength training because of the significant change that takes place with our muscles we must start off slow, that is key. We must also get an expert to help us with our form etc. and that is all I will say on that. Injury? Nah… Don’t let that stop you from getting to a healthier you.

It doesn’t matter the age, women will benefit health-wise from strength training in some of the following ways:

Increased bone density – This is important as we age and our bone density declines. Strength training will also help in reducing osteoporosis (which causes bones to become weak and brittle) which comes with aging.

Increased muscle mass – One of the issues we face as women which I once thought was as a result of aging is -losing muscle mass; instead of aging it is caused by inactivity and poor eating habits. Is this a light bulb moment for anyone? By the way increased muscle mass does not equate to bulk which is also another myth. This leads to the next point.

Helps with weight loss –Strength training will help us to lose weight.

Better quality sleep & Increased Energy– this is a given and an advantage of having an exercise program as a part of your regime.

Improves heart health – Research suggest that strength training improves heart health and reduces risk of cardiovascular diseases over other means of exercise such as walking.

Lowers stress levels – Would you say this is a given? As women I believe we encounter stress more than our male counterpart. And so strength training should have a positive impact in this regard. Less stress equals better quality of life.

So what do you say? Is strength training something that you would want to incorporate in your goals for the next 5 months? It is high on our lists of recommendations for our women going forward. Life is not just about making the “bag” and filling it up. If you are not healthy chances are the bag will not get filled. We encourage our women to live a more rounded lifestyle; one that ensures that (daily) we are trying to master each of the following –

Incidentally all of these form the wheel of life which I encourage you to research.

Can we become more intentional about how we journey through life? I recently attended a virtual summit that was immensely rewarding. One of the takeaways is that before we go after knowledge mastery we must go after self-mastery. If we don’t then everything we do is naught.

Take care of number one, think about strength training, it is definitely one of the means to self-mastery and a way to a better quality life!