As a female physician who has taken to lifting weights after a stint with CrossFit taught me to not be afraid of barbells, kettlebells and dumbbells, I could not appreciate this post more - thank you for your homework and the data that supports the path I encourage more women to take!!
Appreciate the women-focused post, but unfortunately the study you reference on resistance training and the elderly doesn't include women. And we all know that women are not small men.
This is why it is critical that we have studies that focus on women and our specific differences.
In the paragraph before, you reference the Sleep Foundation. The link was broken when I clicked on it earlier but now it goes to their home page. On that page was a general link to women and sleep but it only referenced high intensity aerobic exercise (and it was geared towards women as college students): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32774864/.
Maybe there is another study that you have that directly showcases the relationship between lifting and sleep for women and I just missed it?
I joke with my husband that he just needs to look at a barbell to pack on muscle, but here I am training for months and I still can't do one darn pull up.
I want to do strength training right, because I know how important it is especially now that I've hit 30. But I'm still not sure what counts as strength training.
Hey! Saw your comment and wanted to offer my unprofessional opinion in case it's helpful. Your question is tricky, but it brings up an interesting point of what actually classifies "strength training." Might be a long-ish response, so bear with me... haha.
I would say all of those count as strength training, but I also believe there is a difference between "strength training," "conditioning," and truly building muscle. Using your muscles to accomplish any task is great for them, and all the activities you listed are great for your body, but the difference I see is how you improve in those areas. If you achieve whatever you define as "improvement" in those activities you listed, it's also likely true that either your conditioning, technique, balance, or range of motion improved, which are likely the elements that led you to see progress in those activities. Improving any of those categories is great for your body and beneficial for your brain, not to mention getting to enjoy that particular activity even more!
If you want to actually build muscle, you HAVE to 1) achieve some level of exhaustive failure with that muscle and 2) eat enough protein to build that muscle back up after breaking it down. If you aren't gritting your teeth and making ugly faces on your last few reps of a movement, you aren't going to build muscle. Every rep before failure is just a warm-up for those last few reps where it actually counts. As far as recovery goes, Michael has some awesome articles on proper protein intake!
At the same time, who wants to ruck or carry their 7-year-old until muscular failure? That's super dangerous, and it's a good way to make yourself hate that activity forever, haha.
So, this brings us to "conditioning."
By participating in those activities, you increase your muscles' conditioning, but not necessarily their size or shape. I think the activities you listed could be described as strength training, sure, but I think they are more accurately described as strength conditioning, which is your body training itself to use its resources more efficiently to accomplish the task i.e. getting oxygen to muscles, generating ATP, efficiently increasing bloodflow, etc. which all help you "feel" stronger!
I've heard that it's harder for women to develop upper body strength (such as that needed for pull-ups) than men, and the reverse is true for lower body strength like squats. This bears out in my personal experience (I've made more progress with deadlifts and squats than push-ups and pull-ups) but I wonder how universal it is?
Could not love this post more. Making it required reading for my personal training clients.
As a female physician who has taken to lifting weights after a stint with CrossFit taught me to not be afraid of barbells, kettlebells and dumbbells, I could not appreciate this post more - thank you for your homework and the data that supports the path I encourage more women to take!!
Appreciate the women-focused post, but unfortunately the study you reference on resistance training and the elderly doesn't include women. And we all know that women are not small men.
This is why it is critical that we have studies that focus on women and our specific differences.
Which study are you referring to?
You reference the Brazilian study in the paragraph after: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22045416/
In the paragraph before, you reference the Sleep Foundation. The link was broken when I clicked on it earlier but now it goes to their home page. On that page was a general link to women and sleep but it only referenced high intensity aerobic exercise (and it was geared towards women as college students): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32774864/.
Maybe there is another study that you have that directly showcases the relationship between lifting and sleep for women and I just missed it?
I joke with my husband that he just needs to look at a barbell to pack on muscle, but here I am training for months and I still can't do one darn pull up.
I want to do strength training right, because I know how important it is especially now that I've hit 30. But I'm still not sure what counts as strength training.
Do bodyweight exercises count?
Does Pilates count?
Does carrying my 7 year old up the stairs count?
Does rucking count?
Does lighter weight with more reps count?
Does hanging futilely under a pull up bar count?
Hey! Saw your comment and wanted to offer my unprofessional opinion in case it's helpful. Your question is tricky, but it brings up an interesting point of what actually classifies "strength training." Might be a long-ish response, so bear with me... haha.
I would say all of those count as strength training, but I also believe there is a difference between "strength training," "conditioning," and truly building muscle. Using your muscles to accomplish any task is great for them, and all the activities you listed are great for your body, but the difference I see is how you improve in those areas. If you achieve whatever you define as "improvement" in those activities you listed, it's also likely true that either your conditioning, technique, balance, or range of motion improved, which are likely the elements that led you to see progress in those activities. Improving any of those categories is great for your body and beneficial for your brain, not to mention getting to enjoy that particular activity even more!
If you want to actually build muscle, you HAVE to 1) achieve some level of exhaustive failure with that muscle and 2) eat enough protein to build that muscle back up after breaking it down. If you aren't gritting your teeth and making ugly faces on your last few reps of a movement, you aren't going to build muscle. Every rep before failure is just a warm-up for those last few reps where it actually counts. As far as recovery goes, Michael has some awesome articles on proper protein intake!
At the same time, who wants to ruck or carry their 7-year-old until muscular failure? That's super dangerous, and it's a good way to make yourself hate that activity forever, haha.
So, this brings us to "conditioning."
By participating in those activities, you increase your muscles' conditioning, but not necessarily their size or shape. I think the activities you listed could be described as strength training, sure, but I think they are more accurately described as strength conditioning, which is your body training itself to use its resources more efficiently to accomplish the task i.e. getting oxygen to muscles, generating ATP, efficiently increasing bloodflow, etc. which all help you "feel" stronger!
Let me know if this was helpful!
That's actually so helpful! Kinda like the difference between training VO2 max vs zone 2. Both important, but in different ways
I've heard that it's harder for women to develop upper body strength (such as that needed for pull-ups) than men, and the reverse is true for lower body strength like squats. This bears out in my personal experience (I've made more progress with deadlifts and squats than push-ups and pull-ups) but I wonder how universal it is?
Thank you for the great post!