The Strong[HER] Way | Healthy nutrition and habits for moms, routines, strength training for women

Tap into your inner strength: 10 benefits of building muscle for women

• Alisha Carlson • Episode 181

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When my family faced a health crisis, I knew something had to change about the way we were living our lives. My husband was diagnosed pre-hypertensive when he was mid-20s. That scared both of us into getting healthy so he didn't need to live the rest of his life on medication. Especially because high blood pressure runs in his family.

 In our latest episode, I share 10 reasons why strength training is so much more than a means to lose weight for women—it's a gateway to a world of

increased metabolism
improved body composition
a newfound sense of empowerment

Forget about obsessing over the scale

it's time to redefine what true health looks like and how resistance training can be the cornerstone of a vibrant, empowered life.

Our conversation extends beyond the physical, addressing how a stronger back, core, and lower body can revolutionize your posture and offer relief from the pain that comes with our desk-bound lifestyles.

But perhaps even more impactful is the discussion on the mental health benefits that arise from a consistent exercise routine

—think less depression, less anxiety, and a hefty boost in self-esteem.

We also contemplate the concept of 'banking' muscle for the future, ensuring independence and mobility as we age. 

This episode is more than just a talk; it's an invitation to you to start prioritizing strength training in a way that fits seamlessly into your life, promising a journey towards a stronger, more empowered you.


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Speaker 1:

Hey guys, what's up. It is Alicia here from the Strong Her Way to Eat, move and Live. Here we talk all things food freedom, fitness and life transformation, helping you heal your relationship to food, exercise your body and yourself. Today we are going to be talking about a topic that is very near and dear to me and my heart. It is something that I feel pretty strongly about, quite passionate about, for sure. I love it, especially when I see younger women getting involved in this at earlier ages. It is weight training or resistance training or strength training and ultimately, with the goal of building muscle.

Speaker 1:

Now we are hearing more and more and more and more about the importance of building muscle and what it really means for us long-term health-wise and so many different areas of our lives. It is no surprise to any of us really that certain chronic diseases and illnesses and things like that are on the rise and really have been on the rise for a long time and truthfully, for me, so little backstory I don't know if you knew this or not, but I used to be a hairstylist, absolutely absolutely loved doing hair. I loved so much of that but really for me, I kind of started going on my own health and fitness journey and wanted to help other women feel stronger, feel better in their bodies and show up more powerfully in their lives. But I also wanted to help people live healthier overall. My husband at the time he wasn't my husband, but now he's my husband in his early 20s he kind of got diagnosed in a way with prehypertensive disorder or hyper. He was basically prehypertensive, meaning that if he didn't make some radical changes to his life and his lifestyle and his diet, then they were wanting to put him on medication for that, and I think for him that was a huge wake-up call in his mid-20s being on high blood pressure medication for the rest of his life. And at the time the biggest loser was popular.

Speaker 1:

It was on TV and I think, looking at it now, there is a lot about that that I don't agree with, but I think one of the things that it really sparked in me was this desire to help people live healthier lives, to essentially either prevent chronic illness and disease or reverse it, because there's a lot of stuff that really and truly we can have a massive impact on through lifestyle changes, and this is one of the reasons that the field of lifestyle medicine is so appealing to me, and I'm so excited that we are hearing more about lifestyle medicine instead of always just turning to pills, and I don't mean just because I think that there can be a time and a place to utilize medication and different things like that. I also think that our current system of medicine maybe relies on that a little bit too heavily, and I don't want to get into all of the reasons for that, although you probably already know, or maybe you have a similar opinion or perspective if you are listening to the show. But today I want to talk about really the importance of building muscle, I think, especially as women. I know it's incredibly important for men as well and I don't want to leave them out. So if you have a hubby, if you have sons, a boyfriend, whatever that is, then please encourage them also to lift weights and build muscle. But because this is the stronger way, because I am incredibly passionate and on fire to see women feeling stronger and feeling better in their life, in their bodies, because I know how much of an impact that has on how you show up in every single area, I really want to talk about this specifically for women. So, building muscle, we do that by resistance training, strength training, weight training, whatever you want to call it. It really does provide so many different health benefits and provides a lot for our well being and our confidence. For me, lifting weights and feeling strong in the gym translated to me feeling stronger and more powerful in my life all around. I'm just going to share a few of kind of the key reasons that I truly believe that building muscle is important for you as a woman.

Speaker 1:

So number one increased metabolic rate. Muscle tissue is metabolically active. This means that it is burning calories even when it's resting. Now, if you think about it, that is pretty cool. If you are looking to either maintain your weight, or maybe you're wanting to drop fat or or weight loss or something like that, you're going to have as much tissue that is kind of doing some of that work for us even when we're not working out as possible. So when you increase your muscle mass through strength training, you are essentially boosting your basal metabolic rate, which is really just the metabolic rate, the amount of weight that your body burns at rest. So if we can boost that and kind of work in our favor, why wouldn't we want to? So that is one reason it will help you boost your metabolic, your metabolic rate, even when you're not working out. I think that's pretty cool. It improves our body composition. So there is a lot more to the number on the scale than just the number on the scale. Unfortunately, in the diet industry, I think that the weight loss industry, I think even that the health industry, or the health care industry to some extent, has done a pretty good job of only focusing on the number on the scale and therefore weight loss as metrics of health and improving our health or, in un, improving our health and our health essentially getting worse. So what I think is is that the number on the scale is a little bit more complicated than just that right.

Speaker 1:

So when we're looking at the number on the scale, not only just the amount of mass that our body has, but it's also broken into lean mass. So that could be your muscle tissue, that's your bones. It includes your organs, obviously your blood. It also includes fat. So that could be the visceral fat that hangs out around the organs. It could also be the subcutaneous fat that hangs out underneath your skin, so around your belly, under your arms, typically maybe on your hips if you're a woman. So when we are building muscle and we are weight training. What we're doing is we are essentially kind of swapping out the amount of fat for muscle. So as the muscle gets bigger, typically what's happening and not always in like an even exchange if we are kind of doing the right things, for lack of a better term we're gonna build more muscle and our fat cells are gonna shrink. So we could essentially be the same weight or be very close to the same weight, but have more muscle, have denser bones, be stronger, be able to be more active, and the number on the scale really didn't change that much. So building muscle helps to decrease that body fat percentage. It really improves your overall body comp.

Speaker 1:

This can not only, for some people, enhance that physical appearance, but it can also contribute to health outcomes. So this is one of the main reasons to do it right. It prevents that osteopenia, osteoporosis, but it can also help reduce the risk of what we would consider obesity-related diseases, such as type two diabetes, cardiovascular disease. It can also be a protecting factor against insulin resistance, right. So it actually helps us clear insulin. It creates that insulin sensitivity which is huge if you have obesity not that you are obese, but if you have obesity, if you are pre-diabetic and that type two and if you're a woman that has PCOS right, and unfortunately with PCOS, a lot of times it goes undiagnosed or maybe misdiagnosed, especially if you don't have all of the symptoms. So that improved body comp, it's not only for aesthetic reasons for some people, which is totally fine, but it also has a lot of health benefits as well.

Speaker 1:

So that the enhanced strength, right. So getting stronger feeling, stronger functional abilities, being able to do daily activities of life If you have kids, being able to keep up with your kids or pick them up and toss them or carry them if you need to. If you're like me, maybe you try to get all the groceries in on one and one trip, right. So it's just those daily activities become so much easier when we are stronger, when we have more muscle. This is also something that is important as we age. So I have recently started working with an older population and it's become more apparent to me how important it is that we are as strong as possible for as long as possible, especially if we want to be able to live a somewhat independent life as we start to age. Right, so it's not necessarily just thinking about training for the body that you have now, but training for the body that you want to have when you're 85 or 90. And, believe me, this was not something that I was really thinking about before, now almost 40. It's something I wish I would have been a little bit more in tune with and thinking about, and something that was more important to me when I was younger, because that probably would have changed some of the decisions that I had made then.

Speaker 1:

Strength training really does improve, like I said, that muscular strength, the endurance. It makes your daily activities easier to perform, and having those stronger muscles is going to improve functional ability and really reduce the risk of injury. So this is now, but this is also forever. We are building that foundation now to have a strong body so that we can also have that stronger body later on as we age. So to increase bone density we already kind of touched on this but strength training, especially with some plyometrics where we're really loading the bones, is going to be massively important.

Speaker 1:

Now it is important also for me to say that I think that there are great ways for us to do strength training and hit and plyo, and then there are some ways that tend to actually cause more injury. So if you're brand new to strength training, I highly recommend working with a trainer or a coach for at least a little while so that you can learn proper form, you can get some feedback on your own form and then, if you are going to go to a gym or go to a class, really make sure that there is a decent amount of variety throughout the week so that you're not creating like overuse injuries or end up injuring because you're constantly doing kind of the same high intensity, high impact workouts throughout the week. But you also want to make sure that their programming is solid. So strength training, a little bit of plyometrics, huge for increasing bone density, but it's also very beneficial for your bone health, ligament health, tendons, all of that kind of stuff. It also can help stimulate bone growth, which is great if we're looking at increasing density and therefore preventing osteoporosis, osteopenia and really reducing the risk of fractures again, especially as we age.

Speaker 1:

Now, I know not all of this is super sexy or probably not all thinking. You know, man, I want to be like a hot grandma or super fit as a grandma, but the reality is we are all going to age, god willing, and to start thinking about not only the life and the body that you have now, but what's the life you want to be living as you age? Strength training also improves our joint health as well as stability and balance. So building muscle can help support and stabilize your joints Again, injury prevention, reducing the risk of injuries and improving overall joint function. So if you notice like limited range of motion due to injury and things like that, of course get that taken care of with a PT or whoever you need to take. Have help you take care of that. But we also want to get back to the resistance training, because that's going to strengthen the muscles that cross the different joints, again, keeping as much range of motion If you're not watching, I'm sitting here doing stuff with my hands because I'm a hand talker and just keeping as much functionality as possible.

Speaker 1:

So, regardless, if you are more of a Endurance athlete, I would still say let's include some strength training. You know, if you're more into running, swimming, triathlon, things like that, let's do the resistance training. If you're more into yoga and Pilates and things like that, that is great. Let's also include some resistance training. If you really just like to walk or ride your bike, fantastic, let's also include some resistance training, again, for bone health, joint health, joint stability, just overall, being more active and stronger in our lives, throughout our lifespan.

Speaker 1:

Being stronger, having more muscle, can also help improve your performance and sports and different life activities. So, whether or not you consider yourself an athlete, if you like to go out and even just run around the field with your kids and kick around a soccer ball, or maybe there are some different activities that you're wanting to explore For me, I've personally been thinking about pursuing pickleball, regardless of what that is or what that looks like. Being stronger and having more muscle is going to improve your performance in all of those areas as well as, again, preventing injury. Strength training can improve your athletic performance by increasing power, speed, agility and just overall performance. Many athletes incorporate resistance training into their programs to gain that competitive edge. So, again, if you're somebody that's really into running, maybe you're doing more of the marathons and things like that. Being stronger overall is going to help you actually run faster.

Speaker 1:

So this again is where I think exercise. I like to think of it like a diet and having a lot of variety, right, so not just eating the same kind of thing day in and day out, because then we're going to miss all sorts of nutrients. Also not working out the same way day in and day out, month after month, year after year. Being stronger, having more muscle, doing that strength training, especially strengthening in the back, the core of the lower body, can improve posture, which is a huge thing. So if you sit a lot and you notice that you kind of slump and you have some low back pain, maybe you have some shoulder or some neck pain, really working those muscles of the back and getting a little bit stronger there can help you improve your posture without feeling super weird about how you're sitting or standing. Again. This can also prevent that long term kind of chronic pain as well. So, yeah, again, I think the theme here is being stronger, being able to do more in your life.

Speaker 1:

Preventing injury is huge, enhancing your mental health. So exercise in general is pretty good at the mental health aspect. Part of that is all of the hormones, the endorphins, that are released. Exercise, including strength training, has really been shown to have a positive effect on mental health overall by reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. And even just that sense of accomplishment or doing something hard can improve your self esteem or the way that you view yourself and this is overall going to contribute to your well being. Getting better Strength training and building muscle can also help manage those chronic conditions. So, again, resistance training and the muscle and really like what the muscle is doing, how it's an active tissue in our body, can help manage chronic conditions like hypertension, arthritis, chronic pain, even to an extent we just kind of talked about that with the posture and it can really improve symptoms of your quality of life.

Speaker 1:

If this is something that you're living with right. So let's say you are doing the lifestyle things. Maybe you've also gotten some help from your doctor and you're implementing some medications and things like that. But just working on the strength and adding muscle and being stronger overall can also help. In fact, one of the things I say so often is that typically people think when they have arthritis they need to stop exercising because it hurts, when actually the opposite is true is that exercise helps kind of lubricate the joints and actually makes it feel better, whereas the less active we are oftentimes the stiffer we get. Maybe you see more flare ups with your arthritis and have more pain in that area.

Speaker 1:

We've kind of been weaving this one throughout, but it's really is that longevity and it's the quality of life. So we want to build as much muscle as we can for as long as we can, and then we want to try to maintain that muscle mass and that strength and that power as long as we can as well, right? So there's this part of us where, you know, during the first part of our life it's really it's a lot easier to build that muscle. So we want to think about getting as much in the bank as possible and then taking out a small of withdrawals as we can for as long. So really focus on building. And then we go into that maintenance mode of trying to hold on to the muscle mass and our strength as we age, because, again, that's going to help us stay independent, mobile, strong, able to do just those daily life activities, and it can help older adults. So, as we age, we're going to stay active, right, especially if we can get plugged into a community, if we have that social component as well.

Speaker 1:

Overall, as you can tell, I'm a huge proponent of this and it doesn't have to look a specific way, as in you don't have to go to the gym, you don't have to go to a class, you can do it from home, you could go to a gym, you could go to a class. So I think within that, it's finding what's going to work for you within the context of the rest of your life. Finding a professional, like I said, if you're just getting into it to help you build a really solid foundation so that you don't end up hurting yourself and you know kind of figuring it out like do you do better if you're in that social group setting and you have other people that you're kind of working out with, or are you the person that really it's like, let me just get in, get it done and get on with the rest of my day. So there is part of it that's knowing yourself, knowing what you have access to in terms of resources like time, money, facilities, different things like that and just kind of figuring out what's going to help you stay as consistent as possible. I'm a huge proponent that flexibility is key and being able to pivot For me. This morning I was super, super thankful for that. That. We had some stuff at home that I can work out with. I also have a super cheap gym membership in town, so there's that flexibility. It's like if I can't get to the gym, I can still do something at home. So it is a part finding what you like and what you prefer and then also finding out what is going to work within your life and the resources that you have available to you.

Speaker 1:

So my invitation to you is that if you are not yet strength training, if you're not yet actively like working on building muscle, I really want to encourage you to make this a part of your priority in this next year. Mentally, emotionally and physically. You will be so thankful to yourself for making that decision to get stronger, to build muscle, not only now, but in the years to come. I can honestly tell you that was one of the best choices that I made was to actually step on stage and go into a figure competition. Now, that is extreme. It is definitely not for most people. I really don't have a desire to do any more of those shows, but what I am thankful for it taught me a lot, but it also really set that foundation.

Speaker 1:

To get into weight training really helped me to even see my body in a different way in terms of it's not always about being smaller, it's not always about losing the weight. It's more focusing on how do I feel in my body? Am I getting stronger? Are things in life just easier to do and really just having this appreciation for what my body can do, and not necessarily always hinging it on what it looks like? So hopefully this was a catalyst for you. If you've not started, get started. If you've paused, then please get back into weight training as quick as possible.

Speaker 1:

And if you have listened to this episode, if you've been listening for a while and what I'm saying resonates with you, I want to encourage you to take that next step. And what that looks like is just booking a free consultation. On that consultation, we'll come up with a step by step plan that really is personalized to you and your life and your goals and what you need. And then we get to work. We work together, you have the accountability, you have the support, you have somebody that's there helping you kind of tweak, helping you avoid obstacles and pitfalls altogether, but also helping you figure out like, how to fail and keep moving, because so often we end up trying something, usually alone, and we fail, and then we start to believe that maybe we're not capable of doing it or I failed so many times in the past, why should I try again? And that's really where having a coach, having somebody kind of on the outside, can help you move through those. So if that is of interest to you, you can go to Alicia Carlsoncom slash connect and fill out the form. There will also have that in the show notes below.

Speaker 1:

And if you haven't yet, go ahead and download the Strong Her Way app. It's going to give you access to a couple different strength training programs. You'll also have access to the mindful eating project, a four week mini course that's going to help get you started in that non diet space around food. So, like I said, if you haven't yet downloaded that, it's available in the Google Store as well as the app store. So grab the app, book your call. Let's make this next year the healthiest, strongest, best year of your life as that foundation really moving forward into the rest of your life. So thanks again for spending time with me and hanging out. I can't wait to be here with you again next week. Until then, bye.