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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Turning forty is a wake up call! Beginning around this age many women begin to notice changes in their bodies that sound the alarm. You may be perplexed by creeping weight gain and stubborn belly fat. Perhaps you feel stiffer in the mornings and are becoming accustomed to living with little aches and pains in your joints. You may notice that your posture has suffered and you no longer stand as straight as you used to.
And of course, you’re right! Behind the scenes, all the systems of the body are undergoing a subtle shift. As you approach perimenopause, hormonal changes cause the metabolism to slow down. There is a steady decline in bone and muscle mass. You are at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. You may even experience a slight decrease in balance and cognitive function.
But the remarkable thing is that strength training can defend against all of these changes. With a diligent program you can
reduce middle age spread and belly fat
speed up your metabolism and burn more calories
improve your posture and skeletal alignment
strengthen muscles to protect joints
build bone density
reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease
sharpen your mind
Lifting weights just twice a week for an hour can help work off abdominal fat that often accumulates in middle age. According to one study that followed participants for two years, women who lifted weights dropped overall body fat by almost 4% and gained only a 7% increase in belly fat, compared with a 21% increase in the group who did not lift.
Weight loss from exercise is primarily fat loss. Building lean body mass increases your resting metabolic rate, burning more calories over the course of the entire day. Lean muscle mass is metabolically very active, burning more calories for basic physiological functions like breathing, circulating blood, and digesting food.
Stronger muscles help maintain the alignment of your spine to improve your posture and protect your joints. Poor posture can strain your joints and ultimately lead to headaches, neck and shoulder tension, sciatica, and hip and knee pain. Proper alignment creates better body mechanics as you move through your day. It’s easier to perform your daily activities and remain pain free.
Just like your muscles, your bones get stronger with weight training. As the muscle contracts it pulls on the bone, creating bone density at the site of stress. The intensity of the stress is more important for bone deposition than the number of repetitions. Since the effect of weight training is specific to the bones that attach to the muscles being used, be sure to do exercises for all the major muscle groups.
Pumping iron is also good for that most important muscle, the heart. A regular program of weight training improves the function of the heart and lungs, enhances glucose metabolism and reduces coronary disease risk factors. When muscles are stronger, there’s less demand placed on the heart when you have to lift or carry objects.
And if you still need another reason to lift weights, here’s a good one: According to a recent study older women who did an hour or two of strength training exercises each week had improved cognitive function a year later. They scored higher on tests of brain processes, including an enhanced ability to make decisions, resolve conflicts and stay focused in spite of distractions.
Weight training guidelines:
You need to do a minimum of two weight training sessions per week to achieve the desired training effects, and no muscle should be worked more than three times in one week. Allow one day of rest in between working each muscle group, since the repair and recovery of the muscle fibers is as important as the stress to the development of the muscle.
Use the heaviest weights that you can lift in good form 8-12 times and perform 1-3 sets of each exercise.
Do exercises for all of the major muscle groups: Hips and thighs, back, chest, shoulders, arms and abdomen.
Joan Pagano is a widely published author and an authority on the benefits of exercise for women’s health issues such as pregnancy, breast cancer, menopause and osteoporosis as well as strength training through the decades. For more about Joan and her services, please visit JoanPaganoFitness
(c) Copyright – Joan L. Pagano. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
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