Strengthen your bones

Strength training not only helps keep our bones strong but can actually increase bone density. This is vital for women who have gone through or are going through the menopause. After the menopause, a woman’s oestrogen level will drop. Oestrogen plays a vital role in in protecting and maintaining bone density, so as oestrogen decreases a woman’s bone density can also decrease. This loss of bone density can increase the risk of developing osteoporosis.

To help maintain bone density, it’s a good idea to do strength training once or twice a week.

Strength training will improve muscle strength but will also place load on your bones helping to strengthen them. Strength training involves using load to create resistance. There are lots of different ways to create resistance for the body whether it be fixed resistance machines, dumbbells and barbells or resistance bands.

Prevent muscle loss

As we get older, we become less active and this in turn can cause muscle loss. After thirty, we all gradually lose muscle mass, strength, and function. This means over time it’s common to lose strength and stability, and gain weight. Doing regular exercises with weights not only stops muscle mass from decreasing, it also helps rebuild it.

Maintaining a healthy body weight

Strength training builds muscle. The more muscle your body has, the faster your resting metabolism. By increasing the amount of muscle you have the more calories you’ll burn even when resting. This in turn will help keep off the body fat.

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Reduce the risk of falling

Strengthening your muscles earlier in life and incorporating balance and mobility exercises into your exercise routine can help prevent falls and improve overall stability. One third of people over 65 fall each year with a common cause being poor muscle strength.

Help for those with Type II diabetes

Your muscles act as storage vessels for consumed sugar and carbohydrates. Trained muscle has a higher capacity to store blood glucose in the form of glycogen, aiding in lowering blood glucose. Studies show that strength training and building muscle can help with Glycemic control in older adults. (A Randomized Controlled Trial of Resistance Exercise Training to Improve Glycemic Control in Older Adults With Type 2 Diabetes | Diabetes Care | American Diabetes Association (diabetesjournals.org))

Where to start?

Book a free induction at the leisure reception desk and one of our fully trained instructors will help you every step of the way in your journey of strength training and improvement.