Every time I visit the gym, I see women working out with little coloured dumbbells. Week in and week out, they’re doing the same exercises with the same weights. They probably think that if they pick up heavier weights, they'll 'get big like a man'. But unless you have unusually high testosterone levels, there’s no way you’ll start looking like Mr Olympia.

Many women let an unfounded fear of bulking up deter them from serious weight training. This is a shame, as weight training could benefit them in many ways…

Muscle Boosts Your Metabolism

If you diet without weight training, or lose weight too quickly, you will lose muscle. And as you lose muscle, your metabolism will slow down. This turns into a vicious cycle where you need to eat less and less. The best way to get out of this ‘diet hell’ is to build muscle through strength training.

Muscle is metabolically active tissue. In other words, it burns calories even while you’re at rest. As you increase your muscle mass, you’ll find that you need more calories to maintain your weight. Or if you’re dieting, you’ll find that you can keep losing bodyfat without going hungry.

Gaining muscle also reverses our body’s natural tendency towards middle age spread. Left to its own devices, your body will slowly lose muscle at the rate of five to ten pounds a decade. This is the main reason why people tend to gain weight as they age. Less lean muscle means a slower metabolism, so that you need fewer calories at age 50 than you did at 40. The only way to reverse this process is to get into the gym and start lifting!

Muscle is More Compact than Fat

You may have heard people say that ‘muscle weighs more than fat’. This is obviously rubbish: a pound of muscle weighs exactly the same as a pound of fat. But a pound of muscle will take up less room on your body than a pound of fat. I’m living proof — the last time I was at my current weight (before I started strength training) I was two dress sizes larger than I am now.

So if two women are exactly the same height, build and weight, yet one is two sizes larger than the other, what does this say about your bathroom scales as a source of feedback? The scales will tell you how much you weigh, but not the crucial information — your proportion of lean body mass to fat.

Bodyfat percentage is a much better guide to health and fitness than ‘scale weight’. But it is tricky to measure. I monitor my bodyfat percentage with Accu-Measure calipers (right).

Once you get the hang of using them, they provide consistent and repeatable results. Other people use scales which estimate bodyfat percentage, but because they rely on hydration levels, they tend to give inconsistent readouts. And others prefer less high-tech methods of gauging their progress, like the humble tape measure or the fit of their ‘skinny jeans’.

Whichever feedback method you choose, you’ll find that when you start lifting, you will look leaner and more defined.

Reshape Your Body

Weight training can enhance any body type. Thin women can gain curves and definition, while curvier women can lose body fat and firm up.

I used to despair of my pear shape. My narrow back, sloping shoulders and big hips meant that nothing ever fitted properly. Since I started lifting, I have broadened my upper back and shoulders, making my body much better proportioned. Guys call this ‘enhancing the V-taper’. I call it making my jackets fit better.

Exercises like lunges, squats and step-ups with a heavy barbell can do wonders for shaping up your butt and thighs. And exercises like triceps dips and triceps extensions will firm flabby underarms.

Increase Your Bone Density

Weight training will increase your bone density and reduce the risk of osteoporosis, a particular issue for women. If you already have osteoporosis, strength training can lessen its impact.

Protect Your Joints

Building up the muscles around your joints will help to protect them from injury.

Improve Your Athletic Performance

Whatever sport you enjoy, strength training will improve your performance. For example, runners will benefit from strengthening their legs, as well as doing upper body work so they can pump more air into their lungs. Strength training will also improve your endurance for any sport.

I have a specialised program to increase my upper body strength and endurance for rock climbing. I also do heavy lower body work — just because I can. Which brings me to my next point…

Lifting Heavy Stuff Rules!

Weight training won’t give you the kind of endorphin high that intense cardio does, but you will get a definite rush when your heart is hammering after a heavy set of squats! I enjoy feeling my muscles working as they were designed to, feeling myself growing stronger, and the sense of accomplishment when I can add more weight to the bar.

Strength = Confidence

I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that the reason men always seem so confident is because they’re physically strong. Walking around feeling the strength in your body is very empowering. I have yet to be called on to carry someone out of a burning building or fend off a would-be mugger, but you never know…

Getting Started

So where do you start? A good place is ExRx which has a beginner’s guide, templates and instructions for developing your own workouts, and a complete glossary of weight exercises, including videos. Another good resource is Stumptous, a kind of ‘Lifting for Women 101’. Or you could ask a personal trainer at your gym to develop a routine for you and show you how to do each exercise safely.

About the Author

Susan Munter is one of the 5% of successful dieters, maintaining a 90 pound loss since 2003. She lives in Canberra, Australia's 'Bush Capital', and enjoys hiking, rockclimbing, canoeing, spinning and weightlifting.