Having good strong muscles could literally save your life. I know that you've heard that it's important to have muscles, and do weight training. So many women balk when they hear that; their first reaction is that they don’t want to “bulk up” so they usually plan to avoid weights. But did you know all the merits of muscle? I bet you don’t, or you’d be doing your best to make sure you included these important exercises in your routine. 

The merit of muscle: why and how - 

Higher metabolism

When you have higher muscle mass, your metabolism runs faster. Having a higher metabolism means you have less body fat. The reason is muscle needs more energy (and consumes fat as fuel) simply because of the type of tissue it is. Who doesn’t love that? 

Bone density

Bone density is directly related to muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the more bone density you have. Bone density helps you to live a longer life. As women, we start losing our bone density as early as 25. It’s important to incorporate resistance training to maintain our muscle mass and bone density, or it will continue to drop. Weakened bones may result in things like a deteriorated spine (like how older women seem to be hunched over?) or broken hips. 

Sugar and fat absorption

Muscle is the biggest absorber of sugar and fat within your blood. As much as eighty percent of the glucose in your blood is absorbed by muscle. This means the more muscle you have, the bigger the sponge. The opposite is also true: if you don't have very much muscle, there's nothing to absorb that sugar and fat that's floating around. So what does it do? It spills over and you have high cholesterol, high insulin, and high resting glucose. 

These numbers lead to the diseases that are the number one killer of Americans, especially American women. [R] Heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes. These are deadly diseases, but they can be prevented. It goes back to muscle growth to act as the absorption of the excess fat and glucose. 

How do you grow muscle? 

First, be assured, you're not going to get bulky. Sorry, you're not a dude, you're never going to look like one. Some of us would like to be bulky. Some of us are trying really hard. But we can't because we don't have enough testosterone. What you can do is be really strong, really healthy, and get some nice, dense bones that will last a long time. 

• Get in the gym
• Lift the heavy weights (not the cute pink ones because you know your purse weighs more than that)
• Be accountable to someone because studies show you are 60% more likely to follow through when you speak your intentions out loud. I share more tips for reaching your fitness goals here.

If you need support in developing an exercise set to help you build muscle, or if you want an entire routine that incorporates mindset and nutrition which also factors into metabolism, bone density support, and disease prevention, schedule a call with me here.