Women’s fitness has been based upon cardio workouts like running, swimming, jumping rope and aerobic exercises for more than a century now. Even in 2019, it’s easy to understand why so many women turn to the treadmill or the elliptical for their workouts — most of what we see on TV and at the gym are slim, youthful women with enviable figures glowing with sweat and looking like they’re having so much fun doing it. Cardio is marketed indirectly by sports clothing brands, sports teams and societal standards as the foundation of (female) exercise. Many women think that if you do your cardio, you will eventually get the body featured on that Nike commercial (the Nike “Better for It” Inner Thoughts campaign features fifteen different scenes, 13 of which show women doing cardio, while just two show women lifting light weights).
I grew up as an avid runner, and I still love to run. But by the time I reached 18, I was tired of my body being so small and skinny from running, with little muscle definition. I wanted change.
While cardio is an important element of overall fitness, it should be a supplement, not a foundational workout. Weight training specific muscle groups is the most effective way to shape them into the look you want for yourself.
One of the most important aspects of weight training that you don’t gain from cardio is muscle development. If you exercise to reach a certain body type, learning about exercises that work out specific muscle groups will help you to grow those muscles. Using the Stairmaster for thirty minutes five times a week is nice, but squatting with a kettlebell (weighted depending on your fitness level) or trying out the squat rack can be far more beneficial and efficient if you’re trying to shape those glutes, hamstrings and quads.
Cardio is known to burn more initial calories than lifting weights; however, one of the great things about weight training is that it has been proven that your lift will continue to burn calories for over 38 hours after you finish. Cardio, on the other hand, stops burning pretty much right when you stop your workout. I like to say that with lifting, you’re getting a bigger bang for your buck. You can go home and lie on your couch and you will burn 10 extra calories per hour as you sit there. While this number doesn’t seem important, multiplying it across the 38 hours proves how significant it is (for some insight, it’s like running another three miles in that time frame).
Finally, weightlifting is an essential building block on the path to a strong body. I have heard far too many women say they are afraid to lift because they don’t want to look like a bodybuilder—luckily, because women have much lower testosterone levels, it’s incredibly difficult to develop muscles like men do. Women must train far more aggressively than men to achieve results, and we will never, due to body chemistry and biology, be able to compete with the #gains men make at the gym. That can either be a plus or a minus to you. I, personally, appreciate the fact that I can go to the gym and work on my upper body without worrying about how much is too much.
I still run a couple times a week for my heart health and mental health. Running can clear my mind like nothing else. However, I let the bulk of my workouts happen in the weight section of the gym. I love being able to have different goals for different muscle groups, both superficially and strength-wise. I love knowing that I can do things now in day to day life because I’ve been training my muscles with a purpose. The most important thing about fitness to me is the idea of working towards a strong and functional body, one that helps me have the best quality of life now and in the future.