10 Reasons Why Girls Should Lift Heavy

1. Lose fat.

Weightlifting offers higher resistance training than cardio, and lifting weights taxes your body more, thereby requiring more energy to heal. A girl who lifts heavy weights will expend more calories in the post exercise period than a cardio bunny girl, ensuring that she will calories even after the workout is done.

Muscle also needs more energy to be maintained than fat, and hence having muscle increases your metabolism.



2. “Toned” muscles.

Weightlifting does not make you bulky. Testosterone helps to build muscle. Guys get "bulky" because they have much higher levels of testosterone, but girls have much lower levels of testosterone so we don't get bulky. Would you call her bulky?


Jamie Eason

Also, muscle takes up less space than fat
: 

5 lbs of muscle vs 5 lbs of fat

You will not look like a female bodybuilder unless you take anabolic steroids or testosterone. Ever since I started lifting, I’ve lost body fat while still indulging in my favourite desserts, and I’ve gained muscle definition in my arms, abs, butt, and legs that I never got in my years of dancing, or doing any other sort of cardio. I’ve also noticed a dramatic reduction in my cellulite with heavy squats and deadlifts.

3. Functional Strength.

You can't lift weights without getting stronger and better at it. I can now lift that bag of rice in the supermarket, carry gallons of milk myself to the car, and change the water dispenser in the office. Nope, no guys needed. Girl power FTW!
(Which leads to the next point…)

She's so strong she can carry groceries WHILE eating them!

4. It is empowering!




Being able to lift heavy makes me feel incredibly powerful- it has increased my faith in my own abilities to do something that I set my mind to. There is this rush of euphoria each time I see an improvement and I experience this exhilaration every time I set a PR. 

Lifting heavy makes me feel strong and capable of taking care of myself. I love lifting weights because I know that if I set my mind on the goal, and I work towards it, I will be able to accomplish what I set out to do.

5. Helped me to love myself for what I can do and not what I look like.

Nothing wrong with loving yourself for what you look like, but face it, our physical looks are temporal. Who doesn't love that sexy flat stomach when you wake up but hate it when it bloats up after breakfast?

Lifting weights has helped me to enjoy what I do and to accept that looks aren't everything. It helped me to love my body for what it is capable of, be it pull ups, squats, or simply being able to move pain free.


We come in different shapes and sizes but we are all beautiful.
Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise. 

 6. Because cardio and crunches don't work.

If cardio and crunches worked, then why isn't everyone around you a size 2? We have all been down that path of endless hours on the elliptical/bike/treadmill and we all follow the routines in magazines like this:


Lifting heavy helps you to build the body you want.

7. Stress relief.

Nothing more liberating than going to the gym and deadlifting all your troubles away. When particularly frustrated with exasperating group mates or colleagues, or with relationship problems, deadlifting and wall balls really help me release my irritation and annoyance with every clang of the barbell against the floor.



Wall balls

8. Helps build patience and perseverance in achieving long term goals.

Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither can you squat your body weight the first time you step into a squat rack.

Setting long term goals and working towards them weekly taught me the value of perseverance and diligence. It translated into other qualities which I could use outside the gym- like setting long term goals, short term goals, planning to achieve these goals, discipline in executing my plan, and a doggedness not to let anything stop me from giving my 110%. Weightlifting is perfect for building this way of thinking because it offers am objective way of measuring progress. Either you lift it, or you don't.



9. Health benefits.

Weightlifting is a form of resistance training, which helps to increase bone density, thereby staving off osteoporosis in old age. Turning 50 is a couple of decades away, but what you do now in your 20s can affect you when you’re much older. My mum got osteo-arthritis in her hands when she was 40+, and that made me all the more sure that I want to keep myself strong and fit so I can take care of myself when I’m older.

I still want to be deadlifting like this awesome grandma when I'm 75 years old. 

10. Because you have nothing to lose.

If you’ve tried doing 100 crunches a day, or an hour running, and you don’t see results, then why not trying weightlifting? It’s scary, but it’s awesomely fun when you get to know it. You have nothing to lose but everything to gain by trying something new!