What’s so special about women’s health?
The health benefits of physical activity in women are specific and significant, making a big difference to wellbeing on a day to day basis, as well as being essential to long-term health.
This Women’s Health and Fitness Day, why not take a moment to think about how you can incorporate physical exercise into your routine or help the women in your family or friend group who might need a bit of support and encouragement?
There are lots of amazing projects to support more women and girls in the UK to get more active, like Sport England’s This Girl Can, helping people overcome personal and cultural barriers to getting and staying active.
Why exercise makes you feel better
There is real science behind why even small levels of physical activity help you to feel better. Physical activity improves digestive function and regular intestinal rhythm. It’s also a determining factor for energy expenditure and is therefore essential for controlling body weight. Exercise is different for men and women. Getting older is a natural part of life but women tend to lose muscle tone at a faster rate than men.
Exercise ranging from swimming to cycling to lifting weights has a positive effect on your mental health, contributing to the maintenance of cognitive function, reducing the risk of depression, dementia, stress and anxiety, and improving your sleep quality. Women in the UK are more likely than men to have their lives impacted by the responsibilities of caring duties, so we need to do more to support women to find the time to pursue activities that benefit their health and wellbeing.
What about long-term health?
In terms of more serious health factors, physical activity is known to lower the risk of contracting a number of chronic diseases that impact women more than men, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arterial hypertension and some forms of cancer such as breast and colon.
Exercise also improves bone mineralization if taken up at a young age, contributing to the prevention of osteoporosis.
Should I stop exercising if I’m pregnant?
During pregnancy, if there are no specific issues with exercise. Moving and practicing physical activity can bring important benefits, both for future mothers and for children.
Exercise during pregnancy promotes good circulation, reduces the risk of conditions such as gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, preterm birth, venous varicose veins and deep vein thrombosis. Added to this are the psychological benefits, which include reduction of tiredness and stress. It is also important to help prevent weight gain over and above what is expected.
You should be more careful during the last phase of your pregnancy, when moving around with agility can become tiring. During this period it’s advisable to walk on a regular basis but not to push yourself into anything overly strenuous.
What kind of exercise should I be doing?
Strength training is very important for women. At the end of an intense weight training session, your metabolism will remain elevated and will continue to burn fat for several minutes later.
During aerobic exercise, you will stop burning fat shortly after the activity. Moreover, taking up a high impact aerobic exercise like running might not be the best approach and there are many other ways to support your bone health, gain strength and get your heart rate up.
The less muscle mass you have, the slower your metabolism will be. If you’re trying to lose weight by following a diet without resistance training, up to 25% of your weight loss could be caused by loss of muscle tone which is not ideal. Weight training whilst following an eating plan can help to preserve and even rebuild muscle fibres, and the more lean mass you have, the higher your metabolism will be and the more calories you will burn all day.
Getting stronger and more confident by lifting weights increases functional fitness, making everyday tasks like working, lifting heavy suitcases or performing caring duties easier.
A final word on bone health
It has been well documented that women need to exercise to build and maintain bone mass. Just as muscles grow stronger through exercise, so do bones when subjected to a training load. Stronger bones and increased muscle mass also lead to better flexibility and balance, which is especially important for women as they get older, whilst also preventing degenerative diseases such as osteoporosis.
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When you’re ready to discuss an exercise plan that works for you, get in touch to talk about Personal Training. Together we can create a step-by-step programme that will get you on the right track faster than you think.
