Strength training? I don't want to become a female Hulk!

When we talk to women about strength training, we often hear that they are afraid of getting huge muscles. Ladies, rest assured, you do not have enough muscle-building hormones to look like Schwarzenegger. By doing strength training you not only become physically stronger, you also gain more self-confidence and it helps prevent all kinds of diseases and ailments. In this blog we give you five reasons to start using iron. Especially as a woman.

1. Better posture

We sit a lot these days. Especially now that working from home has become completely accepted, we roll from one Teams meeting to the next Google Meet and we don't even have to move from meeting room to meeting room. The ideal recipe for poor posture and neck, shoulder and back complaints. Strength training helps you improve your posture. Of course, this won't happen overnight, but it does provide a long-term and permanent solution. A stronger core ensures that you have a better posture all day long. Do you suffer from chronic back pain? Then there is also a good chance that you will suffer less from your pain by doing strength training.

2. More positive self-image

In Psychology Magazine we read that research shows that sports is an effective way to get a more positive self-image. Strength training leads to greater satisfaction than cardio. Strength training even appears to be a good addition to the treatment of depression, as research has shown.

3. Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease

Exercise reduces the risk of glucose intolerance, obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, writes epidemiologist Esmée Bakker in her dissertation, for which she will receive her doctorate on 4 March at Radboudumc. You really don't have to spend hours on the irons for that: if you do strength training for less than an hour a week, the risk of cardiovascular diseases is reduced by almost thirty percent. Quite an effect.

4. More self-confidence

To stay with Schwarzenegger, in his book Total Recall he wrote: 'Strength training is the best way to work on better self-confidence.' If you train under good guidance, you will see progress with every strength training, which is not the case with any other sport. You will not only become physically stronger, the dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin that are produced during strength training also make you happier. Strength training stimulates the production of, the hormones that make you feel good.

5. It helps prevent and reverse type 2 diabetes

Diabetes type 2 is caused by being overweight, eating too much and too much fat or not exercising enough, in combination with a hereditary predisposition. You can do little about this hereditary predisposition, but you can do the rest. According to the Nutrition Centre, you can reduce the risk of diabetes type 2 by avoiding sugary drinks, eating limited red meat and processed meat such as cold cuts, eating lots of whole grain products, vegetables and fruit and including yoghurt in your daily diet. But there is more you can do. Scientists have discovered that people with diabetes can also benefit from regular weightlifting or strength training. Research in the Internal Journal of Cardiology even shows that strength training can be more beneficial for regulating blood sugar levels than cardio in people with diabetes type 2. The best results are achieved – of course – when strength training is combined with cardio.