5 Reasons Why You Should Build Muscle
The following is excerpted from Smart Girls Do Dumbbells by Judith Sherman-Wolin
Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. That means it burns 14 calories per pound per 24-hour period. There are some estimates that fat burns only around 3 calories per pound. So, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn daily.
But don't worry about looking like Arnold "I'll be back" Schwarzenegger. Women do not have enough of the right hormones to end up looking muscle-bound. So if you're not tinkering with your hormones by taking anabolic steroids or performance-enhancing drugs, you will not build bulky, manly muscles.
- 1) Muscle burns calories, but that's not all!
Muscle is a 24-hour furnace, allowing you to burn more calories even at rest. The famous "yo-yo" dieting syndrome is a result of muscle loss - if you diet without exercising, you lose muscle along with fat. The loss of muscle tissue translates into a slowdown - sometimes a shutdown - of your metabolism. Eating less will help you lose weight but building muscle will help you keep it off.
- 2) Muscle-building promotes bone health
Bone is a constantly changing tissue: growing, diminishing and remodeling. Women's bones are much more vulnerable than men's. We stop building bone between the ages of 30 and 35. After menopause, we start losing bone.
However, a regular ongoing program of weight-bearing (any activity in which you carry your own weight through space such as jogging, dancing and basketball) and weight-resistance (using resistance mechanisms, such as dumbbells, that place additional loads on your muscles and bones) exercises is a key strategy for preventing and curtailing weakening and diminishing bones.
- 3) Muscle is an antiaging tissue
Our bodies lose muscle throughout the aging process. And unless a woman exercises, her muscle mass will start declining at around the age of 25. She will lose about 4% muscle mass per decade from the age of 25 - 50 and about 10% per decade thereafter.
Building muscle through exercise combats the aging process by keeping our bodies and joints strong and functional. We look old when we move sluggishly, when our joints hurt and we have limited range of motion, regardless of our chronological age.
- 4) Muscle helps create a healthier body
Muscle built through exercise has profound physiologic and metabolic benefits. In addition to its high-calorie burn, muscle-building exercise helps remove sugar from the bloodstream and create a body lower in fat. Additionally, muscle helps keep joints strong which help with allover alignment so your body is at risk for injury, whether you are performing everyday tasks or participating in a triathlon.
- 5) Muscle is empowering
Men have always known that muscle has intrinsic value far beyond physiologic attributes. To men, muscle is power. It means strength and sexuality. Men crave muscle because it gives them a profound sense of control over their lives.
Women are evolutionary latecomers to the power party. And I don't know about you, dear readers, but I want control over my life! I want strength and power and to be sexually appealing too. If muscle is the magic tissue that's going to do that for me, may I have some, please?
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