Women and Weightlifting: Why More Women Are Ditching Cardio for Strength Training
Mar 5, 2025 mindpumpA huge marketing push was done on women back in the day to “tone” up. Everything was geared towards not looking too bulky and why women need to train completely different from men. With popularity grown from CrossFit and fitness podcasts, the shift has changed. Women are now getting in the gym and pushing heavy weight. More women are realizing that lifting weights does more than just build muscle. It can transform your body composition, and speed up your metabolism.
From Toning to Strength
There is no such thing as toning. Muscle either grows, or shrinks. When any individual says they want to look “toned” what they are really referring to is revealing hard earned muscle by lowering their body fat percentage. Science backed research has proven time and again that using compound movements over cardio will result in strong, confident women who will get that beach body look more effectively.
The Science Behind Strength Training
What some may not know is cardio may burn more calories per minute due to the consistent pace and heart rate elevation, but strength training burns more calories at rest. What this means is the more muscle you have, the more calories your body naturally burns to hold onto that muscle. It is calorically expensive to have muscle, so your body will expend more to retain it. The body also gets more efficient at oxidizing fat for fuel over anything else.
Another thing to consider is aging. As we age, we are told to believe our metabolism slows down. While this is true to an extent, research again has shown it’s not as slow as we once thought. Particularly if we are lifting. If we keep a proper resistance training program in our lifestyle, we will continue to burn the same calories well into our later years. It is only as we stop moving that it starts to slow down.
Why Weights Are Superior
The more cardio you do, the more efficient your body becomes at burning calories for the same effort. It’s a losing game. This is why you may have seen or experienced doing endless amounts of cardio and not really seeing any change on the scale. As mentioned before, lifting weights speeds up your metabolism, and enhances insulin sensitivity. It will also increase bone density which will help with injury prevention, as well as increase strength.
Lifting Doesn’t Make You Bulky
Take a look at all the guys in your gym next time you go in. How many are actually jacked? Now consider this. These same men will spend their ENTIRE lives trying to look “too big”. Yet few will ever achieve it. Men also have significantly more testosterone than women. So, if the fear is getting too bulky, you no longer need to worry. If those guys can’t achieve it, you will not surpass them. Even if you did, muscle doesn’t just appear overnight. It’s a process. You will have more than enough time to realize you are at a size you want to be then maintain from there or back off, before ever waking up “too big”.
