Ep 19: Why women should lift weights: busting the myths about women and weight training

Voiceover (00:02):

Welcome to The Confident Body where experienced health professionals discuss how to get the most out of your body for the lifestyle you choose. We believe everyone can exercise and get the most out of life, regardless of your injuries or health issues. Now, here’s your host, senior physiotherapist, Michael Dermansky.

Michael Dermansky (00:23):

Hi everyone, and welcome to the show that helps you become more confident in your body so you can keep doing your things that you love. My name’s Michael Dermansky, I’m senior physiotherapist here at MD Health, and I’ve got a special guest today, Kate Crombie from Absolute Health & Performance. Welcome to the show today.

Kate Crombie (00:38):

Thank you so much for having me on. I’m so thrilled to be here.

Michael Dermansky (00:41):

Fantastic. Well, we’ve got a great topic as well and you said you were very passionate about this one, so you’re the perfect one to interview why women should lift weights, busting the myths about women and weightlifting.

Kate Crombie (00:53):

Yeah, I am incredibly passionate about this. As soon as I sort of got into this industry, I definitely started going down this path and have just been fascinated by female physiology but also really breaking that anti or working against that anti-fragility mindset with women and strength training.

Michael Dermansky (01:11):

Great. Well, I’ve gone a bit too far so I’ve actually introduced… Can you tell the listeners a bit more about yourself too, Kate?

Kate Crombie (01:17):

Yeah. So, I’m a performance coach at Absolute Health & Performance. So, we’re based in Melbourne, and I’ve been there for a few years now. So, I’m actually currently about to start my second year of Masters of Clinical Exercise Physiology. So, I do definitely have an interest in the clinical area as well, and yeah, I’ve been coaching in Absolute for a few years now, running my own business on the side, and working with a lot of women and helping them get into strength training.

Michael Dermansky (01:39):

So, let’s go straight to that too. From your perspective, should women lift weights and what are the benefits?

Kate Crombie (01:46):

Absolutely women should be lifting weights. There is no doubt about it, and the benefits are very similar to the benefits men are going to get. So, yes, there are physiological differences, but they’re not so pronounced that we’re not going to get those same benefits. So, we’re talking about things like a stronger and healthier musculoskeletal system, better metabolic and cardiovascular health, better sleep, better mental health. And then for women in particular, it is important to be doing strength training because women are more at risk of developing osteopenia and osteoporosis, and we need that heavy strength training to help bones adapt and grow. So, there is a number of reasons why women should be doing strength training.

Michael Dermansky (02:25):

Okay. So, let’s go back to exactly what you said last now, the strength benefits and particularly the bone benefits as well. You said osteopenia, osteoporosis. So, not everyone’s familiar about what that means as well. What is osteopenia? What’s the difference between that and osteoporosis? How does strength training make a difference to that?

Kate Crombie (02:46):

So, it’s just the density of the bone becomes impacted with the aging process, and this happens in men as well, but it’s more pronounced in women due to the age related changes in hormones and through that menopausal period, the loss of female sex hormones through that period. So, it’s just on a spectrum. Osteopenia isn’t quite as bad as osteoporosis. Some women will only develop osteopenia and not osteoporosis. So, it’s just that sort of spectrum.

Michael Dermansky (03:15):

Yeah.

Kate Crombie (03:16):

Oh, and strength training is a key component of actually helping bone to adapt. So, we need strength training and plyometric training to actually help the bone to adapt and be healthy.

Michael Dermansky (03:25):

So, I mean it’s interesting because the last I remember when I went to university as well is that we talked about strength training for women as well to help stop the rate of bone loss over time, but nothing could make it reverse. It was always we hopefully with training will reduce the rate of decline. It wasn’t a very pleasant story. Probably in the last 10 years, there’s been a shift and it’s really great to hear that particularly with lifting and stronger weightbearing exercises, which are safe to do, we actually see a change in bone density on the right side, where we will come in and there’s actually stronger… The bone density hasn’t declined. It’s sometimes gone up where that was an impossible story 20 years ago, we wouldn’t have heard that at all.

Kate Crombie (04:11):

Yeah. That’s a fantastic point because I think often people get into this mindset of, okay, these changes have happened, things are declining, there’s no point. Why should I even start? But there’s always a reason to start because we can reverse some of these things, and we can actually continue to adapt and grow. So, it’s always worth giving it a go even if you haven’t been doing strength training historically.

Michael Dermansky (04:34):

Yeah. I mean, our bones need load. They’re not just these big lumps of calcium. They’re actually very dynamic structures that respond to what we ask them to do. If we take load off them, it responds to that. If we put load on them, it responds to that. And then the matrix what we know about the calcium, that’s the outcome of it too. It’s all the living part of it that is constantly changing that adapts to load.

Kate Crombie (05:01):

Absolutely.

Michael Dermansky (05:02):

And you also mentioned the musculoskeletal effects of the bone strengthening effects as well. I mean, from our practice here, we tend to see particularly young women because they get busy, they don’t do strength work, and it’s a shame because there’s so much limitations in what people can do in their life which is unnecessary, unnecessarily restricting what they do with their life because they’re just not strong enough.

Kate Crombie (05:28):

A hundred percent. And I think that’s the real shame of it, and I think it’s changing now as we’re getting a lot more women in sport. Young girls have the AFLW as an inspiration and something to work towards. But women haven’t been doing a lot of strength training in their youth, so then they’re getting out in the big wide world, being an adult, they’ve got all these responsibilities, and they just don’t have that habit ingrained of I need to be doing some kind of strength training or any training really as part of my life. And as you said, it just has such a negative impact on things that you can do.

Michael Dermansky (06:04):

So, when should people start? When’s too early? When should women start doing strength training work?

Kate Crombie (06:11):

The earlier, the better really. I mean, when we think about youth training guidelines, the American College of Sports Medicine resistance training or training guidelines for youth is probably the best resource we have, and they say that from five years on kids can be doing resistance training. So, that is an absolutely fine time to be starting, and I think that we should be encouraging young girls to be training at this point in time, but I think it needs to look a little bit different to what we do when you are an adult. The guidelines are different, and then we need to really consider I guess the mental health component of it and then also physiological health and menstrual cycle related things because when we sort of delve too far down the path of sports that have a very aesthetic focus, there are some really negative implications for the menstrual cycle or even delaying the onset of a girl getting her period and things like that. So, there’s a way to do it that can be done healthily. It looks a little bit different to probably what we do as adults.

Michael Dermansky (07:12):

It does. I mean, that transition between getting used to technique, getting just used to doing exercises that are a bit more structured as well, and I think when both boys and girls, when they get to their teenage years particularly start getting in more structured sport, I think we tend to find that tends to be the great time to really then that formal strength training being a regular part of the regime. Particularly if they’re involved in competitive sport, it goes hand in hand.

Kate Crombie (07:40):

Absolutely. And then even if sport isn’t your thing, not everyone’s into it, if you are knowing how to squat and bench and deadlift and be comfortable picking up dumbbells and moving around that environment when you’re in your late teens, then when you get out in the real world and you’ve got to go to the gym and want to start doing this, it’s going to be so much less intimidating. You’ve already got those skills there. I mean, that is one of the biggest barriers for women is not knowing how to do these movements, not feeling confident, feeling scared in the gym environment. So, the sooner we can get that happening and build those skills, build that confidence, the better.

Michael Dermansky (08:17):

Yeah, and that’s a really good point you say that to get over that barrier or fear of going into a gym as well and doing, because there is intimidation of going and then also getting something out of it. Oh I’ve got a gym membership, do I go? No, because I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s a lost opportunity where understanding those basic skills of lifting, like you said, deadlift, squats, bench press, all those basic lifts that are good for the joints, going to a gym and actually doing those ones and having the confidence or the skill base of doing that is a really big deal.

Kate Crombie (08:52):

Yeah, it really is, for sure.

Michael Dermansky (08:54):

And I mean, I guess, this is a different perspective as well. So, how did you feel when you started doing strength work for yourself? I mean, that must have been intimidating for you if that wasn’t part of your normal regime either.

Kate Crombie (09:11):

Oh yeah. So, I started, I was the most unconfident person when I started. I actually started at a CrossFit box but personal training. So, I went to see this guy once a week, and we did sessions at a time when there were no other classes on. So, I had the gym to myself because I was too embarrassed to lift or move in front of other people. So, it was incredibly intimidating. I remember one time my session got changed from 7:00 AM or 8:00 AM to 7:00 AM and then I had to do all these movements in front of other people and I was just terrified. I don’t know where that comes from, whether it’s shame or just worry about being judged and not feeling confident, but I so wish I’d started earlier or had someone tell me that this was important when I was younger so I felt more confident going into that setting. That’s why it’s just so important that health professionals and other people in gym spaces are accepting and welcoming and understanding of just meeting people where they’re at because we all started somewhere.

Michael Dermansky (10:15):

Yeah, actually, it’s a really important thing. You’re a professional in this area, and it’s still, you started off being not confident about what you were doing and needed that guide around you to be able to know what to do, and having that fear, okay, eight o’clock the class wasn’t there so you had to come to seven o’clock. Oh my god, there’s other people there as well. And that’s probably a big reason why other women are scared to go and do strength work and do stuff in the gym. Just, oh my god, what are other people going to think? What’s going to happen here? And getting over that barrier and being comfortable in that space, it’s a massive deal.

Kate Crombie (10:50):

It really is.

Michael Dermansky (10:52):

And we face that every day here as well, making people comfortable. That’s probably our role in the first couple of months. Even more so than the strength work is getting people comfortable regularly exercising and making it part of their lives.

Kate Crombie (11:06):

Yeah, absolutely. That’s an interesting point because what I’m noticing particularly in the women’s health space is sort of that fragility mindset I mentioned earlier, and then also making the physiological differences between men and women, or pointing out those differences so much so that we think women need to train in a very, very different way, and most people aren’t there yet. Yes, there are different ways we can adapt based on a women’s physiology, but we really need to get people into the gym, consistent first, learning the movement patterns, getting comfortable, getting those habits and foundations in place before we even start tinkering with all of that other stuff. So, it really is just about getting the consistency first, and we need to think about that first and foremost.

Michael Dermansky (11:56):

It’s interesting you say, it’s 2023 now as well, but in 2022 the biggest word we kept talking about is consistency, consistency, consistency. So, the key to any kind of gym program, any kind of strength work, any kind of fitness work was consistency. That just came across again and again and again and again.

Kate Crombie (12:15):

Yeah.

Michael Dermansky (12:16):

So, let’s go to the other end. We talked about younger, when it’s too early or what the right age is to start is. What about the older age group, over 50? If a woman hasn’t lifted all her life, why should she start in her fifties? I’ve got a very strong opinion about this because we see this every day, but what do you see from your perspective?

Kate Crombie (12:38):

I think the biggest issue at this point in time is just the changes in hormones. So, 50 is smack bang in the middle of that kind of menopausal transition. So, women will go through perimenopause, then menopause, and then obviously there is that lack of female sex hormones which is going to impact a lot to do with our musculoskeletal health and other areas of our health as well. But the biggest issue for women is sort of going down that path of heading towards sarcopenia which is that age-related loss of muscle strength and muscle mass, and resistance training is going to be one of the best things to reverse or stop that path from happening. So, we need resistance training to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and things like this to help women actually maintain muscle mass, maintain strength, maintain their functional capacities. So, it’s probably one of the biggest reasons why we need it in there, and you’re not going to get those same adaptations from cardiovascular training.

Michael Dermansky (13:36):

So, there’s a really big one as well. The biggest thing we see, limitation of people’s lives over 50, and there’s men and women, but particularly women as well as they’re just not strong enough. It is the biggest factor that stops people living in their lives that they deserve. I’m afraid to do this, I’m scared of falling, I’m scared of doing this because I can’t do it, it’s often the strength being the first limiting factor. And even if people over 50 want to do cardio work, great, but the foundation, the strength needs to be there to be able to do that too. It is over 20 years of experience, that is the number one factor I see women stopping having the life they deserve is their lack of strength, especially over 50 as well. Oh, it’s not something I do. Well, it’s limiting the quality of life you have, and when we see women build up their strength, particularly as they get older as well, as you said, that loss of muscle mass, sarcopenia, as they get older, 90% of that is lack of activity much more than the effective hormones.

Kate Crombie (14:40):

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

Michael Dermansky (14:41):

And so, it’s the biggest thing we see people change and their lives change. We don’t talk about this stuff because it’s nice to go to the gym. The gym is not the reason why you’re there. The gym is a means to have the life that you deserve. That’s the whole point of going to the gym and working on the strength so that you are not afraid of having a trip overseas and enjoying that time. You’re not afraid of hanging out with your kids or then your grandkids and enjoying that time in the park or the time on the bikes or whatever it is.

(15:13):

We’ve got a lady here in her early 50s who took up BMX riding as well with her son. Now, that’s the way it should be. Why? Because she’s strong enough to be able to do it. She didn’t do that earlier in her life, and she didn’t do that two years ago, but now that’s what she does because she’s strong enough to do that. That’s the reason why we talk to people about lifting weights. It’s not because we want them to lift weights. You want them to have the life they deserve.

Kate Crombie (15:37):

Yeah, you are exactly right, and it’s really about… People need to keep that in mind. It’s like what is your why? Why are you even doing this? And for the majority of people, it’s not about that, I just love moving a barbell around. It is about all the other avenues it opens up for the rest of your life. Being over 50, you’ve still got a fair bit of life to live, so you want to live it as fully as possible.

Michael Dermansky (16:02):

So, you mentioned a point as well cardio isn’t enough. One of the often things we hear is that I already do a lot of cardio, what’s the additional benefit of doing weightlifting as well.

Kate Crombie (16:15):

So, it is those sort of different signaling pathways. So, we know cardiovascular training is going to stimulate sort of that AMPK pathway, resistant training is that mTOR pathway. We don’t need to go into obviously complicated details about it, but when we’re thinking about longevity and functionality and being able to do exactly everything we’ve just spoken about, living your life and doing the things you want to do, you need muscle, you need strength to do that. And then also thinking about sort of reducing risk of chronic diseases as well, muscle is a key component of that similar to cardiovascular training, but it’s even as simple as the physical activity guidelines state we need both. So, they’re there for a reason, they’re there to keep us healthy, keep us fit and strong, and live the longest, healthiest life we can. So, we need to have that resistance training component in there as well.

Michael Dermansky (17:10):

I mean, we’ve seen it here as well, people who do cardiovascular sports like running or cycling and so forth, when they’ve added lifting into their routine, how has that affected their ability to perform that you think?

Kate Crombie (17:23):

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, strength training and resistance training is a key component with running, for example, of running economy, and we’re going to get adaptations from strength training that we’re not going to get from cardiovascular training. Like tendons, for example, they need that heavy load to adapt. You’re not going to get that through your cardiovascular training you’re doing. So, we need that weight-bearing component. If you’re not doing running and you’re just swimming as your cardio training, we need to compliment these different areas of fitness with each other.

Michael Dermansky (17:56):

And I mean, as you said, when people do cardio training, it’s a repeat action. It’s repeating the same thing. The load doesn’t change. So, it’s not enough to make the area adapt. You need to go above that and give the body the stability and strength to be able to take that repetitive load and be able to cope with it too, otherwise that’s where the injuries come about. And so, the secret to be a better runner, do more strength training.

Kate Crombie (18:20):

Exactly. And so many people avoid that and resist that, and I’m not sure if it’s out of that fear of getting bulky and it impacting their sport or just fear of not knowing how to do the movements, but I think if people realize just how beneficial it was, they would just start a lot earlier.

Michael Dermansky (18:40):

So, if you want to be a good runner, I mean, I know people just start to run as well, but my preference is if you’re going to be a good runner, you want to run, get strength first and then add running on top of it too, and you’d be amazed how much faster your progression is going to be.

Kate Crombie (18:54):

Yeah, I would agree.

Michael Dermansky (18:56):

So, I mean, I guess on a different end of the spectrum as well is that, but I mean, even if you don’t want to play a sport particularly for women if it’s about managing weight, what’s the advantage of doing strength training for helping manage your weight as well?

Kate Crombie (19:08):

So, I guess it depends what your concept of managing weight is. Are you trying to avoid putting on extra weight or are you looking for a certain physique or are you trying to improve your body composition or lose a bit of, I’ll say lose fat and not lose weight, you need strength training in there. So, at a very basic level, muscle is a more metabolically active tissue, so it’s going to be more costly. It’s not a lot, I think it’s about 10 to 15, you’ll burn about 10 to 15 extra kilocalories per kilogram of muscle. When we think about how long it takes to actually build muscle tissue, it’s not a huge amount but it adds up.

(19:52):

But then also having more muscle is going to improve the metabolism, muscle is where we store a lot of our carbohydrate, it’s going to help with improving insulin sensitivity, taking up glucose into the muscle. So, it’s just beneficial all around to be having more muscle building, more strength when you have those body composition goals. And then even on a very kind of surface level, if you are aspiring for a particular looking physique which most people want, I’m going to say the toned word because that’s what most people say, they want that toned look, you need to have some muscle there to have that look. So, you need to be doing some type of strength training, resistance training to achieve that.

Michael Dermansky (20:36):

That’s the interesting is that muscles are more metabolically active than it is, and you said glucose management too. I mean, we talked about it in one of the other podcasts as well, but muscles are the only thing that you have full control over where you can actually affect the sensitivity and the amount of glucose you manage. The sensors on the muscle are GLUT4 sensors as well. So, they pick up glucose and they bring it out of the bloodstream into the muscle as well. They’re on muscle. So, the more muscle mass you have, the more sensors there are, and the more sensors on the muscle there is as well as you do strength training. So, your sensitivity for glucose goes up so that your pancreas doesn’t to work as hard. You minimize your risk of insulin. You improve your insulin sensitivity. So, it’s a massive part of that in terms of reducing the risk of chronic disease.

Kate Crombie (21:30):

Absolutely.

Michael Dermansky (21:32):

I mean, I guess one of the biggest concerns, as you said, the aesthetics part is that women are scared of bulking up from lifting weights, and you laugh, you look at that, and you say… We know it’s not going to happen, but why? Why is it unlikely to really happen with women?

Kate Crombie (21:53):

Because it takes a long time and a lot of effort. I wish it was that simple. I’ve been trying this for many years now, and I’ve not put on the amount of muscle that I would’ve liked with the effort I’ve been putting in. It takes a long time, and you’re not just going to pick up some pink dumbbells and do a few squats and suddenly be incredibly bulky. It just doesn’t work like that. So, we know you need a long period of progressive overload with nutritional factors and recovery factors in there as well to kind of get those sort of adaptations and to get to that bulky point.

(22:32):

It’s also, it really depends on your definition of bulky as well, and I think that probably will have changed now because the ideal body type for women has certainly changed over the years, and what was once considered bulky probably isn’t considered bulky anymore because women are… I think there’s a real cultural shift actually encouraging women to strength train and for women that we’re allowed now to try and get jacked. So, it’s a very different time for women in strength training.

Michael Dermansky (23:05):

You’re right, it is. The aesthetic itself has shifted over the last… The social norm has changed in the last 10 years or so, and it’s okay for women to have a degree of muscle tone and muscle bulk as well. It’s okay, one, it’s also nice for them, it’s healthier for them as well, for their body, for their fun, what they can do in life and for their bones as well. But yes, it does make a difference as well. But that super bulky, that look that you think about bodybuilders, it’s unlikely for women to look because you just don’t have the hormones to do that. That’s very specific, tight guidelines of what those women do. For most women that go to the gym, it’s not going to happen because you’re not doing the right volume, load, nutritional guidelines to be able to achieve that superheavy look.

Kate Crombie (23:55):

Yeah. I actually wish that women would realize that’s not the only way to train, I think, and whether it’s through social media, I’m not sure what’s really pushed that is women now tend to think that’s what strength training means is if you’re picking up weights, it’s about looking like a bodybuilder. There are so many different ways to do resistance training and to do strength training and to get the benefits we’ve talked about extensively today without doing pure hypertrophy training.

Michael Dermansky (24:29):

And so, I guess on the last end as well, when is it not safe to lift weights? When shouldn’t you be doing strength training for women?

Kate Crombie (24:36):

If we’re thinking about healthy women and just generally, there is no time when it’s not safe to be lifting weights. The only times you want to consider that is if you’ve got any surgical considerations or contraindications, you’ve been told by your health professional, and the other point probably is pregnancy. It definitely is safe to be lifting weights throughout pregnancy, but if you haven’t done any resistance training and then you’re pregnant and then I probably wouldn’t recommend starting Olympic weightlifting at that point in time, but you can still do resistance training. So, realistically there’s no point when it’s not safe to be doing it.

Michael Dermansky (25:16):

Yeah, I mean, it’s interesting, as you said, in pregnancy as well is that there was a real fear that you couldn’t do that stuff during pregnancy years ago, and now the guidelines have changed. You can do strength training during pregnancy. There’s nothing wrong with that too. The biggest issue we see sometimes is people decided, they’re 16 weeks pregnant or they’re 20 weeks pregnant, “Oh, I’ve put on a bit of weight, I want to start doing strength training now.” It’s probably not a good idea at this stage because you haven’t done this before, but if it’s what you are regularly doing, you’re a regular gym girl, you’re regularly doing strength work, pregnancy is rarely a limiting factor at that stage as well. There’s no reason why you can’t do strength training all the way through the end of the pregnancy. We’ve seen it many, many, many times.

Kate Crombie (25:56):

Yeah, exactly. It’s pretty empowering and inspiring when you see women who are heavily pregnant still getting in there doing their CrossFit classes or getting into the gym and still moving. I just think it’s incredible.

Michael Dermansky (26:10):

And the recovery’s so much better as well is that you get your life back so much faster. It has a huge effect after you’ve had the child as well. Not only is it easier looking after the child, but you get back to the life you deserve so much faster.

Kate Crombie (26:25):

Yeah, absolutely.

Michael Dermansky (26:27):

I mean, I guess, the only thing I worry about lifting weights as well is that when people have had injuries, they just need to be modified or pulled back so they can pull forward as well. So, yeah, if there is an injury, generally we tend to find somebody’s gone wrong with the technique or something’s happened, so we have to pull people back to bring them forward again. It doesn’t mean no. It means no for now.

Kate Crombie (26:51):

Exactly. And that’s not sex specific.

Michael Dermansky (26:55):

No, it’s not. No, absolutely.

Kate Crombie (26:57):

Yep.

Michael Dermansky (26:58):

So, Katie, anything else you wanted to tell the listeners before we finish up today?

Kate Crombie (27:03):

I think I would just say if you’ve been worried about getting started or even just thinking about it, go and do it, and if you need guidance, find someone who can help you and find an environment you’re comfortable in as well. If you go to a gym, you try it out and you’re not a fan of the vibe and you don’t feel comfortable there, can that and go and try it somewhere else. But that said, there are so many ways you can do resistance training, and you can do it in the comfort of your own home now as well. We’ve got so many resources that have come out of the whole COVID era to help you be doing some resistance training at home. So, even if that’s where you start, just do a little bit and let it build from there, and just realize you are probably a lot more capable than you think. So, just give it a go.

Michael Dermansky (27:49):

Yeah. As you said, people, you’re usually a lot more capable than you think, and you’d be surprised what you can achieve with just time and consistency, consistency, consistency.

Kate Crombie (27:59):

Yeah. Definitely, that’s the word.

Michael Dermansky (28:01):

Yeah. Well, thank you very much for your time today. It’s been really great information for the listeners as well. Yeah, well, hopefully people won’t be afraid to go to the gym and give it a go. I think it’s a great addition to people’s health program as well to really live the life they deserve.

Kate Crombie (28:19):

Absolutely. I hope so too.

Michael Dermansky (28:21):

All right. Thank you very much for your time, Katie.

Kate Crombie (28:26):

Thank you.

Voiceover (28:26):

Thank you for listening to The Confident Body. For practical articles to help you build a confident body, go to mdhealth.com.au/articles.