Weightlifting in women is one of the most successful options to improve physical condition and therefore contribute to good health . Learn the benefits it can bring you and practical advice to avoid hurting yourself.
What is weightlifting?
Weightlifting is one of the most successful options to improve physical condition and therefore contribute to good health. To practice this sport, the age or physical condition of the person does not matter, since it can be adapted to each level and to each subject, due to the versatility of this activity.
Weightlifting is an Olympic sport whose main objective is to lift a bar with discs from the ground to the top of the head .
The purpose of this sport is not to promote muscle hypertrophy itself, but to lift as much weight as possible, regardless of the muscle size of the subject. It is a discipline that can help you acquire speed, technique, physical and mental strength, as well as improve your agility, flexibility and dexterity.
How did weightlifting come about? A little history
Weightlifting is a word that has its origin from the word weightlifters , which is composed of two words of Greek origin.
- Halter , whose meaning is dumbbells or weight.
- Filos , which means love or inclination for something.
Literally, one could say that the term weightlifting means “love of weights”, although other translations interpret it differently.
As for the origin of this sport, the first thing that may come to mind is that due to the Greek term in its name, its origin would be from there, from ancient Greece. But it really seems that no, that the origin of weightlifting is a bit older. It is said that in ancient China the emperors already held weight lifting competitions to demonstrate their power , it even seems that the soldiers of that time also had to perform these tests of strength, if they wanted to belong to the army, so it cannot be talk about a specific moment whose origin of discipline. Although it is in the 6th century BC in Greece that this practice is given the name of weightlifters .
Benefits of weightlifting for women
Weightlifting is a very interesting sports discipline due to its versatility and complexity of movements that will make your body generate adaptations to improve both physical appearance and performance.
Some of the benefits of weightlifting are:
Improves muscles
Any strength exercise will help your muscle mass grow and look stronger, so weightlifting will help you shift your body composition to a healthier, lower-fat one. When you weightlifting, you are forcing your muscles to work, get stronger, and get bigger .
This, which a priori seems only an aesthetic aspect, should not confuse you, and that greater musculature makes the bones and joints suffer less. In this way, it is possible to avoid injuries and treat some ailments such as scoliosis, lower back pain or joint problems in the knees, ankles and elbows. The muscles serve as shock absorbers, reducing the impact on the bone structures.
Helps fight diseases such as osteoporosis
Around the age of 18, women establish almost all of the mineral density that they will have throughout their lives. It has been seen that people who perform strength or high-impact sports at an early age see this mineral density improved and the development and strengthening of bone mass is favored.
Due to menopause, the woman’s body begins to suffer alterations. The absorption of certain vitamins and minerals is difficult, which in the long run can trigger certain pathologies such as osteoporosis.
Weightlifting can help prevent and improve the condition of the bones, as it activates the body and makes the bones more sensitive to the uptake and assimilation of calcium .
Prevent arthritis
Arthritis is inflammation of the joints . The fact that these are inflamed can cause a lot of pain, numbness and, sometimes, immobilization of an area of the body.
One of the benefits of weightlifting for women is that it helps fight inflammation of the ligaments and joints that are caused by menopause.
Fight and help prevent diabetes
When you practice physical activity your body goes into a kind of catharsis. Your body begins to use stored fat and glucose, causing resistance to it to increase by 24% in 4 months in some cases, with this, we are not saying that diabetics will stop being so per se, but If blood glucose values can be reduced and even prevent gestational diabetes or menopausal diabetes.
Weightlifting is a good way to improve insulin resistance , in addition to helping our body avoid possible complications.
Improves the functioning of the body
Weightlifting in adult women is one of the best practices to improve all basic physical abilities as a whole. This sports discipline will help improve your body because it accelerates, improves and increases blood flow . Therefore, the transport of nutrients is facilitated, making them arrive sooner and better where they should.
It must be borne in mind that a good functioning of the blood supply implies an improvement in red and white blood cells , so your immune system becomes much stronger and safer against unwanted attacks such as certain types of viruses or certain diseases. degenerative.
On the other hand, it helps you have a lower risk of suffering a heart attack and suffering from cardiovascular diseases.
Tips for Safe Weightlifting
To stay away from injuries in this sporting practice, pay attention to the following tips that we propose:
Master the technique
Performing the exercises requires a certain technique so as not to hurt yourself, so at the beginning you will need the help and advice of an instructor who can correct and refine the technique of execution of the exercises.
Work mobility
Good joint mobility is vital if you do not want to suffer any type of accident , so it would be advisable to dedicate specific training to help you improve in this regard.
Leave enough rest between sessions
Weightlifting workouts are usually quite intense, so if you don’t allow enough time for your body to recover, you will be exposing it to fatigue that can lead to injury in the long run.
Perform muscle compensation exercises
Performing exercises to compensate the muscles worked in weightlifting lifts and correcting imbalances is essential if we do not want to suffer any type of discomfort or injury. Although weightlifting exercises are multi-joint exercises that involve a large number of muscles , most of them are worked without paying attention to the eccentric phase, so performing exercises where this phase predominates or is done in isometry can be a very good option. idea to complete the training of this sport.
References
- Journey Sports. (December 16, 2020). What is weightlifting ?: all about this sport. journey.app https://journey.app/blog/que-es-halterofilia/
- We are wod. (April 26, 2018). BENEFITS OF HALTEROPHILIA IN WOMEN. wearewod.com https://www.wearewod.com/beneficios-la-halterofilia-mujeres/
- Clubs dir. (September 20, 2018). 7 steps to get started in weightlifting. dir.cat https://www.dir.cat/blog/es/como-iniciarse-en-la-halterofilia/
