OPINION
From the moment I enter the gym, I’m monitoring the lateral pulldown, a popular piece of kit. If there are a couple of mates there splitting reps, I can feel my irritation growing. That’s because weight training and making muscle is what I go to the gym for. These days I’m a Muscle Maggie.
I’m not alone. John Treharne, the founder of The Gym Group, which has 230 locations across the UK, recently announced it was installing fewer treadmills as a growing number of women swap cardio for weightlifting. Treharne said the free-weights area would be three times the size, to accommodate women who wanted to lift weights, inspired by celebrities like Victoria Beckham and Adele.
“A lot more women are interested in free weight training these days,” he said. “I think you’ve seen that sort of cultural change.”
I’m not surprised. At my gym the long row of snoresville treadmills and bikes are never all full – but you really do have to be alert to get onto all your favourite weights equipment.
For me, weight training has been a game-changer. I don’t lift weights to get fake-tanned and enter bodybuilding competitions, but because growing more muscle really helped me lose weight and, more importantly – having lost 10 lockdown kilos last year – keep it off.
I first signed up for weight training when I was 62, with a scary 68kg on my 5ft 1in frame and a painful hip. I had toyed with the gym scene before, but never got further than a treadmill – and loathed the whole intimidating scenario.
But with a lovely, sympathetic personal trainer (thank you, Gilberto), I quickly came to love the challenge. At first, I couldn’t believe he wanted me to do something so hard – lift what? – but the benefits were so immediate that I soon became determined to do more, and better.
The confidence I gained from conquering a lifetime’s phobia of gyms and exercise gave me the determination to also change my diet and shift the kilos.
And then, having lost the weight, I knew I needed to continue racking up the muscle to keep it off.
Weightlifting is a long-term game-changer, because the more muscle mass you have, the higher your constant metabolic rate will be, so you will burn more calories all the time. I can sit in the changing room, looking at my phone, and still burn more calories.
I find that much simpler to understand and easier to trust than the “you’ve burned 42 calories” cardio equation that the treadmill claims. How does it know? And does that mean I can now eat a Wispa?
This is why another essential part of my gym routine is to check in on the special scales there that log your body composition, once a week. You don’t just find how much you weigh, but what percentages of it are muscle and fat.
Three-time Olympic speed skater Sarah Lindsay is a personal trainer and the founder of the personal training gym Roar. She saw the beginnings of the trend for weightlifting among women after the London Olympics in 2012.
“It used to be the case that we’d have to convince women of the benefits of weight training – to explain to them that it’s the best long-term strategy for weight loss and it will protect you against muscle loss and osteoporosis as you age. But after the Olympics, women wanted to look more sporty. They’d seen these amazing athletes achieve so much with their incredible bodies and it changed people’s perceptions. That said, many are still nervous and don’t know how to get started.”
At Roar gyms there are no cardio machines, only weights.
“We don’t have cardio equipment, partly because we are a personal training gym and I don’t believe you should pay a trainer to watch you run on the treadmill, but also because in order to lose weight, if that is the goal, you need to make yourself stronger,” says Lindsay. “You need to change your body composition. The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn. Of course, cardio and general activity are great for you in all sorts of ways, but it needs to be combined with getting stronger.”
Lindsay advises clients to monitor their progress by keeping an eye on how their clothes fit rather than standing on the scales, and it’s true that these days I’m not nearly as focused on my weight as my muscle mass. Muscle famously weighs more than fat, so those BMI charts I used to follow so slavishly start to look a bit silly. I find belt holes a better way to keep an eye on my shape.
Somebody my height could weigh less than me but actually be much fatter, with their flabby belly tilting the scale more lightly than my growing biceps, nascent abs and taut triceps (the dreaded batwing upper arm area).
So when I do my weekly check-in, it’s the muscle graph I want to see on an upswing, more than the weight on a downswing.
Apart from the benefits of building beautiful muscle – I am determined to get Madonna’s arms – doing weights is so much more interesting and engaging than running or cycling nowhere fast.
I like the business of setting my weight – especially when I go up a notch – and fixing the seat.
Then there is the really fun bit when you get to rest between reps and you can either check your WhatsApp or check out everyone else in the gym (especially when my crush, Mr Cool, is in…).
But the great thing is, when all the machines are busy, there are so many other ways of heaving weights and growing muscle. I love throwing a medicine ball around, swinging a kettlebell and doing squats holding hand weights.
I haven’t dared venture into the free weights area yet, where the really serious gym bunnies go, but I will. Oh yes, I will.
How to get started with weight training
- If you feel nervous about going to a gym, find a training programme online and start at home. Practise exercises in front of a mirror until you feel comfortable.
- Unless you want to buy a lot of equipment, it’s best to join a gym. Most offer an induction and will give you a weight-training programme to start on.
- Aim for three times a week. Once the repetitions of a weight begin to feel easy, increase the weight.
- When you’re not weight training, aim to be as active as possible.
- It takes about six weeks to start building muscles, so stick with it.
- Monitor your progress through how your clothes fit, as muscle weighs more than fat.
Why weight training is the most effective way to lose weight
- As muscle is more metabolically active than fat, the stronger you get, the more calories you will burn.
- If you only focus on cardio, you might lose weight, but you may also lose muscle and your metabolism will slow down.
- Weight training is time-efficient – you can increase the intensity by increasing the weight, rather than working out for longer.
- Weight training is a long-term strategy – getting stronger is great for your bones and your general health and will keep the weight off for longer.
Maggie Alderson is a fashion writer and editor