With the huge rise in popularity of fitness systems like Crossfit, women seem to have finally shaken the stigma surrounding barbell training. This is great news because the benefits are tremendous and the results vastly more significant than what can be achieved through hours spent on an elliptical. In my gym I routinely hear two stories that compelled me to share this article. Either women are intimidated to get started, or through a combination of no/poor coaching and doing too much too soon wound up injured. I’m here to tell you that, properly performed, barbell exercises will not only not injure you but will actually make you more resilient to injury. I’ll cover several other benefits, give some thoughts on logical application and a step by step guide to correctly perform some of the most valuable exercises.
Become a Stronger Person in Body and Mind
One of the most significant benefits of training with barbells is the unique ability to add additional load for a long period of time. Barbell exercises train your entire body as a unit, the way it was designed to operate, and because you are using more muscles you can get very strong in these movements. Contrast that with something like a bicep curl. Your body is capable of more than you know, and no other gym activity builds confidence the way getting appreciably stronger can.
Strength is unique from other physical attributes in that it compliments all the others. All else being equal, a strong individual is a faster individual, a more resilient individual and a more mobile individual. Your goal is to a run a 5k? Now you can create more force and less fatigue with every step. Want to squat down or bend over to pick up your purse without something hurting? Now your body is strong enough to support your weight and stabilize your joints in those positions. Want to fend off a mugger? Strength. Open the pickle jar your husband couldn’t get open? Strength. Carry all your groceries in one trip? Strength.
Something less often talked about is the mental toughness that comes from doing something that is inherently difficult. Mental toughness is the ability to persevere when life gets hard. It’s the ability to keep pushing and break through obstacles when nothing is going your way. It’s the ability to push through a hard set of deadlifts when you’re thinking there is no way you can do it. Strength training will teach you many lessons that are applicable to life outside the gym.
Mitigate bone density loss and resilience to injury
According the National Osteoporosis Foundation, about 80% of the 10 million Americans with Osteoporosis are women. Fortunately, that doesn’t have to be you! Weight bearing exercise stimulates your bones to grow denser and stronger. You lift the weight and muscles and tendons pull on your bones as if to say, “Hey guys we need your help here too!” Asking your body to adapt to this style of training can prevent the bone density loss that affects so many women, and if you’re older or already suffering from low bone density it can halt or reverse that downward slide.
Another rarely discussed benefit is the affect strength training has on your mobility. Have you ever spent weeks stretching your tight hamstrings without feeling like you made any progress? There is an explanation. Stretching temporarily lengthens the muscle belly as it relaxes into the stretch, but to maintain that mobility requires creating strength within that new range of motion. Work within the range of motion where you can perform the exercise well, and work to expand that range over time. Your mobility will improve, the gains you make will actually stick, and that combined with your stronger, more supple tendons will greatly reduce the likely hood of injury.
Muscles = Fat Loss = Look Hot in Yoga Pants
Most fat loss clients tend to gravitate toward the cardio equipment. It’s easy to get started and certainly beats sitting on the couch, but it doesn’t hold a candle to strength training when it comes to functional fitness or changing body composition. Yes, cardio will burn some calories and it has its place, but most people don’t have hours a day to spend at the gym so make good use of your time. Strength training continues to burn calories long after the workout has ended as it costs your body energy to recover from your efforts. Additionally, each pound of muscle you gain will burn an additional 30-50 calories every day just to maintain it. Not only that, but now that you’re stronger you are doing more work in the gym. That means more calories burned during the workout, more energy expenditure to recover and the cycle perpetuates.
I don’t hear it as often anymore, but some women are still scared of getting too bulky. Listen, the women you’re thinking of have been training with muscle growth as a primary goal for years on end, eating tons of calories and probably didn’t get there naturally. Emma Stone, Kate Upton and Demi Lovato are just a few examples of household names who are known for lifting heavy weights. Do they look too bulky to you?
What to do with this information
It’s important to move slowly when first starting this type of exercise and not ask your body to do anything it isn’t ready for. First and foremost, learn the exercises and learn them well. Use a mirror and my guide at the end of this article, watch you tube videos or hire a coach (a good coach is worth their weight in gold). Start with an empty bar. If that’s too heavy use a broomstick or PVC pipe to practice the movements. If you can’t perform the exercise through a full range of motion, use a box or chair as a target and work to go slightly farther each time. Make sure you are progressing in some way each and every workout. That could mean adding five pounds, doing an extra rep or achieving a greater range of motion. Focus on perfecting your form while the weight is light so that it comes naturally when things get heavy. Don’t rush the process, trust the process. It will get hard soon enough, I promise!
Second, if you’re not currently keeping a training log you’ve been missing out on some huge benefits and now is a great time to start. How can you make sure you’re doing more work than last time if you haven’t documented exactly what you did last week? Plus, it’s hugely motivational to watch the numbers in your training log climb. The scale on the other hand can be terribly misleading and disheartening to say the least. Fat loss is not a linear process, and your weight can fluctuate up to five pounds over the course of the day. What if you’d been waking up at 5am every day, putting in the work, check the scale a month later and it hasn’t budged? What if you actually gained weight? This would cause lots of people to throw in the towel, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. If you lost four pounds of fat and gained 5 pounds of muscle, that’s huge progress! Instead of the scale, keep track of your workouts. Use that as your motivation knowing that if your performance is progressing, so is your body. Don’t you think you’d be happier with the shape of your booty if you could deadlift 200 pounds?
5 Steps to the Perfect Deadlift
- Walk up to the barbell so that your shins are about an inch away from the bar. The bar should be directly over the middle of your foot, or about over the laces of your shoes. Heels 6-12 inches apart with the toes straight ahead or turned slightly outward.
- Bend over with stiff legs and grip the bar so that your arms are just outside of your legs.
- Bring your shins forward until they touch the bar. Wherever your hips are at this point they will stay until you start the lift.
- Tighten the muscles of your back and use that tension to pull your chest up. This will pull you into a neutral spine position (i.e. your back is flat). Another useful cue is to push your belly between your thighs. Remember, your hips should not have moved from the previous step! You should feel a lot of tension in your hamstrings at this point. This step is hugely important for the safety of your low back.
- Maintain that tension in your back and hamstrings, take a big breath, brace your abs and drag the bar up your legs. Make sure to keep the bar as close to the body as possible and don’t let it drift forward.
Regression: If you can’t maintain a flat back at the start of your deadlift, elevate the bar to the lowest position you can. From there, work your way down to the floor.
5 steps to the Perfect Squat
- Standing under the bar, squeeze your shoulder blades together and place the bar on your traps – the meaty muscles behind and below your neck. Grip the bar as close to your shoulders as you comfortably can.
- Lift the bar and take as few steps as necessary to get away from the squat rack. Stance width can vary but a good place to start is with your heels shoulder width apart and your toes pointed slightly outward.
- Take a big breath, brace your abs and use your back muscles to pull the bar down into your traps.
- Act like you want to spread the floor apart with your feet. Push your hips back and down as you simultaneously bend your knees. Push your knees out so they track over your toes. Don’t ever let your knee’s buckle inwards!
- Lower your hips until they are parallel with your knee or slightly lower. Drive your upper back into the bar and rise out of the bottom position using your hips, continuing to push your knees outward.
Regression: If you can’t reach parallel depth in your squat, squat to a box, bench or chair that you can reach with good form and work to increase the range of motion each workout.
5 Steps to a Perfect Overhead Press
- Grip the bar with your hands just outside of your shoulders. Brace your abs and glutes, and squeeze your shoulder blades together as you lift the bar out of the rack. Maintain this tension throughout.
- Take a big breath and reinforce that tension before initiating the lift with your shoulders. Think of raising your shoulders up instead of pushing your hands up.
- Press the bar straight up in a vertical line. This will require you to tuck your chin as the bar passes your face. At no point should the barbell’s path venture away from your body. It moves straight up and down.
- Finish the lift the bar directly overhead. Getting into this position will place your arms next to your ears. If your arms extend out in front of your face, then you’ve let it get away from you. Another good cue is to “poke your head through the window” that your arms have created.
- Lower back to the starting position making sure to maintain your full body tension to support the weight. If you relax in this bottom position, then your tendons and ligaments will be supporting the weight instead of your muscles – not good!
Regression: Pressing overhead with dumbbells is a great way to develop strength in the movement and create stability in the shoulders if a barbell overhead press proves too difficult.