Building some muscle mass can actually help protect your body from injury. Of course, you don’t need to become a body builder, even lean muscle mass can help to protect, or at least minimize damage to your bones and joints due to injuries like falls.
Building muscles will: TAKE A LOAD OFF YOUR JOINTS!
Having a stronger upper body, lower body, and core muscles will help you to more easily perform activities of daily living such as, bending, lifting, and moving things, including your own body. In turn less stress will be placed on your joints and spine. Let the muscle do the work, with proper form of course!
Building muscle can: CUSHION YOUR BONES.
The extra muscles mass, and remember this doesn’t need to be a lot, can serve as a cushion to many of our bones which can help protect during a falls or other injuries. One time while on a hike in Hawaii, I slipped on a large algae covered rock while crossing a stream. Both of my feet flew up so high, it looked like I was trying to perform a karate kick with both legs and my body was in the air parallel to the ground. Until I landed in that same position with my thigh smacking on the large hard rock below. This didn’t just happen once, I had a repeat! Yes, once on the way up the trail, then again on the way back?
My husband was sure I had really hurt myself, especially given that I had been recovering from symptoms of weakened joints and tendons from Lyme’s disease. But, to our surprise, I felt absolutely no pain, and didn’t even have a bruise. What I realized, is that I actually bounced each time, when my quadricep muscle hit the rock. Given the impact, and being as slender as Im am, I was extremely surprised that I just bounced. I could felt like my muscle helped save me from injury to my bones.
Building some muscle will: INCREASE BONE DENSITY!
While resistance training help builds muscle and strength, it will also place resistance on your bones, increasing your bone density. That is extremely helpful for us as we age, especially for women who are at increased risk for bone density loss, osteopenia and osteoporosis.
As you do resistance training, your muscles will become strengthened and grow. Though you may not be specifically training for strength, power, or hypertrophy (muscle building), you will have some gains in strength, power, and muscle with resistance training.
Building some muscle will: NOT MAKE YOU BULKY!
Women, don’t worry about getting to big or bulky. It normally takes many years of very heavy weight lifting for that to happen. Plus, it is typically much harder for women to lift heavier weight and grow muscle tissue compared to men who naturally have higher testosterone levels. It is much more likely that we will be adding some lean muscle mass to our physique. So do your body good, and weight train!
P.S. Weight training is a form of resistance training, as is body bearing, and resistance band exercise!