The Female Athlete

Continued...

Exercise Advantages for Women

Weight Control. Exercise is the best way for your clients to lose weight and has the added benefit of building strength at the same time. Exercise increases a woman's basal metabolic rate, so she will burn more calories at rest, not just during the exercise session.

Muscle requires more energy to maintain than fat, so a woman who exercises burns more calories while sleeping than a couch potato who never exercises. This training benefit is the same for men.

Many women are concerned that if they exercise, they will develop large, bulky muscles like men. You can reassure them that this will not happen because they do not have the same hormones (androgens) that men have. Their muscles will become more shapely and defined with exercise but will not bulk up to the same degree as a man's.

Emphasize to your clients that the stronger a woman is, the better she can carry on the regular activities of daily life with less fatigue and greater endurance. This is important for any woman, no matter what her age or lifestyle.

Cardiovascular Fitness. Continuous aerobic exercise at a target heart rate appropriate for the individual, performed for 20 to 60 minutes three to five times a week for six weeks, trains the whole cardiovascular system. Cardiovascular fitness not only improves the capability of a woman's heart and lungs to pump and oxygenate blood; it also lowers her resting heart rate and blood pressure.

In addition, regular exercisers have lower levels of total cholesterol and a higher ratio of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol to low-density cholesterol, thus increasing the "good" form of cholesterol and decreasing the "bad." Recent studies indicate that women suffer from heart disease at a similar rate to men, making exercise an important means of prevention.

Bone Density. When they are between 18 and 30 years old, women make deposits of bone mineral in their skeleton. They have reached adult height but are still putting deposits in their bone bank. Weight-bearing and strength training exercise, regular menstrual cycles and adequate nutrition help maximize this skeletal consolidation.

There are several benefits to making these deposits into your bone bank.

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Table of Contents

Foreword: Billie Jean King

Comments by Barb Harris
Editor in Chief,
Shape Magazine

General Health
Nutrition
Exercise
Common Medical Problems
Dental Health
Emergency!
Infectious Disease
Sexual Health
Emotional Well-Being
Eating Disorders
Alcohol & Other Drugs
Environmental Health
Prevention