The BBC article about the benefits of strength training….why only women?

[ImNotAsThinkAsYouDrunkIAm]

I know the article says that the study was done on men and women, but you’d be forgiven for missing that when all the examples, quotes, and photos are of women.

So why do we think the BBC felt the need to give the impression that only women needed to find the time to do ‘many hours’ of aerobic exercise as well as two hours of strength training a week, lest we die an early death?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0r2lekenlpo

That's not how I read the article. The line is:
Among these most active people, who were doing many hours of aerobic exercise each week, the risk of an early death from any cause fell by up to 58%.

The intent of this is to say that there are benefits to strength training even in those who exercise a lot not that you have to do lots of aerobic exercise and strength training on top (although I agree it is ambiguous in this point).

Because although the benefits are there for men as well, according to the study, the article doesn’t suggest they make the same effort. I actually do do ‘many hours’ of aerobic exercise a week. And I do strength training, although I’m only fitting in an hour at the moment. And it’s bloody hard. I’m hanging by a thread trying to fit it all in on top of my life. But I feel like I need to, because it’s been drummed into me that as well as having a career, and kids, and looking after my parents, and being a good wife and mother, I also need to look after myself so I can continue to have an active life later on. But I don’t see my husband or my male friends putting the same pressures on themselves. I do see my female friends doing the same though. I do feel like there is more societal pressure on women to do the right thing, do it all. So I found it interesting that the article chose to focus on women despite the study it was talking about being about the benefits to men and women. If the study had been about how strength training helped women specifically because of hormone levels, osteoporosis and all the other things that have been mentioned on this thread, then the focus should obviously have been on women. But it wasn’t. Women, and men, all benefit from strength training and aerobic exercise. I doubt your average man is doing the recommended amount any more than the average woman. But they aren’t getting a message from society and the media that they need to do better. Or maybe they are and I don’t notice those articles because they aren’t aimed at me 😆

I agree with a pp it's not saying you must do hours of cardio it is saying in the study those who did a couple of hours strength training and hours of cardio saw the most benefits health wise. It's staying fact not telling anyone they must do it.

Men already think of "exercise" as including weight training and building muscle. Women are more likely to think of "exercise" in terms of aerobic stuff. Obviously these are massive stereotypes, but they're the stereotypes a lot of us have grown up with. I used to go to the local council gym many years ago which had a room for weights machines and a room for aerobic machines. You would think the doors had actually been labelled "Men" and "Women."

I'm guessing this article is aiming to redress the balance a bit.

Walk to work; walk home from work; go for half an hour walk at lunch time (if I get a break which isn't always). The traffic and route (there is a short cut if you walk) is such that the walking to work takes not that much longer than driving. Yes, I know not everyone lives close enough to walk to work, but we've been told for years to fit exercise into our lives by parking the car a bit further away).
When I had children that I needed to take to school we cycled, and I cycled to work afterwards.

Then I play netball one evening a week and swim at the weekend with the family.

I strength train at home (bought a set of dumb bells during lockdown) . My dumb bells are probably not heavy enough to get full benefit, but I'm not the strongest person and you can make adaptations to make the exercises harder with lighter weights.

I am not pretending to be superwoman, and this is aspirational rather than something that routinely happens week on week, but the point is that a lot of it is built into my normal week so does happen.

I couldn't have done it when my children were pre-schoolers and I worked full time, for example, though. Sometimes you just have to do what you can.

There are only two people cited as examples, and the photos are of them. If they were both men, would you have perceived the article as being all about men?

Nothing in the text, other than the selection of two individuals who are both women, is specifically female. I think we are just so familiarised with the men-as-default version of the world that an article looks aberrational when it doesn't foreground a man.

Given that weight training is even more male focused than the rest of the world, my guess is that the choice of two women was an attempt to avoid uncritically reinforcing that focus. Either that, or it was entirely random: they had two people available to be interviewed and them both happened to be women

30 min sessions lifting x 4 days a week = 2 hours

alternate days walking/cardio/core training if not included in lifting session

I personally walk 4-5 miles in a walking session on alternate days to lifting.

Walking takes way longer than lifting.

That's self-defeating though. If articles on this subject don't mention men, men won't think they should read them, and so the cycle continues.

I'm so glad I had my children in my early 20s. I have so much time and money to do what I like when I want. And that includes going to the gym for 2 hours every day.

I had a male friend who had osteoporosis. He ended up in a wheelchair. It's obviously much less common than in women but still occurs.

I was shown round an armed forces rehabilitation unit. I was told many young people are no longer getting adequate physical exercise throughout their childhood and adolescence. They haven't laid down sufficient bone of high enough density to withstand training. An increasing number have to be put back the equivalent of a term or more to try and improve the situation. I think there may be a huge upswing in male osteoporosis in the next few decades

I walk the dog every day apart from office days when I have a walk to and from the carpark. I go to the gym 2 times a week, before work on Monday and Fridays when I WFH. I can only do this because my DC is too old to need taking to school in the morning and because I WFH 3 days but I do manage it. Aerobic exercise doesn't need to be high impact.

You're responding to this as if it's a patriarchal unreasonable standard imposed on women to strength train rather than something women can choose to do or not and which is evidently beneficial for our health

You have an oddly negative take on something that is positive.

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads I do appreciate that strength training can be highly beneficial. I’ll do 30 minutes of it at the gym this evening, but only because I know it is good for me and I won’t enjoy single second.

The point I was trying to make it more that People living in the blue zones or living into an active old age aren’t going necessarily going to the gym and doing four strength training activities a week. They are walking up and down hills carrying their shopping, gardening, involved in sociable activities and keeping their bodies flexible and moving in a functional way. Yes, of course strength training will help you walk up mountains and carry ski equipment but those activities in themselves are also beneficial and people are like more likely to do the activities they enjoy than the activities they feel are replacing the things they would prefer to be doing.

Someone mentioned how much they enjoy running four times a week and doing strength training. That’s fantastic, but I would absolutely hate that as my exercise routine even though it might be the most beneficial one for me. If I started that routine, I would have to give up Clubbacise, Padel, Pilates, yoga, dog walking. All of which I enjoy, participating without so much as a grumble and which add a great deal to my social life and emotional well-being.

I think the research is sound and positive, but we need to really consider how we convey public health information so that people understand that range of functional and sociable activities and sports can be a huge benefit to anyone, whatever their age and state of health.

I think it's brilliant, lots of women in my gym, all ages, weight lifting from tiny kgs right up to masses

That’s fair. I’ve said a couple of times I’m probably over reacting. My reaction is about me and the pressure I feel I’m under. I look around me and a lot of my female friends appear to be under the same pressure, but most of the men I know don’t seem to be. Perhaps women do put themselves under more pressure than men for reasons totally unrelated to media and societal messages. But I do wonder whether articles like this, where a study has been done about the benefits to men and women of doing something, where the real life examples cited are only women, do contribute. Or maybe as someone else said it’s entirely coincidental and they could only find women to talk to in the article. Or they wanted to focus on women because of the benefits to bone density specific to women and the article was badly edited so they didn’t say so. Whatever. I need to go and do some work. I could have done a strength training session in the time I’ve spent on this thread 😆

Someone mentioned how much they enjoy running four times a week and doing strength training. That’s fantastic, but I would absolutely hate that as my exercise routine even though it might be the most beneficial one for me. If I started that routine, I would have to give up Clubbacise, Padel, Pilates, yoga, dog walking

But what you do is already cardio and strength training, so no need to start another routine. Pilates is building strength, the others are cardio. So you wouldn’t need my routine as your exercise routine as you already have one that’s hitting those bases, there are so many options for exercise that there usually is something anyone will enjoy. But a lot of people just will think ‘I don’t like exercise’, even though the range of types and modalities of exercise out there is vast and there is almost certainly something they will enjoy that is beneficial to their health.

I also like to swim, do yoga, Pilates, Zumba, I do 15k+ steps a day, I go hiking, we go on active holidays. These things are all an enjoyable way of life to me and that’s the most important thing I think - building in exercise in a way that becomes part of your daily routine and your enjoyment of life, which you have done.

Three years ago I was 6 stone overweight and couldn’t run for a bus, got out of breath going up stairs, so I’ve been on both sides of this equation for sure.

The video is quite impressive.

I would have thought that for an elderly person like this, that repetitions using dumbbells would be more important and effective.

Can someone explain how lifting heavy weights as shown in the video helpful improve her mobility?

@ArtistBaptist lifting heavy reinforces your ligaments and tendons which gives better joint stability and improved everyday movement. It really is much more than just building muscle. Most runners, footballers etc will all strength train as it protects them from injury.

The longer form video has a lot more detail. The change in both of them is amazing.

it’s borne from massive studies in the states which show that not only do women do less strength training but also we “fall off a cliff” much faster, earlier in life and with more devastating outcomes then men.

also as medical science is wholly based in white western men, the fact that for once women appear to be centred is a good thing

You’re being weird. The article has two female case studies. Do you know how many articles usually have two male case studies? Can we only have one woman per article?

Men have always lifted weights - it’s culturally normal and comfortable and they need no encouragement

Men are more likely to lift in their day to day lives - men often default to lifting jobs at home because the optics of a woman struggling while a man sits about is bad - my dh and ds would automatically go for the heavier shopping bags or move the heavy boxes or do the rough digging etc. women can lose strength through this without realising.

Women are more likely to become osteoporotic than men.

Women’s base level of strength becoming chronically low can really escalate in old age. A feeble woman who is “off their legs” due to something like a nasty chest infection for a couple of weeks might never get back on them. Even worse of it’s a broken hip. Once you lose the strength so stand up from the toilet then it’s a very speedy decline. Men have a higher baseline so can stay independent longer (based purely on that - they have other, different problems).

My wee granny was active in terms of doing a lot of walking and being out and about, she was out every day and certainly on the active side of elderly people, but she tripped over at home and didn’t have the strength to get herself back up again.

And then because she was on the floor for a number of hours before my dad found her, she had to go into hospital and the decline in her in those couple of weeks was staggering. She came out frail, cognitively altered and that was the start of a very rapid decline to the point that within six months, she couldn’t walk without a zimmer.

I really believe that if she had been stronger and able to get herself up, that wouldn’t have started the cascade of issues.

I think it’s a positive message. As I am approaching retirement I see more and more of my peers unable to stand for any length of time, no jumping, no dancing, breathless. Anything which helps has to be a good thing.