STRONG NOT SMALL
Could weight training save your life?
Words
JES SALTER
I took a long time to find the gym – nearly forty years, in fact. I wasn’t a sporty kid and spent my twenties rather sedentary, except for the odd guilt-induced fitness classes. I took up running in my thirties - largely, if I’m honest, to try to lose weight. But after having my second child and feeling weak, tired and overwhelmed by the sheer physicality of caring for a baby and a toddler, I decided to shift gears. I was sick of feeling small and apologetic. What I really needed was to feel strong.
So, when the baby got up for the day at 5am after a typically unsettled night, she and I would shuffle down into the kitchen. I’d roll out my mat and entertain her with silly faces as I threw myself and some tiny pink dumbbells around for 20 minutes. It gave me a structure to the day, and a feeling that I’d accomplished something just for me. Gradually, as I got stronger, I started ordering heavier and heavier weights online: it amused me when the delivery driver would warn me that my latest package was heavy.
I’m not alone; increasing numbers of us are swapping Pilates and Pelotons for a set of weights (or at least adding them in). In 2000, only 10% of women participated in regular strength training; by 2024, the number of women participating in regular strength training had soared to 27%, according to Dr Hannah Campbell, Lecturer in Applied Physiology, at the University of Leeds.
Why? Well, weightlifting has had a glow-up of late. There are of course the frankly diverse bunch of celebrities ranging from Beyoncé to Gal Gadot to Victoria Beckham waxing lyrical about their love of weights. We’re posting our own workouts on social media (the hashtag #womenwholift has 4.25m posts on Instagram, while #strongwomen has 3.2m posts on TikTok) and women lifting is now generally part of the cultural narrative – the midlife narrator in Miranda July’s cult All Fours navigates her menopausal symptoms in a bodybuilder’s garage.
Also, because it finally feels like it’s for us. “Women used to be so scared of getting bulky because they saw male bodybuilders, but that’s just not how women’s bodies work,” says personal trainer and coach Rachael Sacerdoti, founder of Its So Simple. Like me, she only found weights in her late thirties, after having her third child. "I had tried every diet, followed every trend, but it was lifting weights that truly revolutionised my body,” she says, noting that she lost 30kgs of weight, whilst building up muscle. Studies show that it’s particularly good for those over 40 with benefits including improving bone density, which helps to prevent osteoporosis and fractures, and building muscle mass to help counteract age-related metabolic slowdown and weight gain.
I’m hooked in a way that no other fitness has gripped me before. I now work out three times a week in a distinctly unglamorous body building gym under a railway arch where the men at the weights rack have become used to me literally muscling in. There’s something about the concentration needed to lift really heavy things that helps me turn off my busy mind for a moment. I’m not afraid to admit that I don’t mind the compliments my arms attract in a tank top, either.
But it’s the long-term impact that I’m really in it for. I don’t want to be a frail old lady. I’m training to be able to run up stairs and do my own shopping when I’m in my eighties – as well as pick up any small children that might appear down the line.
Lawyer-turned-personal trainer Elizabeth Davies captured the same sentiment on her Instagram account @thiswomanlifts last year. “Training for my summer body?” she wrote. "Fuck no! I’m training for my old lady body. Dense bones. Strong muscles. A healthy heart. Functional independence.” The post went viral, attracting more than 200,000 likes, and spawning a book, Training For Your Old Lady Body, out next year. It was an upload she admits she nearly deleted, worrying people would think she was being silly. Instead, she inspired her 145k-strong audience to reframe the way they see weightlifting – as I have.
I’m so glad I’ve finally stopped chasing skinny, an unachievable goal that made me miserable, and can now celebrate the fact that I’m really, really strong.
Jessica Salter is a freelance lifestyle writer and editor who covers a wide range of topics that centre on how we live. Follow her on Instagram @jes_salter.