Strength Training for Women: The Ultimate Workout for Active Moms of Busy Kids

 

Lose body fat.

Reduce your risk of osteoporosis, diabetes & heart disease.

Ease symptoms of depression.

Make your mom life 50% easier.

This is what strength training can do for you as a mom.

Strength training isn’t just for football players! Strength training for women is incredibly effective, and perfect for busy moms.

Parenting is a pretty physical undertaking. From hauling your baby’s carseat in and out of Target, to lifting endless baskets of laundry, to carrying a screaming toddler out of a restaurant, being a mom takes muscle. Strength training will help you with so many basic tasks around the house. You’ll be amazed by how much easier everything feels within only a few weeks of starting resistance training.

Squats

Squats are the absolute best exercise for moms. Simply bend your hips and knees until your rear is just slightly closer to the ground than your knees. Then stand back up. Squats are SO useful in everyday parenting tasks. Standing up from the floor is much easier when you’ve been doing squats. Running up and down the stairs to help the kids seems like less of an effort for your legs. (And you know we all do that about a hundred times a day.) When your six year old wants to climb on your back, you can actually squat down, let him climb on, then stand back up (and feel like a beast)!

You can get started with body-weight squats at home. When you’re ready, add some weight by holding a heavy object while doing squats. Your kids will love it if you use THEM as your weight (but don’t overdo it – lighter kids only)! If you’re ready to move on to heavier weights at the gym, start with the 45 lb bar only. This will allow you to work on your form, get a feel for where to rest the bar on your upper back and figure out the safety equipment.

Deadlifts

Deadlifts are a wonderful for building hamstring and lower back strength. You will need to start with some weight to do a deadlift. The weight starts on the floor. Hold on to the weight, keeping your back in a neutral position. Then stand up with the weight until you’re in an upright position. Return the weight to the floor and repeat. Deadlifts are the PERFECT exercise to help you lift overloaded laundry baskets more easily. When a laundry basket gets full of clean (or dirty, ahem) clothes, you could very easily strain your back when trying to lift it. Since the deadlift is the same motion as lifting that laundry, this exercise will help you prevent laundry-related injuries! I wish I were joking.

You can typically lift more weight on the deadlift than on squats. To get started, consider a 25 lb or 35 lb Kettlebell to use at home. They don’t take much storage space at all and Kettlebell deadlifts are a perfect way to begin deadlifting. When your Kettlebells get too light, it’s time to transition to the gym and start using a barbell! Again, you should start light to work on proper technique and to get used to the equipment.

Bench Press, Barbell Row and Overhead Press

The Bench Press, Barbell Row and Overhead Press work your upper body. In combination, these exercises strengthen moms for a wide variety of activities. To Bench Press, simply lay on a flat bench. Start with the weights resting at your bra band, lift them straight up and back down. For a Bent Row, the weight starts on the ground. Bend at the waist. Keeping your back parallel to the floor, lift the weight to your chest using only your arms and back. Your lower body shouldn’t move in this exercise! To start the Overhead Press, hold weights resting on your collarbone. Lift the weights above your head and back down. These three exercises will make your chest, shoulders and back stronger. That translates to major mom muscle! When you’re carrying a kicking and screaming three year old out of a restaurant, you will be SO grateful for your strength training program. Pushing those huge grocery carts with the car attached is much much easier when you’re been doing bench presses. Your kids will also have a ton of fun being lifted over your head once you’ve been doing Overhead Press for a while!

Bench Press, Barbell Row and Overhead Press can all be done with hand weights when you’re just starting out. For the Bench Press, you’ll need a surface to rest your back on.  An exercise ball works well as a platform for Bench Press and it gives you an ab workout at the same time. In the gym, you can transition to a flat bench and a barbell. It’s important to use a spotter or safety bars when bench pressing heavier weights. As for the Barbell Row and Overhead Press – they don’t require any special equipment or a spotter. All you need is some weight and your own muscle!

Making Mom Life Easier

Lifting heavy weights makes your physical life so much easier! Here’s a simple example: Let’s say your child weighs 45 lbs. Before starting a strength training program, suppose you can squat with a 45 lb bar. If you have to squat down and pick up your child, that’s your maximum effort! After training for a few weeks, perhaps you’re now able to squat with 90 lbs on the bar. That means lifting your child now takes just 50% of your maximum effort. This simple task, which you’ll do many times in your parenting life, suddenly feels 50% easier. Multiply that effect by hundreds of physical activities that you do for your family every single day and you’ll realize how massive the effect of strength gains can be. The benefits are so worth 3 hours in the gym each week!

Get Started with a Strength Program

If you’re ready to dive in, there are some great resources out there. I would recommend starting with StrongLifts 5×5, which is a very simple program with an awesome app. It really keeps you on point. You can also search for a program that’s specifically strength training for women. Before you get started, educate yourself, research and practice proper form, and recruit an accountability and safety buddy. Then – dive in – and work your mom muscle!