Why Women Need to be Lifting (Heavy) Weights

Those weights wont lift themselves!

It’s been great to read that Weightlifting Clubs up and down the country have been receiving a lot of interest following the Olympics from people wanting to join up and many of those enquiries are coming from women. The profile of Weightlifting as a sport has certainly received a boost and there has also been considerable media attention about the training programmes of other athletes and the importance that strength training has in the GB athletes programmes. There does, however, still seem to be opinion amongst some women that strength training is either “not for them”, or that to even consider lifting anything more than 3kg dumbbells will instantly turn them into a muscle bound body builder.

The Secret of Mo Farah’s Success

I recently came across an interview with Alberto Salazar, the coach of double Olympic gold medal winner Mo Farah, where he revealed that the secret to Mo’s success was not the number of miles he was clocking up on the road but the hours he was spending lifting weights in the gym!

In the interview, Salazar described Mo as a “90lb weakling” when he started training with him nearly 2 years ago. From that point on Farah incorporated regular weight training sessions into his programme which Salazar believes has been the key to Mo’s remarkable performances at the Olympics.

There’s a key message there for all runners, whether you’re training for Olympic gold or just the local 5km fun run – you need to get strong!

Here’s a look at 3 reasons why you need to be doing some strength training alongside your running: