Strength-training for women more streamlined than most think

SEATTLE - Lisa Ravenholt, 50 and petite, can leg-lift 510 pounds. She can do so gracefully and repeatedly. In a way, she is innately gifted for this. A former professional dancer, Ravenholt believes she is able to recruit strength throughout her kinetic chain.

So in some respects, she is freakish.

Yet, while her capability is unusual, her motives and goals are in line with an increasing number of women who are turning to weight training to help improve their health, fitness and function.

"Being strong has been vital not only to my self-image, but also to my survival," Ravenholt says. "With a history of osteoporosis in my family tree, I believe strength-training to be my first line of defense."

And as a landscaper, she wants to be able to lug stones.

Still, undercurrents persist: "I don't want to get big" or "it takes too long" or "I want to lose weight, not gain it" or "I'll get hurt."

Experts counter all these complaints. They say you likely won't get big unless that's your goal - and even then you might not.

Getting hurt is a legitimate concern, but proper training and form will diminish the risk, and well-developed muscles generally protect your body from injury.

Having more lean-muscle mass helps burn calories, so while the scale may not budge (it may actually climb) losing fat means losing inches.

And time? If your workout is taking a long time, you probably aren't being intense and efficient enough.

Ravenholt works with Seattle personal trainer Nancy Jerominski, who is both passionate about the subject of strength-training and critical of the media's body-beautiful obsession. She acknowledges the importance of assessing a client's goals, limitations and health concerns, but maintains that, done correctly, anyone can benefit from weight training. She supplements Ravenholt's lifting with stability, core and aerobic work.

"I think it is deeply etched into our cultural state of mind that strong women are somehow manly - unless you are some kind of all-star athlete," says Jerominski, who credits weight training with helping her overcome a series of personal problems.

Mandy Cordova, a personal trainer at the Seattle Athletic Club, fuses weights and aerobics in a popular class. In one that I watched, 28 of the 30 participating were women. Many of the movements, including lunges and stepping on and off platforms, were done while clutching weights.

The high-energy Cordova believes that adding resistance while in an aerobic state incorporates immediate fat burning with the long-term benefit of lean-muscle mass and strength. She started lifting weights when she was 14 and is still in tremendous shape in her 40s. None of her students has her stamina or strength, and several don't have her form, but she frequently warns them to protect their backs and bend their knees.

Cordova says some people just don't work hard enough in the gym and, worse, they never learned the proper techniques and fundamentals.

"The problem with people who may have lifted weights in high school and are now in their 40s or 50s is they tend to forget their bodies have changed!"

Elderly women should approach weights cautiously, but trainer Laura Martin says maintaining strength helps fight age-related loss of muscle mass and bone density, and proper, targeted work, say on quads and glutes, can help with daily living activities. If you're a beginner, have a medical condition or are out of shape, you may want to start by using resistance bands or tubing, which are easier to control.

"Maran Illustrated Weight Training" (maranGraphics, $24.99) shows in pictures how to - and how not to - perform weight-training exercises.

"Athletic Strength for Women" (Human Kinetics, $19.95) takes it a step further, analyzing strength from physiological, anatomic and sports-specific points of view.

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FIT BIT

Know Your Strength

Before you start - or continue - think about:

-What you want to accomplish. Bulk? Competitive edge? To feel or look better?

-The right way. Get grounded in the fundamentals. You might want to start with a trainer, but if she or he doesn't seem right, get someone else.

-Symmetry. If you're going to obsessively work on showy muscles and ignore their opposing ones, you are asking for trouble. Forget trying to spot reduce.

-Your limits. You want to push yourself, but not into injury. A trainer and a goal can help in this regard and also help avoid inattention.

-Vulnerable body parts. Use good posture and common sense. Also, think about supporting your spine and susceptible joints such as shoulders and knees.

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(c) 2005, The Seattle Times. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.