Why Strength Training Matters for Women
Why Strength Training Matters for Women — And How Pilates Makes It More Effective
Who else grew up jogging around the block, taking spin classes, and generally doing whichever workout seemed to burn the most calories and made you sweat the most? Just me?
The forms of exercise may be a vibe nowadays, think dim lit rooms, pounding music, and endless jumping jacks wearing ankle weights, but the concept is the same. Women have been fed the lie that endless amounts of cardiovascular exercise are the key to maintaining weight and remaining thin. This has been exacerbated by the wave of boutique group fitness classes, the influencer era of skewed information on social media, Pilates princesses, and fitness and diet culture preying on women's insecurities.
Thankfully, there seems to be a movement in recent years emphasizing the benefits of strength training and an overall shift in mindset around women, diet culture, and exercise. In this post I'll break down what body composition is and why it matters, the benefits of strength training, and how Pilates fits into a well-rounded movement practice that actually moves the needle.
What is Body Composition and Why Does it Matter?
Body composition refers to the percentage of fat, bone, and muscle in the body. Unlike weight alone, body composition gives you a more complete picture of your metabolic health and fitness level.
Body composition is often estimated using body mass index (BMI) — but BMI doesn't account for how much of your weight is fat versus muscle. Two people who weigh exactly the same can have drastically different metabolic profiles. For those focused on a holistic approach to health, fixating on weight and BMI can actually be counterproductive and limit progress toward a healthier body composition in the long run.
What is Body Recomposition?
What most women mean when they say they want to lose weight or "tone up" is that they want to lose body fat while maintaining or gaining muscle. That's body recomposition, and it's a much more useful goal than a number on the scale.
Focusing on body recomposition naturally leads to the aesthetic goals most people are after, without the spiral of unhealthy behaviors that often comes with forced weight loss. And even if weight loss isn't your goal at all, building lean muscle tissue is one of the most important things you can do for long term health and aging well.
Increasing muscle mass improves metabolism, insulin sensitivity, hormone function, bone density, and helps you move better with fewer aches and pains.
The Case for Strength Training
Strength training gets a bad rap in the women's fitness world. Women are told they'll "bulk up" if they lift heavy weights. We're not educated on the benefits of building lean muscle mass or on the physiological processes that actually go into building muscle.
Here's what the research tells us: muscle mass decreases approximately 3-8% per decade after the age of 30. With that loss of muscle typically comes an increase in fat mass, meaning you may weigh the same but your body composition is shifting in ways that increase risk for metabolic conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis.
Building muscle is important for everyone, including women! Having more muscle allows you to move through life with more ease, improves hormones and metabolism, and sets you up for success as you age. Additional benefits include:
Decreased risk of injury
Improved metabolic rate
Improved insulin sensitivity
Decreased abdominal visceral fat
Improved cardiovascular health
Improved mood and brain health
Higher overall quality of life
How to Actually Build Muscle
In order to build muscle, a few key principles need to be in place:
Structure — plan to work each muscle group 1-2 times per week with exercises that adequately target the muscle being worked, taking each set close to failure with appropriate load
Progressive overload — slowly adding more resistance or volume over time
Nutrition — adequate protein intake is non-negotiable, along with eating a diverse, whole-foods-based diet
Recovery — muscle growth happens during rest, not during the workout itself
Most group fitness classes lack one or more of these principles. You might take a class on Monday that targets your glutes, then turn around and do a similar set of exercises on Tuesday. Jumping around to random fitness classes can be fun and get you sweaty, but it's probably not moving the needle on actually building muscle. Most group fitness is primarily cardiovascular exercise, not true strength training.
Where Pilates Fits In
Here's where I want to challenge the way most people think about Pilates — because it's almost always filed under "low intensity" or "flexibility work" and dismissed as a complement to a "real" workout. That framing misses the point entirely.
Well-programmed Pilates, using the full apparatus, is strength training. Spring tension is load. The reformer, tower, and chair all provide constant resistance through a full range of motion — which can actually be more challenging for the muscles and connective tissue than many traditional gym exercises that only load at specific points in the movement. Progressive overload exists in the Pilates repertoire just as it does in the weight room, you change the spring load, the lever arm, the position, and the tempo.
But where Pilates really earns its place in a well-rounded movement practice is what it teaches you that the gym often doesn't: how to actually use your body.
Pilates develops the neuromuscular awareness, core engagement, and body control that makes everything else more effective and safer. When you understand how to properly engage your deep core, how to breathe through a loaded movement, how to move your joints through their full range without compensating, your strength training improves. You can lift weights more efficiently, you reduce injury risk, and you actually feel the muscles you're supposed to be targeting.
Whatever form of strength work you do, in a gym, at home, or on the apparatus itself, Pilates teaches you how to actually use your body to do it well.
Pilates as a Bridge Back to Movement
This is especially powerful for anyone returning from injury or managing pain. Jumping back into exercising after an ankle injury, a back flare-up, or a postpartum recovery can feel daunting, and honestly, it should feel daunting without the right guidance.
Pilates apparatus work allows you to reintroduce familiar movement patterns in a modified, supported environment. Take an ankle injury as an example. Before returning to squats or jumping, you can perform footwork on the reformer or tower — rebuilding the mechanics of push and load through the ankle and knee in a position that removes full gravitational demand. You can even introduce the mechanics of jumping on a spring-supported jump board, training the joints and tissues progressively before returning to full impact.
The brain is relearning movement patterns, the tissues are being loaded appropriately and trust is being rebuilt in your body.
This is the intersection I work in, and it's why I believe Pilates and strength training together are more powerful than either one alone.
My Own Mindset Shift
For me, the biggest shift was mental. I spent years chasing the feeling of exhaustion as proof that I had worked hard enough. I was so conditioned to think I needed to leave every workout completely drained, dripping sweat, and feeling like I had given 110% effort for it to count and be effective. It didn't matter to me which muscle groups we worked on Monday versus Tuesday; I didn't yet understand the importance of programming and structure when it comes to building muscle.
It took a lot of unlearning and challenging my own beliefs, but I’m so glad to be on the other side. When I finally started to understand how the body actually changes, I started training from a place of intention, rather than punishment. I felt better, both physically and mentally, I moved better, and I started seeing better body composition results.
Women have been sold a lie by the fitness industry for too long. We deserve a smarter approach, one that's built on how the body actually works.
If you're curious about how to integrate strength training principles into a Pilates practice that's truly individualized to your body and your goals, that's exactly what I do at Coastal Form Pilates in San Diego. Reach out here, and I'd love to connect.
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