The Number One Muscle Women Neglect To Strengthen

You probably already know that strength training and building muscle has a lot of health and other benefits. It helps increase bone density and decrease the risk of osteoporosis. It helps control your weight and helps you look and feel better. But there’s another muscle a hidden one that many women often neglect to strengthen. Exercising this one isn’t about fending off osteoporosis or having Michelle Obama’s sinewy, toned arms.

This one is about working a muscle you can’t see. And sometimes out of sight equals out of mind thus the neglect. You can’t see your pelvic floor muscles, but they play a really important role in your health. They’re the muscles that support your pelvic organs: your uterus, bladderand rectum.

By now, you’ve probably figured out that men’s and women’s bodies don’t work quite the same way.

Get your mind out of the gutter. We’re talking about the weight room, here. Men and women have huge differences in their body compositions, joint alignments and connective tissues, all of which affect their muscle strengths, weaknesses, and susceptibility to injury, says exercise physiologist and trainer Marta Montenegro, MS, CSCS.

Here’s the deal, ladies: If you aren’t giving these areas some extra TLC, chances are they are majorly weak. “When the muscles aren’t at the ‘same level’ in terms of strength and flexibility, it both reduces the efficiency of every movement and increases risk of injury to muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments,” Montenegro says. “If something on this chain is off, something [else] will pay the price.”.....Read More.....