Erin O'Hara: naturopath and wellness expert on women embracing protein and strength training

Decades ago, the gym used to be a predominantly male space with women mostly doing cardio exercise - but that's all changed.

Fast forward to today, and women of all ages and backgrounds are likely to be navigating weight equipment, with research showing women's use of weight-lifting has increased five-fold between 2016 and 2022.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara says there used to be concern about bulking up - but women are seeing the benefits of strength training every day.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News TALKSB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Wellness, Time and Aerin O'Hara Netpath joins us. Now, good morning,
Good morning. I love the topic you're talking about today.
You're talking about strong women, and we are talking about
that total shift over the decades as to what we
feel is important health wise for women when it comes
to exercise.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, when it came to exercise women, it was all
about being skinny, and we've really changed over the decades.
In the seventies it's very much about quick weight loss
and appetite suppressant kind of supplements and products, and then
the eighties really was very much about cardio and aerobics,
jesusize jesuits size, and then the nineties moving into being

(00:54):
super skinny and actually not doing too much exercise to
keep your lean muscle mass down. And then by the
two thousands, it's about low fat, low carbohydrate kind of eating.
And then we've moved into who now very much you
see all over social media all about eating more protein
and weight training, lift heavy stuff, and it's kind of

(01:18):
moved away from being that vanity and looks and being
skinny and into being healthy. And it's a really good
change that we've moved into because we've been a lot
more proactive for women and looking at longevity, living longer,
living healthier, reducing a lot of health rest.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
It used to be a bit of a perception if
you lifted weights, you're going to turn into a bodybuilder,
and a lot of people are like, I don't want
to look like that, and it's not the case. It's
just so important as we age for our bones, for
our muscles, for our brain everything.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, I think that myth around bulking up as a
woman is still probably there to a certain degree. I
think still there's still women that think that if they
lift weights, they're going to end up looking like he man.
But actually, you know, science shows that we do not
have enough testosterone to build enough muscles to really bowlk up.
It's very unusual to have high testosterone levels as a woman,

(02:11):
so less test less muscle growth. But also the muscle
fiber composition is quite different in women, and so you
will actually have a smaller muscle sal size as well,
so the fibers will be smallest, so you're not going
to end up bulking up and being massive and it's
about you know, doing the right thing for your health,
where lifting and pulling and pushing heavy things really helps

(02:34):
to build the strength, which is helping reduce your risk
of sarcopenia or muscle wasting as we age. But also
the bone health is huge for women, especially postmenopause. One
in three women over the age of fifty have a
high risk of osteoporosis will have osteoporosis. So by lifting
more weights and keeping lean muscle mass up, more muscle

(02:56):
is protective for bone density. Also keeping a metabolism going.
So many women get to menopause and think that they
can't lose weight and that's part of aging, but actually
keep your muscle mass up because that keeps your metabolism going,
especially when you're resting. If you've got more muscle mass
on your body, your metabolism will be quicker when you're resting,
so overall you're going to burn more calories. And then

(03:18):
keeping their right nutrition going in is always critical, which
is eating more protein and it will help you regulate
your appetite, help with repair a muscle fib especially if
you're doing some weight training, you're going to really help
with not bulking up and building big, bulky muscles, but
instead keeping a lean muscle mass strong and helping with
that repair process and helping with metabolism keep up as

(03:42):
you keep the lean muscle mass up as well.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
No, so much good stuff there, Thank you so much.
Erin and of course on the podcast that I do
with my friend Luis Airy, The Little Things, we did
a couple of podcasts on this which have been hugely popular,
one with Stacy Sims and one with kyro Seller who's
a personal trainer. Lots of tips and information about resistance work,
how to get started, the benefits of it. So if
you head to The Little Things wherever you get your

(04:06):
pods and have a listen to those episodes, they might
help you keep going.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
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