“The future that we’re trending toward in fitness for women is — I’m so happy to report — is weight training,” Sarah Hagaman told Business Insider.
Hagaman, who has worked in the fitness industry for 20 years and trained celebrities like Cindy Crawford, said she consistently encourages clients to include a form of strength training in their routine.
“The goal is longevity and increased strength,” she said.
In an end-of-year report from activity-tracking app Strava, the company reported that weight training was the fastest-growing sport type among women in 2024, with a 25% growth in user activity uploads.
Hagaman said that old fears of gaining muscle and “getting bulky” have largely phased out in the women she works with.
Activities like lifting weights or training with resistance, which target muscle building, have traditionally been marketed to men. However, Worthington said women benefit just as much from this kind of exercise.
Strength training is one of the most effective ways of improving one’s health span, the period of time during which one has optimal health, Worthington said. This is especially true when taking women’s health and age factors like menopause into consideration.
“There are particular points throughout life where there are more rapid changes for women than there are for men, and all of those changes can be mitigated by training with resistance,” Worthington said. “There are very distinct, measurable, positive hormonal changes that happen when you do that.”
“We see positive changes in testosterone and positive changes in estrogen as well. So all of those things help mitigate what you would call, broadly speaking, aging,” he added.
