Why Women Should Want Muscle

It’s time for a reckoning.

For too long, women have been told—explicitly and implicitly—that our worth lies in being small. We’ve been conditioned to believe that weighing less is always better, that femininity is synonymous with delicacy, and that muscle is somehow “unladylike.” We’ve been sold the myth that the ideal female body is thin and perhaps “toned” rather than strong and powerful.

These beliefs are not just outdated. They are dangerous.

The truth is, building muscle isn’t only about aesthetics (though we’ll get to that too). It’s a powerful, necessary investment in your present and future health. Muscle is essential. It is not just for athletes or bodybuilders. It is the bedrock of vitality, resilience, and longevity. And yet, women are still being held back by fears that are, frankly, rooted in nonsense.

The Myth of “Bulky”

Let’s clear this up once and for all. Women do not suddenly become bulky by lifting weights. Achieving large, visible muscle mass requires years of strategic training. The average woman simply does not have the hormonal profile to develop significant muscle unintentionally. In fact, most women who actively try to gain muscle find that it is a slow and effortful process.

If anything, training to build muscle is exactly how many women achieve the look they desire. A strong, lean, and sculpted body is not the result of shrinking; it is the result of building. That so-called “toned” appearance is, quite literally, muscle. And the only way to get it is to create it.

Muscle Loss Is Aging

Here’s the part diet culture never told us: muscle loss may be the very crux of much of what we call “aging.”

Beginning as early as our 30s, we start to lose muscle at a rate of approximately 3 to 5 percent per decade. After the age of 60, that rate often accelerates, with some individuals losing around 1 percent of their muscle mass each year. This process is slow and silent. It creeps in gradually, lowering your energy, diminishing your mobility, and eroding your metabolic health.

Over time, this decline affects your ability to perform everyday tasks. You may no longer move with the same agility or capacity as before. What once felt easy becomes a struggle, and this loss of functional strength paves the way for injury, frailty, and eventual dependence on others.

Why Women Need Muscle Now

Muscle is far more than physical power. It is a metabolic organ. When you lose muscle, your body requires less energy. This makes it easier to store excess calories as fat and harder to maintain a healthy weight. Insulin resistance also increases, setting the stage for a cascade of health problems including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia and even cancer.

Population-based studies have consistently shown that low muscle mass and declining strength are strong predictors of all-cause mortality. They are also linked to functional decline, frailty, falls, and the many complications that accompany those conditions.

Yet, many women delay strength training. We get caught up in the chaos of everyday life, managing careers, raising children, and caring for aging parents. We tell ourselves we’ll prioritize fitness later, perhaps after retirement. We dismiss our fatigue and physical changes as “just part of getting older” and hope to focus on our health once life calms down.

But this is the equivalent of expecting a comfortable retirement without ever contributing to your RRSPs. If we wait, we may find ourselves in later life unable to do the things we had hoped to enjoy. Worse still, we may already be living with the early stages of hypertension, high cholesterol, insulin resistance, or more serious diagnoses.

It’s Not Barre. It’s Not Pilates. It’s not fitness class. It’s Lifting.

Barre and Pilates and fitness classes have their benefits. They can improve coordination, mobility, and build some foundational strength. But they do not stimulate the kind of muscle growth necessary to counteract age-related muscle loss. What is needed is progressive overload—training that challenges your muscles in ways that promote adaptation and growth.

This does not mean lifting recklessly. It means training with a structured, intentional approach. The goal is not to become a bodybuilder. The goal is to preserve what you have and, ideally, build more so that you can remain active, capable, and independent for as long as possible.

A Call to Wake Up

As women, we must become more informed and proactive about our health. It is time to reject the outdated ideas that have been fed to us by diet culture and reinforced by patriarchal standards. Being strong is not unfeminine. It is wise. It is powerful. It is protective.

Let’s stop obsessing over the scale. Let’s stop fearing strength. Let’s stop mistaking being smaller for being healthier.

Instead, let’s ask the real question:

Why wouldn’t women want muscle?

Muscle is energy. Muscle is freedom. Muscle is protection.
It is the foundation for how well you live, move, and age.

It is never too late to build it. But the earlier you start, the more you gain.