Weight Training Could Changle Your Life

Many women shy away from weight training. But Naomi Alderman says it has transformed her body.

There's a weightlifting area in my gym – not just the rows of dinky handweights by the stretching mats, but the bit with the squat cage, the bench press and the machine where, with both hands, you pull down weights the size of hefty toddlers. I haven't used it – yet – but I'm going to. I've been weight training since last year and every session takes me a bit closer to the end of the handweights and the start of serious lifting. I'm looking forward to it in a way I've never looked forward to exercise before.

Personal trainers, however nice, give me PE teacher flashbacks. I'm not co-ordinated so the group classes that others seem to find fun and sociable – "step up, touch down, change legs, grapevine, step change and shimmy" – just leave me feeling clumsy and frustrated. But I can pick up an easily graspable heavy metal object, lift it slowly and then put it down again. Not only can I do it: I find I love it. Read more