Lift your weights! Straight up - if there is one thing you do for your fitness, to lose weight, to live longer, strength training is it. If you want to improve your overall health, strength training is a powerful tool in your fitness routine - both lifting weights and bodyweight resistance training like pilates. Beyond building muscle, it offers benefits in every part of your life, from mental health improvements, to better joint function and an increased metabolism. Here's how to make a plan that works for you.

The Health Benefits of Strength Training

The benefits of strength training go far beyond toned arms or visible abs. It has a profound impact on your entire body—inside and out. Here’s why it should be a core part of your health and weight loss routine:

1. The Key to Effective, Sustainable Weight Loss

If your goal is to lose weight, strength training is one of the most efficient ways to do it. Here’s why:

• Increased Resting Metabolism: When you build muscle, you increase your resting metabolic rate (RMR). Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue—even when you’re just sitting. This means that the more muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn throughout the day, making it easier to maintain a calorie deficit.
• The Afterburn Effect: Unlike cardio, strength training triggers excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). After a strength workout, your body continues burning calories for hours as it repairs and rebuilds muscle tissue. This “afterburn” effect makes strength training more metabolically powerful than traditional steady-state cardio.
• Fat Loss, Not Muscle Loss: When you lose weight through diet alone or excessive cardio, you often lose muscle along with fat. Strength training preserves and builds lean muscle mass, ensuring that the weight you lose comes primarily from fat, not muscle. This is critical for maintaining a strong, healthy physique.

2. Stronger Bones and Joint Health

Lifting weights doesn’t just build muscle—it strengthens your bones too. Resistance training increases bone density, reducing your risk of osteoporosis and fractures. It also protects your joints by strengthening the muscles and connective tissues around them. This makes strength training an excellent injury-prevention tool, especially as you age.

3. Better Cardiovascular Health

While cardio gets all the credit for heart health, strength training is just as important. It improves circulation, reduces blood pressure, and helps regulate cholesterol levels. Strength training also increases insulin sensitivity, which helps your body process glucose more effectively—lowering your risk of type 2 diabetes.

4. Improved Mental Health

Strength training has profound mental health benefits. It reduces symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress by boosting endorphin levels. Plus, the sense of accomplishment that comes from getting stronger—whether it’s lifting heavier weights or hitting new personal records—translates into improved confidence and mental resilience.

5. Enhanced Functional Fitness and Mobility

The strength you build in the gym translates into your everyday life. Whether you’re lifting heavy luggage, carrying groceries, or trekking through a new city, strength training improves your physical capability and reduces fatigue. It also boosts your balance, coordination, and flexibility—making you more agile and less prone to injury.

Why the Ladder Workout App Should Be in Your Routine

Ladder is one thing I never shut up about. I downloaded the app on a whim last year because they had a free trial with no credit card (which everyone should do), and within a couple of days subscribed for a year - and haven't stopped using it or talking about it since. 

You pick which kind of work out focus you would like, and you get seven new video work outs every single week. I used to focus mostly on cardio and HIIT workouts, but now I do Ladder 3-6 days a week depending on my schedule and how I'm feeling, and outside of that I mostly just take my dog on walks, occasionally do 15 or 20 minutes on the stair-master or treadmill at an incline, and sometimes a Caribbean Dance Cardio youtube video - but the majority of my overall workout time is the strength sessions with Ladder. I was feeling out of shape when I started the app, and a few months later realized I was suddenly at my target low weight without even really trying, it is the easiest I have ever lost weight in my life. 

The app is built around the concept of ladder-style workouts, where you start with a lighter weight or easier exercise and gradually increase the difficulty as your body adapts. This method makes progressions feel natural and achievable, and because you're always pushing yourself slightly further each session, you get consistent gains without risking burnout. Plus, it integrates both strength and cardio in a way that keeps workouts interesting and keeps your body guessing.

Here’s why Ladder stands out:

• Personalized Plans: The app has multiples teams with different trainers with workouts focused on different training styles and equipment. There is one that is running endurance and strength training, yoga and strength, classic bodybuilding, etc but my team is a mix of pilates and strength which makes for an incredible program - building both your large muscles with heavy weights and your deep core and stabilizing muscles with daily pilates. The trainers offer weight suggestions for different levels, so you can start as even a beginning. 
• Time-Efficient, Effective Workouts: I love being in and out on my workouts, which are around 30-40 minutes each. I often do them at home first thing in the morning and I feel like I can get on with my day so much quicker than when I was going to fitness studios. 
• An Amazing User Interface: Maybe most people wouldn't comment on this part so highly, but I think it makes all the difference. The experience of actually using the app is seamless and easy and they seem to have worked out any and all bugs. The app integrates with Spotify so you can choose your own music, and automatically turns the volume down when the trainer is talking, and then back up. The app also syncs with my AppleWatch to track workouts and show the timer and reps on my watch. To me, the ease of using a program is EVERYTHING.

+ Download Ladder here to try for yourself +

Choosing the Right Equipment

You don’t need a gym full of equipment to start strength training. Bodyweight exercises like squats, push-ups, and lunges can get you a long way, especially if you're just starting. As you get stronger, you can introduce dumbbells, resistance bands, or kettlebells to add more challenge. What matters most is consistency and making sure you’re challenging your muscles enough to see improvements. The right equipment can enhance your experience, but it's your dedication that’ll make the biggest difference. 

If you buy only a few items, you will be set up for home work outs for years and years. 

The Essentials:

• Set of 5 pound dumbbells
• Set of 10 pound dumbbells
• Set of 20 pound dumbbells - even if you're starting out, to really get the benefits from larger muscle groups like in your thighs, you need some weight in your weights!
• (You can add on heavier weights from here as needed)
• Set of resistance bands
• Foam Roller - both for muscle relief and works incredibly well as a pilates reformer dupe. 
• Yoga mat - even a cheap one will work great, but I personally love the Manduka Pro Mat one I have had for 5+ years, well worth the extra cost. 
• Ankle weights - I like this adjustable pair so one pair can do everywhere between 1 and 5 lbs each.
• Weight lifting gloves - while you might not feel like you need there when you're starting out, I found that lifting consistently really started to hurt my hands, and an inexpensive pair of gloves made a huge difference. 
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All you need for an amazing at-home routine:

Focus on Nutrition to Maximize Results

Strength training without proper nutrition is like driving with no fuel—it won’t get you far. To get the best results:

• Prioritize Protein: Aim for at least 0.7-1 gram of protein per pound of body weight daily. Protein is essential for muscle repair and growth, which increases your resting metabolism. Protein from meat especially can get expensive, so adding in supplements like egg protein powdermakes reaching that goal much easier - protein shakes are a cliche for a reason!
• Fuel Your Workouts: Eat a balanced meal with carbs and protein 1-2 hours before training. This gives you the energy to perform at your best.
• Stay Hydrated: Proper hydration supports muscle function and recovery. Drink water throughout the day—especially if you’re strength training in a warm environment.
• Eat Lots of Produce: Studies show that people that consume 30 different plants in a week have much better gut health, as well as a myriad of other benefits. At first this sounds like a lot, but this includes nuts, seeds, and beans, and over 7 days if you put just a little effort into it, I find that overall it's a pretty easy metric to meet. I add fresh fruit, goji berries, chia seeds and hemp heart to my yogurt, get otherwise expensive fruits like mango and passionfruit frozen to make smoothies, and always keep red bell peppers or snap peas to snack on. With salads or other vegetables in your main meals, it has become part of my eating.

How to think about eating

I have found that the best way to keep both my physical and mental health is to not track macros or obsessively count calories, because that can put you into some very dark mental spaces, but to try to focus every meal and snack on protein and produce. When planning a meal or reaching for a snack, think where am I getting protein and where am I getting produce, and make sure to add them on if they aren't a central part of what you're eating. 

• Eggs and toast? I mix my eggs with cottage cheese for extra protein, and often kale or another vegetable to make a scramble, and avocado or sliced cherry tomatoes on my toast.
• Chips as a snack? Add in a light string cheese for protein, and some baby carrots or a piece of fruit for the produce. 
• Sometimes when we make dinner and are out of/don't feel like salad, I'll just throw a bowl of raw carrots on the table to munch on or make a vegetable snack platter. 

Perfecting Your Form

One of the most important things you can do to avoid injury and improve your results is to focus on form. Whether you’re doing bodyweight exercises or lifting heavy, keeping proper form is essential to getting the benefits of each move. Start slow, and don’t rush through your reps. As you get more comfortable with each exercise, you can increase the intensity. If it's possible for you, a few sessions with a personal trainer to learn the proper way to do exercises and what you need to watch out for (like not overstraining your back) can be incredibly helpful and potentially save you from serious injury. And remember, good form is a lifelong practice—don’t be afraid to revisit the basics every now and then.

Weight Loss

I have struggled with my weight since I was 15, and spent a number of very formative years overweight. While I lost weight a number of years ago, keeping it off has never been easy or without effort. Over the years I've done every diet, every work out trend, every cleanse and every new fad to lose and maintain weight. And what really, truly works - weight lifting, and eating protein. It is the easiest I have ever lost and maintained weight. Even as I get older, ditching all of the fancy work out studios and focusing on weight lifting and pilates, my body is healthier, leaner, and stronger than ever.

xx