Why Women Must Build Muscle—Best Protein, Exercises | JJ Virgin

The cardio-training push for women goes back to the 60s—has the focus been off all along?

It’s easy enough to understand why many women prefer cardio training to strength training—naturally, they want to avoid building the bulk of an 80s action-movie star. But women’s strength-training pioneer JJ Virgin says the fear is unfounded.

“I have never had a woman get bigger lifting weights. I’ve had women get bigger by not lifting weights, right by sitting on the couch,” she said.

Virgin joined “Vital Signs” to reveal the anti skin-sagging, joint-injury prevention, and hormone-balancing benefits of building muscle for women over 40.

According to Virgin, muscle is one of the most powerful drivers of long-term health for women, influencing everything from metabolism to bone density and even brain health. Yet many women still rely heavily on cardio, a fitness trend that dominated past decades but may not deliver the lasting fat loss people expect.

“If you’re relying on cardio for weight loss, the minute you stop, you start gaining the weight back,” she said, noting that, by contrast, resistance training helps the body become more insulin sensitive and more efficient at burning fat.

Virgin also warns that muscle loss can begin as early as age 30 and accelerate later in life, increasing the risk of frailty, fractures, and metabolic decline. For women approaching menopause, strength training may help counter some of the hormonal changes that make it easier to gain fat and harder to maintain muscle.

The good news: Building muscle doesn’t require complicated routines. Virgin outlines a simple strength strategy built around basic movements such as push-ups, squats, rows, and deadlifts—paired with sufficient protein intake to trigger muscle growth.

Her message is simple but powerful: Muscle isn’t about aesthetics alone. For women over 40, it may be one of the most important tools for staying strong, resilient, and metabolically healthy with age.

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Dive Deeper into JJ’s Health-Enhancing Wisdom for Women here

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Read J. J. Virgin’s “The Virgin Diet: Why Food Intolerance is the Real Cause of Weight Gain”

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Referenced studies:

Daily protein-polyphenol ingestion increases daily myofibrillar protein synthesis rates and promotes early muscle functional gains during resistance training

American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research | mSystems

The Effects of 8-Week Creatine Hydrochloride and Creatine Ethyl Ester Supplementation on Cognition, Clinical Outcomes, and Brain Creatine Levels in Perimenopausal and Menopausal Women (CONCRET-MENOPA): A Randomized Controlled Trial

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Vital Signs’ host, guests, and contributors offer general information on improving health and wellness. This is not intended as diagnosis or medical advice. You should consult your medical doctor or holistic doctor before enacting any suggested strategies for health and wellness improvement, including those in relation to preventing or treating specific diseases featured on this program.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.