Many women don’t want to begin strength training because they erroneously believe that they will build muscle that will make them look less feminine. This is far from the case, FitSugar says in a post meant to emphasize the benefits of strength training in a bid to dispel all misconceptions associated with it.

For starters, while it’s generally believed cardio exercise is the ideal manner to burn calories and, consequently, lose weight, that’s not to say strength training doesn’t do the same as well, the fitness-oriented publication says. On the contrary, with it, you don’t just lose pounds (which are actually fat), but you build muscle instead – and it’s a known fact that muscle burns more calories than fat tissue by simply existing.

Weight lifting and strength training also improve bones, making them stronger, as studies have already shown. A 6-month workout has been shown to increase bone mineral density by up to 13%, which makes strength training an ideal ally women have in their fight against osteoporosis. If that’s not enough of an incentive, then there’s also the issue of how this type of exercise improves mood, being shown to reduce depression and offer an almost instance mood boost.

“One of the benefits of weight training is the after burn – burning calories as your body recovers from your workout. After an hour-long session of lifting weights, the average woman burns an extra 100 calories over the next 24 hours. Those extra calories add up. Think about it: if you weight train three times a week, that is an extra 300 calories per week and an extra 1,200 calories per month. Over the course of a year, that equals almost four and a half pounds lost — close to that magic number of five pounds most women I know say they would like to lose,” FitSugar further says.

Another benefit of strength training is that it builds muscle mass, which, in turn, is shown to fight diabetes. “The rate of type 2 diabetes continues to climb in this country, and one way to combat the disease is to build muscle. Muscle mass not only burns more calories a day than most other tissues; it also dispels the blood sugar quickly. Muscles effectively contribute to preventing type 2 diabetes,” the e-zine goes on to say.

One final reason to start lifting weights is that strength training makes you stronger, obviously. While it’s a given with this type of workout, this is one benefit many women fail to consider when they brush it off as being too “manly,” therefore not even worthy of their attention.