Strength Training Without Weight Loss Goals: A Different Approach with Wider Benefits
Strength Training Without Weight Loss Goals: A Different Approach to Health
What if weight loss isn’t your goal?
Exercise, including strength training, and weightloss are frequently presented together in fitness and wellness culture. This can make it difficult to imagine what progress looks like when body size or appearance isn’t your goal.
At Breathing Space, Dublin 8 we believe that strength training is something that can support your health, wellbeing and everyday life regardless of whether your weight changes.
In this blog we’ll explore some of the benefits of strength training, including:
Feeling stronger and more capable
Supporting bone and muscle health
Maintaining mobility
Improving physical function
Supporting mental health
Building confidence
It’s all about finding what works for your individual body and lifestyle. If you’re curious about strength training, read on to learn about the benefits and check out the new schedule at our Cork Street studio from October 2026.
What do we mean by strength training?
Strength training involves asking your muscles to work against resistance. There is a variety of types of resistance to choose from, including your own body weight, resistance bands, free weights, Reformer Pilates springs, and exercise machines and equipment.
One of the biggest myths of strength training is that you need to lift heavy or train in a gym to develop strength. This isn’t the case for everyone, and will depend on where you start and what your goals are.
Activities such as Reformer Pilates incorporate resistance to help develop muscular strength and endurance. Strength training is incredibly varied and versatile, so it can be adapted according to experience, mobility, and individual needs.
The health benefits of getting stronger
There are many physical and mental benefits of getting stronger, and strength training can support you on this journey.
Supporting muscles and bones
Muscle mass and strength naturally change across adulthood, and especially as you age or following an injury or illness. Resistance exercise provides a necessary stimulus for developing or maintaining muscle whatever stage of life you’re at.
Strength-based activity also plays an important role in bone health, which is particularly relevant during pregnancy and postnatal life, perimenopause and menopause, and older adulthood.
Making everyday movement easier
Whilst you might have specific training goals for an event, most people see the benefits of strength training in everyday life.
Getting stronger through strength training can make it easier to:
Carry shopping
Carry luggage and put it in the overhead storage on a plane or a train
Pick up your children
Climb stairs
Get up from the floor
Work in your garden or allotment
Maintain balance and stability, and prevent falls
And it’s these kinds of everyday benefits that you see most from functional strength training, which is designed to build the strength and stability that your body needs to handle everyday movements and tasks with ease. Instead of working just one muscle group at a time like you do on many gym machines, functional training uses multiple joints and muscle groups at the same time, just as everyday movements do.
Supporting long-term health
Regular physical activity of any kind is associated with lower-risks of several long-term health conditions, including heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Whilst strength training has benefits for cardiovascular and metabolic health, muscle strengthening activity has benefits independently of aerobic exercise.
What does the research say about strength training?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that adults undertake muscle-strengthening activities involving all major muscle groups on two or more days a week because of the health benefits. This recommendation is echoed in the HSE’s Every Move Counts guidelines. Likewise in the UK Chief Medical Officers’ physical activity guidelines, which also explicitly recognise that physical activity provides health benefits for people in larger bodies even without weight loss.
Moving beyond weight as a measure of progress
Scales cannot capture many of the changes that happen, and the benefits you see, through regular strength training. At Breathing Space we encourage you to broaden the scope of how you measure and recognise progress, rather than rely on the numbers on the scales.
Although individual for each person, progress could look like:
Lifting something with ease that previously felt heavy
Feeling steadier balancing on one leg
Increasing the resistance in a Reformer Pilates class
Getting up from the floor more easily
Feel less tired after climbing stairs
Feeling more confident trying new activities or unfamiliar movements
Recovering more comfortably after activity
Noticing improved concentration or mood
Attending classes more consistently
Feeling more social connection
All of these measures can provide meaningful feedback on your progress without focusing on appearance or using scales as a measure.
Our Fit at Any Size blog explores the reasons why we develop certain beliefs about fitness, body size and weight, and how at Breathing Space we believe that fitness can’t be judged by appearance because bodies come in all different shapes and sizes, and movement (including strength training) has benefits for everyone.
Strength training and your relationship with your body
There can be some less tangible benefits of developing your strength that are easy to overlook. Becoming stronger can shift your attention towards noticing what your body can do, learning new skills, feeling capable, and finding joy and pleasure in movement and exercise.
You might notice yourself feeling proud of completing an exercise, progressing the resistance, or simply attending classes more consistently. It’s these kinds of changes, that have little to do with appearance, that we encourage you to notice.
What does inclusive strength training look like?
It doesn’t look the same for everyone, and it doesn’t need to. Different bodies may need different versions of the same exercise for a variety of reasons.
A supportive, small group strength training class should allow for:
Different starting points
Varied ranges of movement
Rest when needed
Progression at an individual pace
Adaptations and variations
Adaptations and variations are simply modifications based on individual need and preference. There isn’t a hierarchy of easier or harder, better or worse, superior or inferior. Each person brings a different body, movement history and level of experience to class. At Breathing Space we value all bodies, and welcome all levels. You don’t need to look or move a certain way to belong here.
Ways to build strength at Breathing Space, Dublin 8
From October 2026 we will offer more strength training opportunities at Breathing Space. In addition to continuing our schedule of Reformer Pilates at our Donore Avenue studio, Ana Paula Massarollo, who runs Fit and Strong with Ana, will take over our Cork Street studio from Monday - Friday. Ana will offer small group strength training classes, as well as postnatal strength training courses.
Ana’s classes focus on progressive strength training using resistance and functional lifting patterns to build muscle, strength and confidence. Every movement is chosen to help you move with stability, ensuring your core foundation is fully supported as you get stronger. Ana’s classes encourage you to train with purpose, celebrate what your body can achieve, and help you feel physically powerful and deeply empowered.
Getting started with strength training
If you’re curious about strength training, Breathing Space offers you a non-gym environment to try it out and get started, whether you start with Reformer Pilates or small group strength training classes. There’s no need to worry about your starting level or what other people are doing or thinking. We encourage you to tell your instructor that you are new to this type of training so they can provide support as you build familiarity and confidence through practice.
And if a new class feels unfamiliar and outside of your comfort zone at first, give yourself time (at last a few weeks, ideally more) to learn techniques and build familiarity with the movements. We all start somewhere.
Whilst you might be feeling enthusiastic and energised to take several classes a week when you start something new, it’s equally important to build in sufficient rest and recovery between classes. Starting in a slow and sustainable way, with plenty of rest and recovery scheduled in, will give you the best chance to build consistency and progress at a sustainable pace for you. Remember, consistency doesn’t have to mean taking a class or training every day. Some physical activity is better than none. Focus on noticing the changes in how you feel and what you can do.
Finding your own reasons to get stronger
At Breathing Space we encourage you to set goals that are meaningful to you personally.
Whether you're seeking to improve your physical health, support bone and muscle health, improve everyday function and mobility, or support your mental wellbeing, or build confidence, strength training can support you to move towards or reach your goals.
Define progress by what matters most to you and your life. If our philosophy of inclusive, enjoyable and sustainable movement in a non-gym environment appeals to you then Breathing Space, Dublin 8 might be the ideal place to start your strength training journey.
Explore our timetable and try a Reformer Pilates or small group strength training class. If you’re completely new to Breathing Space, we have an Intro Offer of 4 classes for €59 (use within 2 weeks).
