Good reasons to weight train

I know that runners should weight train regularly, because it helps keep us strong, upright and injury-free. Unfortunately, I find lifting weights one of the most boring forms of physical exercise in existence on this planet (as for Mars, I cannot say). I do it out of guilt and necessity, not nearly as often as I should, and I have to bring along my mp3 player or I just can't hack it.

But today, I was presented with very convincing evidence of the value of being strong. The scenario: I am sitting at lunch with a few guy friends, and this girl we vaguely know from residence comes up to the table, bats her eyelashes at one of the guys and hands him a bottle, asking: "Could you do me a huge favour and open this please? It's just so hard! *giggle*".

Now, I agree that men have their uses, but this, in my mind, should not be one of them. As an independent woman, I affirm myself in large part by the ability to DO things for myself, at least little every day things like opening the pickle jar (although I will admit, that sucker takes persuasion...) Not being able to open your own drink definitely smacks of a certain helplessness. So I thought, what a great reason to hit the gym.

Another point: I am a heavy girl. Nope, not fat, or even chubby, just heavy - by BMI calculation, I have just crossed over to the "dark side" of being overweight, at 5'3" & 142lbs. Looks a little scary when I write it out like that (which is why I did it!), but the truth is I am rapidly encroaching upon the highest level of fitness I have ever achieved in my life. I look pretty good, if I may say so. And thus, I have absolutely no choice but to finally buy into the old truth that muscle weighs more than fat. Well so be it - bring on the pounds. In fact, it's to the point now where my looks and my weight-by-numbers seem so discrepant that it's actually fun to tell people, because they look at me in disbelief and then say, "well whoa! Are you serious? You must have a lot of muscle!" So as long as I take this with the right attitude, it's actually very empowering... I just have to stop somewhere before the point where I'm heavier than my boyfriend :)

Obviously, I'm no svelte model (I also don't look like I'm addicted to heroin). But I once read an article on Ronaldo, the famous Brazilian soccer player, in which he was ever-so-flatteringly described as having "legs like muscled tree trunks". Now that's a powerful image that I'd like to embrace. I could do tree trunks. Well, mobile ones - you know, kind of like an ent. Except not as tall.

Definitely as slow, though :)