Strength Training: 4 Benefits for Everyone
Strength Training... For some, a vision of a buff guy in a gym or an athlete may come to mind. Resistance training doesn’t just mean lifting weights in a gym, getting big or being an athlete! The big secret…. Strength training can benefit everyone!
So what does strength/resistance training really mean? According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE), strength training is the process of exercising with progressively heavier resistance to stimulate muscle development. It sounds simple enough right? According to ACE , approximately 20% of Americans regularly strength train. If you are in that 20% or the other 80% please continue reading. Below I will mentioned four scientific benefits of resistance training to hopefully inspire you to give it a chance or do more of it!
Strength Training Benefits
1. Living Your Day to Day Life:
Our muscles affect our physical capacity (ability to perform work, exercise, and all the fun things that we do). Unfortunately, as we age our muscle mass decreases meaning we also lose our physical capacity. This could include: range of motion, physical strength, flexibility, stamina, power, metabolism, etc.
Why is this important?
Resistance training should be a regular component of a health regime to simply maintain physical capacity (i.e. the ability to do the activities of day to day life).
2. Physical Appearance & Body Composition:
As mentioned above, when we age we lose muscle but why should we care? The human body is composed of lean (fat-free) mass and fat mass. We naturally lose our lean mass (muscle) as we age and that process is accelerated when we don’t strength train! By beginning regular strength training, at any age, it is possible to improve metabolism, body composition, physical appearance, and health!
Why is this important?
It is documented that most people begin to exercise or ‘get-fit’ for aesthetics (physical appearance). Achieving a body you’re confident in can be a great reason to get started. What is even better, most people continue to exercise because of how it makes them feel. They become intrinsically motivated resulting in a desire to continue exercising. It helps you to look good and naturally makes you feel good!
3. Metabolic Function
Metabolic what? A concept I want to introduce here is the relationship between Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and muscle. RMR determines the amount of energy (calories) your body is using at rest. As you gradually lose muscle your RMR or metabolism is also gradually decreasing. On the flip side, an increase in muscle mass is associated with an increase in RMR!
Why is this important?
Increase strength training frequency ⇒ increase muscle mass ⇒ increase RMR (regularly burning more calories) ⇒ the health benefits that come along with these shifts (check some of these out below).
4. Injury Risk and Disease Prevention
I can tell you first hand that having imbalanced muscle strength can result in injury. Just take my word, a balanced strength training routine can help to decrease the risk of injury!
Moving on, I saved one of the most important reasons for last, disease prevention! Here are some benefits as stated by the American Council on Exercise:
a) Improved body composition (i.e., muscle mass > fat mass) reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
b) Stronger muscles can help with low back health & lower back pain.
c) Reduced pain of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
d) A decrease in depression in older men and women.
Here are some equally important benefits from an article by Whitney Provost, “10 Reasons Why Weight Lifting Is Great for Women”. :
a) Improved mood. Thank you endorphins.
b) A healthy Heart!
“More than 480,000 women die from cardiovascular disease each year, making it the number-one killer of women over the age of 25. Most people don’t realize that pumping iron can also keep your heart pumping. Lifting weights increases your “good” (HDL) cholesterol and decreases your “bad” (LDL) cholesterol. It also lowers your blood pressure. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that people who do 30 minutes of weight lifting each week have a 23 percent reduced risk of developing heart disease compared to those who don’t lift weights.”
Why is this important?
Resistance training can improve your quality of life in the long-run. In all seriousness, as a trainer I see people’s quality of life shift in a positive direction once resistance training is incorporated! The things that we may take for granted now: balance while standing, range of motion, hiking, playing outside, stamina, etc. start to slip away as we age. Why wait?
