Strength Training
The Benefits of Strength Training
The advantages
Strength training has many advantages besides simply making you fitter in general. In addition to lowering the risk for many chronic diseases, engaging in regular resistance exercise also promotes a healthy heart, strong bones, a sharp mind, and efficient metabolic function. Here we have listed down the many advantages that strength training can give you to help improve your overall well-being:
It makes you stronger
This advantage may seem obvious, but it’s important not to discount its importance. Having solid and well-built muscles is very beneficial since they make it easier to go about daily life, and this is especially true as we age and begin to lose muscle mass. Strength training makes it easier to do everything from running a marathon to carrying shopping up the stairs by forcing your muscles to adapt and grow stronger in response to resistance.
It lowers the risk of injuries
Incorporating strength training into your fitness regimen will help adjust your body for any strain in order to lower the risk of any injury. Muscle, ligament, and tendon strength, range of motion, and mobility are enhanced by strength training. This can strengthen the area around your most important joints, such as your knees, hips, and ankles, to provide more damage protection. In addition, strength training can aid in the correction of musculoskeletal imbalances.
For instance, having a stronger core, hamstrings, and glutes reduces your chance of lower-back problems by relieving the strain on your lower back during lifting. Lastly, adults and adolescents who engage in strength training have a lower injury risk.
It builds stronger bones
Strength training is essential for the proper development of your bones. Exercises that utilise weights will momentarily stress your bones, signalling bone-building cells to take action and grow stronger. Strong bones lower the likelihood of osteoporosis, fractures, and falls, particularly as you age. At any age, it is possible to receive the bone-strengthening benefits of strength training.
Enhancing bone density is essential for preventing fractures, especially as you age. Strength training stresses the bones, causing them to deposit a denser, more mineralised bone matrix. In addition, when stronger muscles contract, they exert tremendous stress on the bones, signalling the body to deposit more minerals, strengthen the structure of the bones, and form new bone cells.
While most people in their 30s may not be concerned with bone health or disorders like osteoporosis, it is never too early to adopt lifestyle behaviours that promote strong bones. In fact, the majority of people attain their optimum bone mass between the ages of 25 and 30 and begin to steadily lose bone mass at about age 40, with a substantial increase later in life. In the decade following menopause, women can lose up to 40% of their inner bone mass and 10% of their outer bone mass.
It burns calories
By developing stronger muscles through weightlifting, you increase your body’s ability to burn fat. The explanation is straightforward: muscle tissue consumes more calories than fat tissue. In addition to burning more calories at rest, your metabolism will increase naturally as you gain lean body mass through weight training. However, when performing strength, weight, or resistance training, your body requires more energy proportional to the amount of energy you exert (i.e., the harder you work, the more energy your body needs). Consequently, this effect is proportional to the time and intensity of your workout. This implies that you will burn more calories both during and after your workout while your body recovers and returns to a resting state.
It refines your Nervous System to promote better muscle control
After beginning a program, some of the most critical and crucial gains in strength training are linked to improvements in brain-muscle communication via nerve impulses. Strength training helps the brain and muscles coordinate their movements so that a more significant number of muscle fibres are activated in response to a brain stimulus. They contract in a more coordinated manner, resulting in more powerful contractions. This can lead to overall enhancements in coordination and muscular control, regardless of whether the task involves sharp motor abilities or larger motor patterns.
It assists in managing your blood sugar levels
Regular strength-training activities have been demonstrated to improve the condition of your heart and arteries, reduce blood pressure, decrease total and LDL cholesterol, and improve your blood circulation. People are at risk of cardiovascular disease if they have higher than average levels of abdominal fat, also called visceral fat. You boost your cardiovascular health when you replace visceral fat, found in and around vital organs, with lean muscle mass. Working on your strength can help you control your weight and blood sugar levels.
It improves brain’s strength
Brain power can be enhanced by strength training throughout a person’s life, although the results may be highest in older persons with cognitive decline. Resistance exercise improves brain health by encouraging the creation of new brain cells, increasing blood supply to the brain, maintaining synaptic plasticity, which is essential for memory, and protecting existing brain cells from inflammation-induced damage.
At least two weight training sessions per week may improve general cognitive performance, executive function, and working memory in older persons. As cognitive function degrades with age, those who engaged in resistance training at least three times per week for 45-60 minutes demonstrated even more significant increases in cognitive function markers.
It increases self-esteem
Regular resistance exercises will greatly impact your mental health and mood. Multiple studies have demonstrated that strength training can reduce anxiety and improve mood. Strength training causes the release of endorphins, which play a role in enhanced mental health. While any form of exercise is preferable to none, strength training can increase mood through controlled successes. Strength training will help and motivate individuals to push themselves to the next level and then reward them based on accomplishments such as carrying heavier weights, doing more reps, and seeing progress in the mirror. This is a wonderful method to boost one’s attitude and sense of success!
Bottom Line
Everyone, regardless of age, sex, or fitness level, can benefit from regular strength training. However, it is a personal process, and the best training plan for you will vary depending on your specific fitness goals and current overall fitness. By working with me I can help you step by step, making sure that we reach your goals safely, efficiently.
