Wouldn’t you want to start exercising if you knew it would be good for your heart, balance, bones, and muscles and help you lose or maintain weight? Well, research indicates that strength training can offer all those advantages. It’s a type of physical activity that uses muscles to produce force, which can help you maintain or improve your health.
Strength training, also known as weight or resistance training, is a type of exercise intended to improve muscular strength and fitness by working for a specific muscle or group of muscles against external resistance, such as weight machines, free weights, or your body weight. You can search for a daily strength pdf that you can do at home and in your office. You may also want to visit gyms or fitness centers to learn how to perform these exercises properly.
Additionally, everyone must understand that strength training encompasses more than just bodybuilders lifting weights in a gym. People of all ages and fitness levels benefit from regular strength or resistance training because it slows the natural aging-related loss of lean muscle mass. Also, it can help those who suffer from long-term medical concerns like obesity, arthritis, or a heart condition.
Benefits of Strength Training for Your Health?
You Become Stronger and Fitter
Despite being the most obvious benefit, increased muscle strength should be considered when it comes to aging. As we age and gradually begin losing muscle, this is vital in making our day-to-day activities easier.
Because you build and tone your muscles by contracting them against an opposing force, strength training is also known as resistance training. Resistance training comes in two forms:
- Isometric Resistance: includes flexing your muscles in opposition to a stationary object, such as against the floor in a pushup.
- Isotonic Strength Training: includes tightening your muscles in a range of motion, like lifting weights.
Protects Bone Health and Muscle Mass
According to Harvard Health Publishing, aging causes us to lose up to 3 to 5 percent of our lean muscle mass every decade, starting around age 30.
A study indicated that postmenopausal women with low bone mass could benefit from just 30 minutes twice a week of high-intensity resistance and impact training without suffering any harmful side effects. The study was published last October 2017 in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.
The HHS physical activity recommendations also state that muscle-strengthening exercises benefit everyone by preserving or boosting muscle mass, strength, and power, which are crucial for maintaining bone, joint, and muscle health as we age.
Your Body Burns Calories Efficiently
Every form of exercise increases metabolism (the rate at which your resting body burns calories throughout the day).
The body continues to burn calories after strength training as it transitions back to its more resting condition with both aerobic exercise and strength training (in terms of energy exerted). It is also referred to as “excess post-exercise oxygen utilization.”
But when you engage in strength, weight, or resistance training, your body expends more energy in proportion to the effort you put forth (i.e., the harder you work, the more energy is required). Therefore, depending on how much effort you put into your workout, you might intensify this effect. With more calories burned during and after the activity as your body returns to rest.
Maintain Weight Loss
People who engaged in strength training four times a week for 18 months lost weight compared to those who only did aerobic exercise (about 18 pounds, compared with 10 and 16).
Resistance or strengthening exercise causes an increase in post-exercise oxygen consumption more significant than the increase caused by aerobic exercise alone. This has been shown to cause a more sustained rise in metabolism, which aids in weight loss.
You can reduce body fat further when strength training is combined with calorie restriction through nutrition. People who combined full-body resistance training and diet for four months decreased their fat mass. While increasing lean muscle mass more effectively than either resistance training or dieting alone.
You Develop Better Body Mechanics
Strength training improves balance, coordination, and posture. This is because it requires you to use your entire body as a unit rather than just one or two muscles at a time. Perform at least one resistance training session per week, whether alone or as part of a program with several different workouts. This increased muscle strength by up to 37%, muscle mass by 7.5%, and functional capacity by 58% in frail, elderly adults. Functional capacity is linked to falling risk.
Helps Manage Chronic Disease
Studies have shown that strength training can also aid persons with numerous chronic ailments, such as HIV, neuromuscular disorders, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and some types of cancer, among others, by reducing their symptoms.
Strength training and other healthy lifestyle changes can help improve glucose control for the more than 30 million Americans with type 2 diabetes. Additionally, resistance training regularly may help avoid chronic mobility issues, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.
Increases Energy and Lifts Your Mood
A meta-analysis of 33 clinical trials revealed that strength training is an acceptable therapy option (or add-on treatment) to reduce depressive symptoms, which was published in JAMA Psychiatry in June 2018.
Additionally, there is evidence that strength training may improve your ability to fall asleep, as reported in a study that was printed in the Brazilian Journal of Psychology’s January-February 2019 issue. And as we are all aware, getting a restful night’s sleep can significantly improve your mood.
Cardiovascular Health Benefits
Muscle-strengthening exercises assist lower blood pressure and lower the risk of hypertension and heart disease in addition to aerobic activity. Research has shown that strength training can help to reduce blood pressure and improve the heart’s ability to pump blood. However, it is essential to note that this benefit may only be seen in people with hypertension or prehypertension (high blood pressure) who do not have other health issues.
Final Thoughts
Strength training may sound painful and complex, but it has a lot of benefits for our bodies. It’s an integral part of your health and wellness routine. Strength training is more than just a beautiful body structure. Above all, it dramatically impacts our well-being physically, mentally, and emotionally. You really don’t need to be a bodybuilder or powerlifter to reap the benefits of strength training. Strength training is the answer if you’re looking for an activity that will help improve your health.
Rhydian Choi 
Kim Marks