7 Health Benefits of Strength Training

There are a number of key components of every well-rounded fitness program.  A warm-up helps prepare the body for exercise.  Cardiovascular exercise is great for heart health, body weight management, and blood sugar management.  Stretching is needed to make sure your muscles are at optimal length for performance.  Lastly, strength training is the part of your exercise program that increases muscular strength.  While some individuals train for muscular hypertrophy (larger muscles), others train for muscular hyperplasia (an athletic, efficient, and strong body).  Regardless of your fitness goals, strength training results in a number of health benefits, so it is important that everyone incorporates strength training into their fitness regimen.

7 Health Benefits of Strength Training

1. Helps Remedy Joint Pain. Strength training is a part of an exercise program that strengthens the muscles around a joint area, which means the joints receive more support as a result.  Many women in their 30s and older are diagnosed with arthritis, which can result in painful joints.  If you are a younger female who experiences painful joints due to arthritis, consider a strength training program inclusive of power exercises to strengthen the joint areas.

2. Prevents Diabetes. Diabetes can affect any individual regardless of body weight or size. Strength training helps keep your insulin as efficient as possible by increasing the amount of GLUT-4 transporter proteins every time your muscles contract.  Therefore, it is recommended for anyone who is at risk for diabetes to do strength training at least two times per week. If you want to increase muscle fiber number, it is best to strength train about three times per week.

3. Helps to Alleviate Back Pain. Have you ever wondered why you have back pain?  One of the biggest reasons is due to muscular imbalances and weaknesses.  If you experience back pain and have no reason why, then it is important to start a core-strengthening exercise program.  In addition, increasing muscle mass throughout your body can help take the pressure off the spine.

4. Reduces the Risk of Obesity. A sound exercise program plays a large role in reducing the risk of becoming obese. To stay lean, improving cardiovascular health and building lean muscle mass are both important. Increasing your muscle mass through strength training is ideal for losing body fat and improving lean mass, which will significantly reduce your risk of becoming obese.

5. Improves Bone Density. At 25 years of age, our bodies reach peak calcium storage and our bones are the strongest they will be for the rest of our lives.  One way to help keep our bones strong is to perform strength training (in addition to a sound diet).  Every time your muscles contract, your muscle fibers pull on bones to create movement.  This pulling on the bones causes them to attempt to resist the forceful pulling, which is how they become stronger.  Regardless of your age, it’s wise to perform resistance training for your bone mass and health.

6. Increase your Metabolism. Losing weight and feeling great all revolves around your metabolism, which is your body’s way of keeping the body health and in great shape.  The key to losing weight is to increase your resting metabolism, or the amount of calories you burn while you are at rest.  Strength training makes this happen by increasing the amount of muscular fibers, which use more energy than fat to sustain its existence.

7. Muscles Provide the Body with Shape. Skin and bones are not what give people “shape.”  Models are notorious for being in “great shape” and looking stunning, but individuals get this concept mixed up.  Muscles are what give the body its unique shape and physique, which can only happen through strength training.  No other modality will give the body the shape you desire and if you want to look good, you need to do strength training.

Start Strength Training

If you have not been strength training already, you should start lifting weights as soon as you can.  Your goal doesn’t need to be increasing muscular size to the extremes of a bodybuilder, but it is important to add muscular strength to keep your body in tip-top shape.  Start a strength training program and keep at it for 60 days.  Maintain a consistent schedule of about three days per week for the entire 8-week period.

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