The big question always is…”Why should you do resistance/strength training/weightlifting/free weights/body weight/exercises against gravity? “ (Yes, all these terms are all relatively the same thing…it is all a form of resistance training)

Why? Cause a certain type of exercise can benefit your heart, improve balance, strengthen bones, and muscle, and help you lose or maintain weight.  It’s really packed with reasons why you should incorporate this into your healthy habits. Lifestyle Medicine lists physical activity as one of the six areas to improve health.

Studies show that strength training can provide all those benefits and more. Strength training can be synonymous with resistance/strength training/weightlifting/free weights/body weight/exercises against gravity. The principal is overloading the muscles, doing something different than your normal daily routines to make the muscles fibers stronger and able to help you function. 

According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) “The basic principle is to apply a load and overload the muscle so it needs to adapt and get stronger,” explains Neal Pire, CSCS, an ACSM-certified exercise physiologist and executive director of the Greater New York ACSM regional chapter.

Every balanced workout plan should include strength training. It’s important for everyone to know that strength training is not just for bodybuilders, young people, and professional athletes. “Strength training is critical, not just for looking good and being strong, but for preventing the diseases of aging,” says Gabrielle Lyon, DO, a functional medicine practitioner in New York City and the founder of the Institute for Muscle-Centric Medicine, a functional medicine practice.

Here are a 8 reasons why regular strength or resistance training is good for people of all ages and fitness levels.

Resistance training helps prevent the natural loss of lean muscle mass that comes with aging (the medical term for this loss is sarcopenia), according to the Cleveland Clinic. It can also benefit people with chronic health conditions, like obesity, diabetes, or a heart condition, according to a research review, “Muscle strength is crucial in making it easier to do the things you need to do on a day-to-day basis,” Neal Pire director of the Greater New York ACSM regional chapter says — “especially as we get older and naturally start to lose muscle.”

 Strength training may even help you live longer. 

Resistance training helps maintain independence, live a more quality life, and reduces the risk of dying prematurely from preventable or reversible conditions.  Even if aerobic workouts aren’t part of the normal routine or you have a physical limitation that prevents you from getting daily steps or doing heart rate elevating activity. This is also great news if your knees, hips, back or ankles have issues, and you cannot get “steps”.  There is an exercise plan (doing resistance activities) that you can do and that you are in control of!  YOU can sit on a chair or a physioball and get a great workout even if you have lower body limitations, your standing tolerance is low, you are in a wheelchair or use a walker or even if your balance isn’t great.

Strength Training Protects Bone Health and Muscle Mass

At around age 30 we start losing as much as 3 to 5 percent of lean muscle mass per decade thanks to aging.

According to a study form JBMR  , just 30 minutes twice a week of high-intensity resistance and impact training was shown to improve functional performance, as well as bone density, structure, and strength in postmenopausal women with low bone mass — and it had no negative effects.  “To ensure safe transition to high-intensity exercise, the first month of the intervention comprised body weight and low-load exercise variants, with a focus on progressively learning the movement patterns of the HiRIT exercises.”  (High-intensity, progressive resistance and impact weight-bearing training = HiRIT. )

Likewise, these activity guidelines note that, for everyone (people with osteoporosis should avoid certain exercises and have contraindicated movements), muscle-strengthening activities help preserve or increase muscle mass, strength, and power, which are essential for bone, joint, and muscle health as we age.

3. Strength Training Helps Your Body Burn Calories Efficiently

All exercise helps boost your metabolism (the rate your resting body burns calories throughout the day).

With both aerobic activity and resistance training, your body continues to burn calories after strength training as it returns to its more restful state (in terms of energy exerted). It’s a process called “excess post-exercise oxygen consumption,” according to the American Council on Exercise (ACE).  Your muscles get more fit as you work them, they are stronger and more efficient. 

But when you do resistance training, your body demands more energy based on how much energy you’re exerting (meaning the tougher you’re working, the more energy is demanded). That’s why your heart rate goes up and you breath harder.  So you can amplify the fitness gained effect depending on the amount of energy you put into the workout. That means more calories burned during the workout, and more calories burned after the workout, too, while your body is recovering to a resting state and building the muscles up after breaking them down with a workout.

4. Strength Training Helps Maintain weight

Because strength training boosts excess post exercise oxygen consumption more than aerobic exercise (more lean muscle = more fuel used and calories burned), it can also help boost or maintain weight loss more than just doing cardio. Pire says. “[Resistance or strengthening exercise] keeps your metabolism active after exercising much longer than after an aerobic workout.” . “If you have more muscle mass, you’ll burn more calories — even in your sleep — than if you didn’t have that extra lean body mass,” he adds.

You may even be able to further reduce body fat specifically when strength training is combined with eating quality and reduced quantity foods, adding in more veggies and fruits.  Basically eating a healthy plate.

5. Strength Training Helps You Develop Better Balance and Posture

Strength training also benefits your balance, coordination, proper body function of joints and posture.  Your muscles hold your skeleton up, when you lose muscle mass the skin, bones, fat, organs, hair, blood are heavy to carry around and weigh you down in addition to gravity!  You need to build that engine with resistance training. You can’t haul around a semi trailer load of weight on a lawn mower engine. You will burn it out and be exhausted! - says Janelle Baldwin (That’s something my clients or people that have taken a class from me will frequently hear me say)

6. Strength Training Can Help With Chronic Disease Management (and Prevention)

Tons of studies have documented that resistance training can help ease symptoms in people with many chronic conditions, including neuromuscular disorders, COPD, chronic mobility problems, and type 2 diabetes to name a few. Resistance/strength training along with other healthy lifestyle changes can help improve glucose control as well according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a study published in 2017.

7. Strength Training Boosts Energy Levels and Improves Your Mood

Resistance training (all activity really) has been found to be a legitimate treatment option (or add-on treatment) to quell the symptoms of depression.  We feel better when we move because of all the good hormones like endorphins released with activity.  Neurochemicals and neuromuscular responses to such workouts offer further evidence it has a positive effect on the brain. You will also get a better/sounder night’s sleep after activity and exercise.

8. Strength Training Has Cardiovascular Health Benefits

Along with aerobic exercise, muscle-strengthening activities help improve blood pressure and reduce the risk of high blood pressure/hypertension and heart disease.  The American Heart Association in an article they published in 2018 called Strength and Resistance Training Exercise “ recommends strength training at least twice per week. Strengthening your muscles gives you the ability to perform everyday activities and helps protect your body from injury.”

I hope that motivated you to add 2-3 days of intentional resistance training to your daily habits! Need help…I’d love to hear your goals and get you set up with Health and Wellness Coaching!