Did you know that strength training improves posture??
Posture is the window to the spine and as such it is positively associated with good functional and neurological health – as well as your ability to heal!
Strength training involves using one or more muscle groups to perform a specific task, such as lifting a heavy weight or squatting while picking something up.
Due to the growing body of evidence supporting its many benefits, strength training has become a fundamental part of most exercise programs.
Don’t let the words intimidate you, strength training is not a form of exercise that must be done in a “Chain Gym” to make you look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Angelica Enberg.
It can be done by anyone, anywhere and it always brings huge health benefits.
When studying the human body, one thing becomes very clear: human beings were made to move.
As society has become more technology driven, we have stopped moving. Instead, we sit, we lie down and then we sit while driving… and working! Exercise has become a more critical part of your health plan than ever before and I want to show you 7 benefits of adding in a half-hour of strength training into your weekly, yes, you read that right “WEEKLY” routine.
- Strength Training Makes You Stronger and Fitter
I know, but it’s simply the truth. Increasing lean muscle mass helps you to do more than just pick up healthy objects. Increased lean muscle mass lengthens your life expectancy, decreases your risk for fatal fractures and it simply helps you to feel better, not just with how you look in the mirror but also mentally!
- Strength Training Protects Bone Health and Muscle Mass
As you near 30 you start losing as much as 3-5 percent of lean muscle mass per decade thanks to oxidation. According to a study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 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 unlike a pharmaceutical approach to the conditions just listed!
- Strength Training Helps Your Body Burn Carbohydrates More Efficiently
All exercise helps boost your metabolism (the rate your resting body burns carbs throughout the day). With both aerobic activity and strength training. It’s a process called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC.
But when you do strength, weight, or resistance training, your body demands more energy based on how much energy you are exerting (meaning the tougher you are working, the more energy is demanded). You can amplify this effect depending on the amount of energy you put into the workout.
That means more carbs burned during the workout, and more carbs burned after the workout, too, while your body is recovering to a resting state.
- Strength Training Helps Keep the Weight off for Good
Resistance or strengthening exercise keeps your metabolism active after exercising, much longer than after an aerobic workout. That’s because lean tissue in general is more active tissue. If you have more muscle mass, you’ll burn more carbs — even in your sleep, than if you didn’t have that extra lean body mass.
- Strength Training Helps You Develop Better Body Mechanics
Most injuries occur with simply daily movement failing due to weakness of your muscles. Properly trained muscles can support you through all daily motion and prevent injuries with the “little things”
- Strength Training has cardiovascular benefits
Along with aerobic exercise, muscle-strengthening activities helps improve the strength of your heart (it’s a muscle too) while lowering blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides – all risks of heart disease.
- Strength Training Boosts Energy Levels and Improves Your Mood
All exercise boosts mood because it increases endorphins. These are those “feel good chemicals” that make you feel refreshed during and after a workout. There’s evidence strength training can help you sleep better also – and we all know a better night’s sleep can go a long way in keeping mood up.
I could go on, but I thought I’d stop at 7 since that’s the biblical number of completions. So now comes the hardest part: START DOING IT!
The best way to find the time to add a good habit into your life is to create the time. If you need to do a half-hour of exercise per week, then the simplest way to do that is to pick 3 days and commit to waking up 10 minutes earlier.
There it is! Time has been created! You also don’t need to join a gym or buy expensive equipment to add strength training into your fitness plan.
Push ups, squats, planks and other bodyweight-only exercises are a perfect place to start! So make a plan to do 10 minutes of strength training three times a week.
Start with doing push ups or squats which you can do in your home without the need for equipment.
If you need to start slow, do push ups with your knees on the floor, or leaning against a wall to build up your strength.
You know what to do now – so, as Nike says – “Just Do It!”