We all know that strength training is good for us. But have you ever stopped to think why? Sure, lifting weights improves our body composition and makes us more functional. But is that it, or is there more to it?
Let’s go over eight fantastic reasons weight training is essential for your health, fitness, and vitality.
1. Lifting Weights Strengthens Your Heart
Most people associate aerobic activities like running and riding a bike with cardiovascular health, but lifting weights is also excellent for the heart (1).
Contrary to popular belief, even the most intense activities, such as sprinting or doing a heavy set of deadlifts, rely heavily on aerobic energy production (2, 3). In other words, your body needs oxygen to produce energy for your muscles to contract. Your cardiovascular system needs to work and deliver oxygen-rich blood to all parts of your body for the above to happen. It also must ensure that metabolic by-products, such as lactate, get cleared from your muscles to prevent fatigue and the all-too-familiar burning sensation.
The more often you lift weights, the more you strengthen your heart and reap cardiovascular benefits that result in longevity, endurance, and improvements in work capacity.
2. You Can Enjoy Better Coordination and Healthier Joints
Society is facing a huge problem:
We are moving less than ever, and many adults spend their days behind a desk (4).
Unfortunately, as we move less, we stiffen up and become unable to perform even the simplest movement patterns. At some point, even easy activities like walking up a flight of stairs, squatting low, and carrying a few bags of groceries become fitness challenges.
Poor mobility and joint discomfort become increasingly worse, leading to compensatory movement patterns that cause muscle imbalances and elevate our risk of injuries.
The great news is that practising strength training a few times per week promotes good coordination and healthier joints (5). As a result, we reclaim our ability to move freely, our functional fitness improves, and we reduce the risk of aches and injuries down the road.
3. Weights Strengthen Your Bones
Everyone knows that lifting weights strengthens and develops our muscles. But did you know that lifting weights also strengthens your bones?
Like any other tissue in the body, your bones possess adaptive qualities. By stressing your muscles, you cause a substantial growth stimulus, which also carries out to your bones, leading to improvements in bone mineral density (6). As a result, you’re less likely to suffer from fractures and conditions like osteoporosis.
4. You Become More Mobile
Mobility refers to your ability to move through space unhindered and without experiencing pain. While it often seems like a given, something that will always be there, mobility is something we must work on if we wish to maintain it.
Most people think about stretching their muscles and doing yoga for good mobility. However, strength training is also beneficial in that regard (7). For one, performing strength exercises develop your muscles, making them more efficient at controlling your body during various activities. Second, strength training improves your natural range of motion, allowing you to move freely and maintain stability.
The more you lift weights, the more you develop your abilities to move and control your body.
5. Strong Muscles = Strong Immunity
While there doesn’t seem to be a clear link between the level of muscular development and immune system health, your fitness impacts your body’s natural defences.
In one recent paper, researchers examined the relationship between muscle tissue and immune system regulation (8). The paper’s authors outline several mechanisms by which muscle tissue interacts with the immune system and proposed something profound:
“Skeletal muscle regulates immune system functions via myokine signalling and the expression of immune-modulatory surface molecules. Immune cells in turn critically influence muscle mass and function. Therefore, skeletal muscle may act as a central integrator between sarcopenia and immune senescence. Given their individual and socioeconomic burden innovative therapeutic approaches are urgently needed and targeting skeletal muscle might be able to restore both skeletal muscle and immune system function in ageing individuals.”
While health authorities often discuss ways to reduce the spread of viruses and help people protect themselves from infection, learning how to prepare our bodies for such eventualities is equally important.
6. Muscle Mass Improves Longevity
There is nothing we can do to stop ageing. No matter how much we want to stay 25 forever, life doesn’t work that way. But while old age is inevitable, there are still things we can do now to ensure a better life later. One of these things is to build muscle, strength, and functionality. The more functional and independent you are in your youth, the more likely you are to remain that way as you get older (9).
People often go through life without placing any physical stress on their bodies. As a result, they lose their youthful functionality, their muscles become smaller, and their bone mineral density drops. The risk of injuries, disability, dependence, and illnesses increases, leading to poor quality of life.
7. You Become More Resilient to Stress
Stress resilience is undoubtedly individual, as some people deal with difficulties more easily than others. Still, research suggests that regular physical activity improves our emotional resilience to stress, making us better able to handle life’s challenges with grace (10).
One likely explanation is that, just as strength training develops your muscles, it also develops your discipline and stress tolerance. With each difficult set you complete, you train yourself to push through adversity and come out on the other side stronger and more capable.
More importantly, strength training internalises the belief that hard things are worth the effort. Sure, you’re working hard, getting sweaty, and dealing with soreness. But you’re also building strength, getting more muscular, and improving your functional fitness.
8. You Can Enjoy More Carbohydrates
A neat benefit of strength training is that you can enjoy more carbohydrates without worrying about weight gain. The effect is possible because your body stores carbs in the form of glycogen in the liver and skeletal muscle.
Since we can’t do anything about liver size, one way to increase the body’s ‘fuel tank’ is to gain more muscle mass. That way, our muscles can store more carbohydrates, allowing us to enjoy more food without worrying about fat gain.
Coach Michael
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