Understanding Strength Part 1 - The Benefits Of Strength
Strength is widely regarded as the cornerstone of athletic performance and an important aspect of fat loss and health. Maintaining strength and mobility will improve performance and combat the effects of ageing.
Strength training - also known as weight training or resistance training - is physical activity designed to improve muscular fitness by exercising specific muscles or muscle groups against external resistance, including free-weights, weight machines, or your own body weight, according to the definition from the American College of Sports Medicine.
The basic principle of strength training is to apply enough resistance to overload the muscle so it needs to adapt and get stronger.
What many people continually fail to realise, is that strength training can have far reaching health benefits that go way beyond looking good in the mirror!
THE BENEFITS OF STRENGTH TRAINING
1. Strength training makes you stronger and fitter
This should be obvious, but it shouldn’t be overlooked. Muscle strength is crucial in making it easier to do the things you need to do on a day-to-day basis. As we grow older, we naturally start to lose muscle tissue - this is a process medically known as ‘Sarcopenia’.
Sarcopenia can begin some point in our 30’s, we start to lose muscle mass, function and strength. Physically inactive people can lose as much as 3% to 5% of their muscle mass each decade after the age of 30.
Regular strength or resistance training can naturally combat and reverse the natural loss of lean muscle tissue that occurs with ageing.
2. Strength training protects bone density
Resistance training is also associated with halting (or even reversing) osteoporosis. Osteoporosis causes bones to become less dense and more fragile. Bones are at their thickest and strongest in your early adult life and their density increases until your late 20s. From around the age of 35 you gradually start losing bone density.
Osteoporosis can affect men and women, although women are more at risk of developing osteoporosis than men because the hormone changes that occur during the menopause directly affect bone density. The female hormone oestrogen is essential for healthy bones. During the menopause oestrogen levels naturally decline, this can lead to a rapid decrease in bone density.
According to a study published in October 2017 in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 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.
3. Strength training is an effective fat burner
Muscle tissue is extremely metabolic - meaning muscle tissue burns calories. Strength training is a powerful fat loss tool because it helps increase your resting metabolism - meaning the rate at which your body burns calories when you’re not exercising.
Your body continues to burn calories after strength training during the recovery phase, this process is called ‘excess post-exercise oxygen consumption’ or EPOC for short.
A study published in the journal Obesity in November 2017 found that, compared with dieters who didn’t exercise and those who did only aerobic exercise, dieters who did strength training exercises four times a week for 18 months lost the most fat (about 18 pounds, compared with 10 pounds for non-exercisers and 16 pounds for aerobic exercisers).
4. Strength training helps to improve movement, mobility and mechanics
Strength training also benefits your balance, coordination, and posture. It’s also associated with better joint health, fewer falls in older people, fewer hip replacements and fewer neurodegenerative illnesses.
One study showed that older people are at higher risk of falling (and causing a lot of damage) due to impaired physical functioning. Strength training reduced risk of falling by 40 percent compared with individuals who did not do strength-training exercise.
5. Strength training can help manage chronic disease
Studies have documented the many health benefits of strength training, including; improved mental health, reduced risk of diabetes and lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Strength training has also helped people with some chronic diseases manage their conditions. If you have arthritis, strength training can be as effective as medication in decreasing arthritis pain.
6. Strength training improves energy, mood and mental health
Strength training stimulates and elevates the bodies natural release of endorphins; endorphins are sometimes referred to as the brain's ‘feel-good' chemicals, and are the body's natural painkillers. The body produces endorphins in response to intense physical exercise and research suggests that exercise helps to improve mood and may even aid in the treatment of depression and mental illness.
Our society lives in an ever increasing state of inactivity; many people drive to work, then spend hours sitting behind desks or a steering wheel, then drive home only to sit for a further few hours watching TV, playing games or scrolling social media. This inactivity is literally causing an epidemic of health issues and mobility problems.
Data from the ‘National Health Interview Survey’ revealed that adults over the age of 65 who strength trained twice a week, had a 46% lower mortality rate. It’s very clear that strength training becomes vitally important with age. Despite the evidence, up to 80% of adults are failing to engage in enough exercise to reach the prescribed guidelines.
All of the benefits outlined above can be achieved by investing in your health, 45 minutes, 2-3 times a week.
It’s never too late to start, there is ALWAYS something you can do, and you don’t need to be an athlete or an expert!
For more information on our strength and conditioning programs or our ‘8 Week Fit & Lean’ program, CLICK HERE.
