BENEFITS OF STRENGTH TRAINING

Building and maintaining muscle turns your body into a more efficient calorie-burning machine, increasing your resting metabolic rate.   You can better manage your weight, lose fat and get fit as you gain muscle.

Resistance training can reduce your risk of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions – large waist, high triglycerides, low HDL, high blood pressure and high blood sugar – that raise your risk of type 2 diabetes. Recent research found twice-weekly resistance training improved insulin sensitivity in older men with type 2 diabetes without dietary changes.

Strength training builds bone density and bone mass which helps to prevent osteopenia.  Weight bearing exercise has been shown to slow, even reverse osteoporosis.

Strength training can help prevent heart disease. It can lower blood pressure by as much as 20 percent.  High-intensity strength training to complete muscle fatigue, works your aerobic and anaerobic processes giving you an optimal cardiovascular benefit.  Further, the heart must work to support the muscle repair and recovery, leading to a desirable resting heart rate.

Exercise, in particular strength training, is the primary prevention against 35 chronic conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, cancer, Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Strength training enhances mood and the ability to handle stress. It improves and fights depression.  New research shows those that expend the most energy exercising are 90 percent less likely to develop cognitive decline.

Stronger muscles improve your overall flexibility, range of motion, balance and coordination. This helps prevent injuries, especially the risk of falling, by 40 percent. Posture can be greatly improved, you will stand taller.

Along with building muscle, ligaments and tendons can grow stronger helping to reduce joint stress and pain. Lower back pain can be reduced, even eliminated. Strength training can help manage arthritic pain and inflammation.

Lean muscle mass naturally diminishes with age. Sarcopenia, the disease that results from muscle loss, begins at age 30 and accelerates by as much as 10 percent each decade after age 50. By age 70, you will have lost 30 percent of your muscle mass, leading to a downward spiral of decay and loss of physical abilities and the potential for a host of chronic diseases.  Strength training can prevent and reverse sarcopenia and greatly slow the aging process.  Research shows even starting in your 90’s, muscle strength can be re-gained.