10 Reasons Why You Should Lift Weights

There are copious amounts of benefits from weight training, much more than the expected strength and muscle gain. Here are 10 reasons that you should incorporate weight training into your workouts:

1. Increase Bone Density

Losing bone mass and density is a normal side effect of ageing, some people lose bone density at a faster rate than others which can lead to osteoporosis. Osteoporosis, the condition that weakens bones, making them fragile affects over 3 million people in the UK. Women are more at risk of the condition than men and, the effects of osteoporosis can include life changing injuries such as broken hips, wrists and vertebrae. Strength training has been shown to increase bone density and strength, allowing individuals to live their normal lives for longer (NHS, 2019).

2. Improve Mental Health

The improvement of mood and mental health is not just the result of the rush of endorphins caused by exercising. According to research from Harvard Medical School, strength training improves symptoms of clinical depression and anxiety and also increases mental resiliency (Gordon et al., 2018).

3. Help Prevent or Manage Type 2 Diabetes

Strength training has been found to help prevent and manage type 2 diabetes by decreasing abdominal fat, reducing glycosylated haemoglobin levels, increasing the density of glucose transporter type 4 and improving insulin sensitivity (Pesta et al., 2017).

4. Improve cardiovascular health

Common risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease includes obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. Strength training can help control these risk factors and thus fight cardiovascular health. (Christensen et al., 2019)

5. Help manage chronic pain

Chronic pain, commonly defined as pain that lasts longer than a 12-week period is very common amongst adults. Strength training has proven to help with various types of chronic pain such as lower back, osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia (Geneen et al., 2017).

6. Increase Metabolism

The combination of strength training and caloric surplus (more calories being consumed than being burned) equals more muscle mass which increases metabolism rates (Kirk et al., 2009).

7. Maintain or Increase Muscle Mass

Muscle loss is a factor of aging, once over 30 years old growth hormones decrease drastically, this means you could lose 3-8% muscle mass every 10 years. As muscle mass and metabolism work hand in hand, more muscle mass means a faster metabolism, this means that every 10 years your metabolism will also decrease by 3-8%. By strength training you can combat that and slow your muscle loss down (Volpi et al., 2004).

8. Burn More Calories than Cardio

Research has shown that an individual will burn more calories in the hours following weight training than after performing cardio. There have been reports detailing the increase of resting metabolism lasting for up to 38 hours post weight training session (Lemmer et al., 2001).

9. Increase Cognitive Function

Studies have shown that strength training can improve your cognitive function, due to heavy loads enhancing the neuromuscular system which fights off cognitive issues that occur with age such as Alzheimer’s and Dementia (Landrigan et al., 2019).

10. Increase Immunity

Weight training increases muscle mass and neuromuscular system strength, this leads to a stronger immune system (Fortunato et al., 2018).

To find a powerlifting coach or gym near you please visit the British Powerlifting Website

References

Christensen, R,H., Wedell-Neergaard, A., Lehrskov, L. et al. Effect of Aerobic and Resistance Exercise on Cardiac Adipose Tissues: Secondary Analyses From a Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Cardiol. 2019;4(8):778–787. Available from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/article-abstract/2737412[accessed 9 February 2020].

Fortunato, A., Pontes, W., Souza, D., Prazeres, Z., Marcucci-Barbosa, L., Santos, J., Veira, E., Bearzoi,E., Pinto, K., Talvani, A. and Silva, A. (2018) Strength Training Session Induces Important Changes on Physiological, Immunological, and Inflammatory Biomarkers. Journal of Immunology Research. Available from https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jir/2018/9675216/[accessed 9 February 2020].

Geneen, L. J., Moore, R. A., Clarke, C., Martin, D., Colvin, L. A., & Smith, B. H. (2017). Physical activity and exercise for chronic pain in adults: an overview of Cochrane Reviews. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 4(4), Available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5461882/[accessed 9 February 2020].

Gordon, B,R., McDowell, C,P., Hallgren, M., Meyer J,D., Lyons, M. and Herring M,P. Association of Efficacy of Resistance Exercise Training With Depressive Symptoms: Meta-analysis and Meta-regression Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials. JAMA Psychiatry. 2018;75(6):566–576. Available from https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/strengthen-your-mood-with-weight-training [accessed 9 February 2020].

Kirk, E. P., Donnelly, J. E., Smith, B. K., Honas, J., Lecheminant, J. D., Bailey, B. W., Jacobsen, D. J., & Washburn, R. A. (2009). Minimal resistance training improves daily energy expenditure and fat oxidation. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 41(5), 1122–1129. Available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2862249/ [accessed 9 February 2020].

Lemmer, J., Ivey, F., Ryan, A., Martel, G., Hurlbut, D., Metter, J., Fozard, J., Fleg, J. Hurley, B. Effect of strength training on resting metabolic rate and physical activity: age and gender comparisons. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.33(4):532-41 Available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11283427?report=abstract[accessed 9 February 2020].

Landrigan, J., Bell, T., Crowe, M. et al. Lifting cognition: a meta-analysis of effects of resistance exercise on cognition. Psychological Research (2019). Available from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00426-019-01145-x[accessed 9 February 2020].

NHS (undated) Osteoporosis. NHS. Available from https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/osteoporosis/[accessed 9 February 2020]

Pesta, D., Goncalves, R., Madiraju, A., Strasser,B. and Sparks,L. (2017) Resistance training to improve type 2 diabetes: working toward a prescription for the future. Nutrition & metabolism, 14, 24. Available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5335813/ [accessed 9 February 2020].

Volpi, E., Nazemi, R., & Fujita, S. (2004). Muscle tissue changes with aging. Current opinion in clinical nutrition and metabolic care, 7(4), 405–410. Available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804956/ [accessed 9 February 2020].