Benefits of Resistance Training: 9 Ways to Improve Your Health
Are there any benefits to adding more resistance to your training and exercises?
In this post, you’ll learn about the health benefits of resistance training and how it contributes to both mental and physical wellbeing.
Let’s dive in right away.
What is resistance training?
Resistance training is a type of workout that uses any form of item, weight, or material as a load or strain.
The benefits of resistance training come down to catabolism and anabolism actions. Let me explain.
Resistance workouts cause tiny microscopic tears to the muscle cells. This is not a bad thing.
It’s good because the body immediately repairs these microscopic tears. And this allows the muscles to regenerate and ultimately become stronger.
When the muscles degenerate, it is called catabolism.
The repair or build-up of the muscles is called anabolism.
This is why it is strongly recommended not to work on only one muscle for a long time.
It is vital to allow the muscles to regenerate and rebuild over time.
Resistance training leads to the contraction of the muscles in response to an external force. This improves muscle tone, strength, mass, and endurance.
The more the resistance, the more anaerobic and aerobic energy you’ll need to complete the exercise.
And as a result, you make the muscles work harder and raise general endurance levels.
During this type of routine, your limbs fight the resistance your body weight, gravity, weighted bars, or dumbbells provide.
What are the health benefits of resistance training?
Let’s look at some of the benefits of resistance training.
1. Reduces muscle loss
As we age, the number of muscle fibers decrease. Between the ages of 30 – 70, you lose over 25 percent of type 2 muscle fibers in the body.
These muscle fibers are the strongest. This explains the declining strength as one grows older.
Researchers fromTufts University reviewed the current research on strength training and older adults.
They found that resistance training will not only reduce the rate at which people age, but it can also even reverse it by building muscle mass and strength.
2. Improves metabolism
Metabolism is the process in which our bodies absorb food and drink, and convert it to energy.
Not only will resistance training lower blood pressure, but it will also increase metabolic rates.
Increased metabolic rates mean that one will burn a lot of calories during activities and when one is at rest. That means you will need a lot of calories to maintain your body weight.
3. Increases bone density
One of the benefits of resistance training is that it plays a huge role in bone density and strength.
It helps in increasing bone density, strengthen tendons as well as ligaments.
This workout also helps to lower the risk of bone fractures and reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis is a condition that affects the bones in which there is an increased loss of the minerals in the bone.
It can be a rather crippling disease but thankfully can be prevented by resistance training.
4. Can improve diabetic conditions
For individuals who have Type 2 diabetes, resistance training will do them a world of good.
This is because asides from building muscle, resistance routines also help to take in and use glucose as well as bladder sugar.
Some parts of the body function as transporters. These transporters pick up sugar in the blood and ‘carry’ it to the muscle cells.
By regular workout, you are raising their ability to pick up more glucose from the blood to the muscle cells, thus reducing blood sugar.
5. May lower the risk of cancer
Researchers from Austria and Germany teamed up to review the impact of resistance training in cancer survivors.
After reviewing clinical trials, they found something profound.
Turns out that resistance training is associated with clinically important positive effects on patients during treatment or in long-term follow-up.
You see, visceral fat does the body a lot of harm. Not only does it increase the risk of diabetes and heart diseases, but it also increases the chances of cancer developing.
By resistance training, you burn the visceral fat and reduce the chances of having cancer.
6. Improves your mood
We have all heard of runner’s high. But did you know that resistance training improves anxiety and clinical depression?
It is not only the endorphins released when exercising that helps.
But also the opportunity to overcome hurdles and challenges in a predictable and controlled environment.
7. Improves cognitive function
Resistance training does not just affect the body, it also affects the mind. Yes, of course, resistance training affects the body’s physique and body composition.
But that’s not all.
It improves perceived body image and physical appearance in a way that has nothing to do with how they look.
It may be that feelings of accomplishments, increased energy levels, and mental levels play a role here.
Also, in older people, resistance training increases brain power and reduces the risk of cognitive decline in older adults.
It might be because they have got their blood flowing again. It has been noted that increased blood flow increased oxygen and nutrients to the brain. (Also read: 7 Foods Will Boost Your Brain Health)
8. Improve overall balance
This form of workout increases strength and balance in the elderly. It will invariably lead to fewer falls among them.
9. Reduces blood pressure
Just like any other exercise, this form of routine will lower an elevated or moderately high blood pressure.
Takeaway
The health benefits of resistance training range from increased mental sharpness, improved heart health and physical stamina.
It also shows that you can still be sharp and agile, even when you age.
There are various ways resistance training can benefit every one of us; young or old, male or female.
There are different kinds of resistance training exercises that you can pick up that will do you a world of good.
And do you want to know what the best part is? You do not have to register at a gym before you can perform resistance training exercises.
