#TACTIX :: Benefits of Strength Training

Isn’t this about getting ripped?

Sure, go ahead and read this with your best Arnold Schwarzenegger accent. When we think about strength training, most people just think of over buff gym-goers with HUGE muscles who spend hours lifting heavy weights. But there is more benefit to your body with strength training beneath the muscles.

Strength training builds and maintains muscle mass

OK, yes, we said there is more to this. But why not start with the obvious. Strength training delivers the physiological change that people can actually see. The process here involves lifting increasingly larger amounts of weight. This in turn, signals your muscles to adapt and grow bigger and stronger.

Strength training is good for your bones

Strength training with high impact resistance can improve bone density, structure, and strength. According to results published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. Significant improvements were seen in the lumbar spine and femoral neck bone mineral density, as well as in femoral neck cortical thickness and height. Doing weekly squats, rows, and lunges will benefit your bones, and your joints, which becomes only more important as you get older.

It can help you burn calories efficiently and lose weight

Consistent strength training can reverse muscle loss by helping you build lean muscle tissue while increasing your resting metabolic rate. This can help lead to faster weight loss. Your body will burn off more of the fuel you consume from food every day rather than store it as excess energy in the form of fat cells. Plus, as your body recovers from your workout and moves back to a resting state, you continue burning more calories because of your workout. The more intense your workout, the longer it takes for your body to return to its resting state, and the more calories you will burn.

Strength Training can help improve mood and mental health

In addition to the physical benefits of strength training, there are many mental and mood perks that occur. Lifting weights make you feel powerful and leave you with a sense of empowerment. There’s a stronger sense of accomplishment and self-assurance when you feel stronger.

There’s science to this

Science also suggests that strength training can improve your mood and mental health, according to clinical trials published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Psychiatry in 2018. It found that participants who performed resistance training showed a significant reduction in symptoms of depression.

It may lower your risk of falls and injury. And maybe live longer too.

Strength training helps correct muscular imbalances and improves strength, range of motion, and mobility. In response, this can help you avoid injuries from falls, particularly as we age. Since strength training makes it easier to stay mobile and independent it’s increasingly linked with longevity.

Strength training isn’t hard

Incorporating strength training into your weekly workout or routine couldn’t be easier. You don’t need a gym or expensive weights. Push-ups, planks, squatting on a chair or any other exercise that uses your own body weight as resistance will do.

Using external resistance in the form of free weights, weight machines, resistance bands, and even your own body weight, strength training exercises apply a load/overload to a specific muscle or muscle group and force the muscles to adapt and grow stronger. The folks at Chiropractix know the benefits of a stronger body, that’s what we help our patients achieve.