The Benefits of Strength Training
While losing weight and keeping it off is a starting point for many, building muscle mass should also be a top priority on your fitness journey. This is because your muscle mass is crucial for keeping the weight off, maintaining your health and independence. More muscle means more calories burned at rest and during exercise/activity. Additionally, your muscle mass seems to play a crucial role in many systems including your thyroid function. Meaning that a loss of muscle mass (and inactivity in general) can lead to a drop in thyroid function, which, in turn, reduces resting metabolism and makes weight gain more likely.
Not For Bulking
Research on anabolic steroids confirms that strength training is a poor vehicle for bulking up. What I mean is that men taking steroids and doing zero exercise gain 63% more muscle than the drug-free men who trained pretty hard in the same study. When the drug users added in strength training they surpassed the drug-free men by 300%.
The point of this is that strength training without drugs doesn’t even work for men who want to “bulk up.” Strength training is effective at building muscle mass, bone and connective tissue strength, brain health and more, but it simply won’t make anyone’s muscles explode overnight. (More on muscle tone and definition here.)
Breasts, Bones, Brains and more
Strength training builds your bones and connective tissue because the muscles pull on the bones to stimulate them, and the load itself stimulates your bones. This decreases your risk of developing osteoporosis, reduces your chance for injury, and can help reverse bone loss. (Hearing a client tell me we’ve helped reverse their bone loss is always a reason to celebrate!)
Additionally, the amount of muscle mass and strength you have at the start of any health crisis are a major factor in your odds of survival. The amount of muscle mass and strength you have also determines your levels of independence – can you safely live alone, go to the bathroom alone, etc.
Furthermore, your muscles, when exercised intensely, make things called myokines. Myokines are messenger or signaling proteins that your muscles make when they exercise. These myokines cause change (for the better) in almost every part of your body, and here are some examples:
- Breast tissue: where myokines inhibit mammary gland cancer growth
- Bones: where they inhibit bone breakdown (thereby promoting density)
- Brain: where they promote learning and memory, and fight back against dementia, etc.
- Heart: where they keep your heart cells from dying, help the heart self-repair, etc.
- Immune system: where they improve your ability to fight infection, kill tumors, etc.
Besides building muscles, the benefits of strength training includes preserving the muscles mass you already have, and it does the same for your bones, connective tissue, and brain volume. As time passes (age) without strength training muscle mass shrinks and fat stores grow, which is the opposite of what we need for any kind of health or quality of life. The good news, though, is that you can begin (or resume) a strength training routine at any age.
If you are not sure where to start we can help. Find out more about our program, trial, and the benefits of strength training.
Coach Josef Brandenburg — ACE | NASM | Precision Nutrition | Training Peri and Menopausal Women | Pain-Free Performance Specialist Certification | Functional Kettlebell Training | 28 years coaching | Specializes in strength training for women over 40.
Josef Brandenburg, best selling author, is the co-owner and a coach at True 180 Personal Training, Charlotte’s most effective personal training studio for women since 2016. With decades of experience and multiple certifications, he shares his research with you including on the benefits of strength training for women!