You Can Eat More
As a big foodie, I’ll start with perhaps my favourite benefit of resistance training – you can eat more food! Resistance training, and particularly strength training (if performed consistently and correctly), will speed up your metabolism, allowing you to consume more calories on a daily basis. Foodies, do I have your attention? It surprises me that so many programs still advocate severe calorie restriction as a good starting point for people beginning their strength training journey. Sure, for a 6ft male weighing 185 lbs, eating 1,500 calories a day will almost certainly result in him losing weight to start with. The issue I have with this method is that it’s simply not sustainable for most people and, let’s be honest, is pretty damn miserable (say goodbye to your weekend pizza). Implementing strength training into your weekly routine and improving your metabolism in the process is a more fun and sustainable way of maintaining a healthy physique. Note – you don’t need popping abs or 8% body fat to maintain a healthy physique.
Less Back Pain
If you are reading this and work some variation of a 9:00am – 5:00pm office job, I imagine you’ve experienced some form of back pain. For those of you whose jobs require regular access to a screen, the reality is that being sedentary for large parts of the day is unavoidable. Therefore, you need to put proactive steps in place to ensure you stay strong, mobile and pain free. Resistance training, and specifically lifting weights, is one of the best ways to combat the ageing process and address muscular imbalances that form over time (often due to poor posture and desk slouching). I for one begin to feel my upper (right) back pain creeping back in when I’ve neglected weight training for 2+ weeks. It’s amazing what two hours a week of strength training can do to manage (or eliminate) these pains and ultimately improve the quality of your life.
Injury Prevention & Improved Sporting Performance
Being someone who plays a lot of sport, and specifically one-sided sports (tennis and golf), strength training is fundamentally important for keeping the body balanced and capable of performing without getting injured. Implementing unilateral exercises (where only one side is performing the movement) has helped to correct muscular imbalances that have caused me pain and problems in the past. This has allowed me to continue playing the sports I love on a regular basis, which after all is what it’s all about right! Even if you don’t play much sport, you may unknowingly be compensating with your dominant side, which over time can lead to pain and potential injury.
The Mental Benefits
When I started strength training, I had no idea how impactful the mental benefits would be on my life. When I’m consistently training (3-4 times a week), I’ve found I’m able to manage stress more effectively, I’m rarely anxious or overwhelmed (having suffered from anxiety in the past), I sleep better, and my mood is elevated (which makes me more fun to be around). All these benefits are there for the taking with just a few hours of strength training a week!
Health Currency Challenge (HCC)
At this point, hopefully you’re feeling motivated to get started on your own strength training journey!
- Start small by implementing 1-2 hours of strength training into your weekly routine.
- Let me know what benefits you notice by commenting on this post!
