I’m sure lifting weights is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about improving your health. Weightlifting doesn’t have to look like huge muscles and crazy movements. When you simplify it and work with a personal trainer to reach your health goals, it can be incredibly beneficial. This article will explore just 6 of the many reasons you should start lifting weights.
1. Improve Bone Density
Resistance training, or lifting weight, is a great way to help with bone health. When you engage in resistance training, tension is placed on the bones where the working muscles are pulling, and this encourages the growth of bone tissue. Increasing bone density lowers your risk of breaking a bone, as well as lowering your risk of diseases such as osteoporosis. This issue is especially important for women and older adults as these populations tend to have lower bone density and are more at risk for bone disease and injuries from falling. Start your weightlifting habit now so that you can prevent disease or injury rather than recover from it, which is far more difficult.
2. Retain Musculature
If you’ve ever heard the term, “use it or lose it” – muscle retention is the perfect example of that phrase. As you get older, muscle loss can accelerate, and if you don’t work to strengthen your muscles that’s when pain, injury, and loss of ability can occur. According to the American Academy of Sports Medicine (ACSM), everyone should aim to engage in resistance training, at least 2 non-consecutive times in a week with 8-15 repetitions, depending on the population. Older adults and people who are more at risk for bone diseases or injury should aim for higher repetitions. Whether you are an at-risk population or not, avoiding resistance training makes retaining musculature very difficult. Even if you don’t have a strength or physique goal, weightlifting is absolutely for you.
3. Improve Mental Health/performance
Creating a consistent resistance training routine can have so many benefits on your mental health and performance. Completing a weightlifting session will give you a sense of achievement and help to boost your self-efficacy, or your belief in your own abilities. By making weightlifting part of your regular routine, you’ll start to improve your self-discipline and mental toughness. It’s hard to start a new habit, especially if it’s new to you or out of your comfort zone. By making resistance training a regular habit, you will have widened your comfort zone a little bit and practiced pushing yourself to do hard things.
4. Increase Strength
When most people begin lifting weights, their goal is often to increase their strength. Progressively increasing the weight you are lifting, and alternating movement types, can absolutely make you stronger. A common misconception is that if you lift weights and get stronger, you will automatically look bulky or way more muscular. That can absolutely happen if you want it to, but it is not the only outcome. Depending on the way you are approaching resistance training, you will see differing results. You can increase muscular endurance which will help with posture and form. This is achieved through more repetitions of lower weights. To increase strength, you would aim for 6-10 repetitions of a challenging weight and gradually increase the weight as you move through your training. The combination that makes muscles look visibly larger is big movements with heavy weights and lower repetitions. You will likely notice a more toned look to some muscles by aiming for increased strength and endurance, but to make your muscles “bulk up” you have to specifically work at.
5. Improve Posture
Most people today have jobs or lifestyles that entail prolonged sitting and sedentary activities. Constant sitting or repeated movements can cause muscle tightness and impaired movement. A common postural impairment in people who work in an office is Upper Crossed Syndrome. This looks like a forward head and rounded back and shoulders. By lifting weights, you can start to correct postural issues such as Upper Crossed Syndrome and reducing any pain or discomfort that came with this positioning. Pulling movements with proper form can strengthen weakened or under active back muscles. To properly improve posture without pain, resistance training should always be paired with stretching.
6. Support Weight Loss/gain
Depending on your goal, lifting weights can help you to either lose, or gain weight. This sounds incredibly contradictory but there are just so many approaches you can take to resistance training to see the results you’re looking for. If weight loss is your goal, increasing activity is a great place to start. For example, lifting weights 2-3 times a week with lots of repetitions of each exercise is an easy way to kickstart your habit. The thing to keep in mind is that lifting weights alone will not result in weight loss. Nutrition is a huge part of weight loss and is vital to really see a change in your body composition. While resistance training is an amazing place to start, weight loss is most efficiently achieved through higher intensity exercise like cardiovascular activities. If you’re just starting out though, implementing one piece of this puzzle at a time is the best way to encourage long-lasting results. If you’re someone who is looking to gain weight, you can also turn to weightlifting. Just like the goal of weight loss, gaining weight is largely going to depend on your diet. Navigating nutrition for either of these goals can be challenging so don’t hesitate to ask a professional for guidance. Lifting heavy weights, in big movements is the best way to grow muscle. Repetitions should be lower so that you can move more weight. You should find a weight that you can control with good form, but that is challenging and remember to stop when your form starts to diminish. Muscle also weighs more than fat so, turning fat into muscle will likely show a change on the scale.
If you have any questions or would like to explore further, please book a free, no-charge online appointment with either myself, Evelyn Merriman, BKin, RKin, or another Kitchener Kinesiologist at CARESPACE. We are happy to listen and are here to help!
