Strength/ weight training is the foundation of any structured exercise program, and the only training modal that ensures muscle mass maintenance, preventing aging and atrophy.
It is overlooked by many as it is looked upon as something associated with ‘getting big’! This is an old misguided attitude, but as with most of them is deeply ingrained in society’s psyche. Some make it a priority to train and hire a Los Angeles Personal Trainer.
Strength/Resistance training is not to be thought of as being just reserved for muscle bound Hollywood stars, but for you and everyday folk, and anyone wanting to offset muscle atrophy in aging (Sarcopenia). As we age our muscle mass gradually declines.
It is also important for maintaining bone density, posture, body mobility and function in everyday living. A great majority of older people think that they need to walk around weak and feeble, as they feel that this is the norm with aging. Well it is if you have that beaten down mindset, but with a little positivity and a couple of hours resistance training per week this could be avoided.
I will give (6) reasons why it would be best if you included strength/resistance training to your fitness routine.
6 Reasons to include resistance/strength training to your fitness workouts.
1. How many times have you tried opening a jar of jelly or something in the kitchen and have found it a challenge?
This is because your muscles are losing mass (athrophy).
Unless you do some form of resistance/ strength training , your muscle mass is going to go on a steady decline. By the time most folk reach their 60s the average person has lost a third of his/her muscle mass.
The only way to off set this muscle wasting (Sarcopenia), is with some form of weight training. This should be included no matter whether you feel you are too young or old, as we all go the same way with our steady decline.
2. You need to lift weight to lose weight! To put it in simple terms, the only thing on your body that burns calories is muscle mass (lean tissue).The only way to maintain muscle mass is by stimulating it by including weight/resistance training in your fitness program.
If you have taken an interest in being on my website, you most likely either want to lose weight, increase fitness, or gain weight. You can’t get lean and healthy by just doing cardio, or worse still crash dieting.
To explain how having more lean muscle tissue can help you maintain or reduce weight, a pound of muscle burns 35-50 calories per day just to be maintained in your body, compared to a pound of fat which burns almost negligible amounts. Do you now see how important muscle mass is?
3. Weight training can dramatically improve and help to retain skeletal bone density. Bone density usually reaches it’s peak in about a person’s late 20s, taking a gradual decline after age 40, with by the time they reach their 60s having gone down by as much as 35% percent. As people reach old age osteoporosis becomes a major factor in determining the things a person can do, and ultimately their quality of life. Many studies have established the importance of weight/resistance training to limit osteoporosis by increasing bone density. Weight/ resistance training increases bone density, improves muscle strength, and improves balance.
4.Maintain a Healthy Heart.
Latest research continues to substantiate that when under a professional Personal Trainer’s guidance, that moderate resistance training can not only increase muscle strength and mobility, but at the same time have significant benefits on heart health. You have a lower risk of heart disease when your body is at an optimum weight. The American Heart Association recommends strength training as a way to reduce the risk of heart disease – it helps you lose visceral fat, the most dangerous type of fat when it comes to cardiovascular health.
5. Avoid Back Problems
Back problems affect about 25% per cent of Americans, more widespread than any other complaint apart from high blood pressure and diabetes. Most back complaints are triggered by poor postural habits and a weak core. Training can take the shape of resistance or non-resistance modals. For example a non-resistance modal can be a knees-to-chest exercise, that can be performed by lying on your back and pulling your knees to your chest, while at the same time exhaling and holding the position for about 60 seconds.This movement opens up the disc space in the back, giving relief to pressure on the nerves. Resistance/ weight training can be performed to strengthen all the muscles that comprise the area of the back, with the result of stronger muscles and a better posture.
6. Improve Function In Everyday Life
The best way to help the body perform the daily tasks optimally, is to train the things that makes those functions happen in the first place… muscles, yes weight/ resistance training for functionality! What is function? The body only knows movements as it relates to function. Function is integrated training, using multiple directions (Multi-planar) movements that involve stabilization, acceleration and deceleration. In comprehensive terms functional weight training helps the body to work as a synergistic moving piece, resulting in a body that can perform better in doing everyday tasks, standing on ladders, reaching to pick up something off a high shelf, carrying suitcases up a high, narrow staircase etc. Take care of your body and it will take care of you! Read more on my article ” Core Training v. Machines.
Conclusion,
Start a weight/ resistance training program not because i have written this article, but for the reasons of building a lasting, better quality of life. You don’t just want to exist as you grow older, but you want to live… so lift to live!
Do it because muscle revolutionizes your metabolism, changes your body from the inside out, improves and enhances your own Human GPS, re- calibrates the aging process. Don’t not wait to get old and feeble to regret doing something, instead change your life’s course now. Start lifting today for a better tomorrow.
-NicholasIf you are in the Los Angeles area and you would like a complimentary one-on-one assessment with Personal Trainer in L.A. Nicholas Barrett, please don't hesitate to get in touch! Personal trainer Los Angeles. Los Angeles personal trainer. Personal trainer marina del rey.
