Benefits Of Strength Training

While cardio exercise is important and has its own important benefits, don't make the mistake of overlooking the benefits of strength training when you are planning out your workout routine. Strength training, also known as weight training or resistance training, isn’t only good for your muscles.

Strength training provides many benefits for your whole body, including improved heart health, better balance, stronger bones, weight loss, and improved mental well-being. All exercise can provide cardiovascular benefits and the preservation of muscle mass, however, strength training can provide a broad array of health benefits.

• Stronger muscles. As you could have guessed, strength training is a crucial component of a fitness routine for building muscle mass. If you are looking to build strength and better stamina, adding strength training to your workout regime is important. It is especially beneficial to keep performing strength training exercises as you get older. Muscle mass decreases with increasing age, however, you can help your muscles to stay strong and capable. Strength training is effective in preserving or increasing muscle mass, keeping your muscles strong so that you can feel healthy.
• Improved flexibility. Greater flexibility is among the many benefits of strength training. More pointedly, it helps your joints to stay more flexible. Daily wear and tear on your body's joints can start to affect you as you get older and to make matters worse, there’s also a risk of arthritis in old age too. Incorporating strength training exercises into your fitness routine can help to reduce the symptoms of arthritis and keep your joints up to par. Although some believe that strength training can actually reduce your flexibility, exercises performed using a full range of motion will help to improve it.
• More calories are burned. Strength training boosts your metabolism, and as a result, more calories are burned. Even after you finish with your strength training workout for the day, the workout contributes to something called post-exercise oxygen consumption, also known as “afterburn”. As your body recovers from your workout, it will keep burning more calories throughout the day due to your workout. The more intense your workout the better as it will take longer for your body to return to its resting state, and burn more calories as a result.
• Better sleep . When muscles are strengthened, our bodies undergo physical changes that in turn help us to cope better with life’s stressors. This also means that our bodies are able to produce better quality sleep. Incorporating strength training into your fitness routine provides health benefits, such as helping to regulate vital bodily functions like resting glucose metabolism, blood pressure, and metabolic rate according to research. All of these functions contribute to stress reduction as well as better quality nights of slumber.
• Reduced anxiety . Although strength training has various physical benefits, it also provides many mental health benefits, which is an essential component of your well being as well. Life can be very stressful, and we all can get anxious from time to time. Feeling weak, constantly worried, and trouble sleeping are all symptoms of anxiety. Fortunately, strength training can also help to relieve symptoms of anxiety. Studies have found that moderate to intense strength training led to small but still significant reductions in anxiety symptoms. However, keep in mind that the subject of these studies were adults not diagnosed with a clinical anxiety disorder.
  
• Stronger bones. Strength training strengthens your muscles, as well as your bones. The stress you put on your bones through strength training helps to build up their strength, which also makes it less likely to break a bone if you have an accident. Additionally, your bones are also affected as you age, especially if you are a woman. Training can improve not just the strength of your bones, but the structure and density too.

When you are building an overall fitness program, adding strength training to it is important and will give you long-lasting benefits. When it comes to strength training, there are a variety of options to choose from, so you can choose the type of workout that works the best for you and switch it up at any time to keep things interesting!

Unique Fitness offers 3 locations here on Long Island, each with their own style and focus, attracting people of all different ages, fitness levels, and abilities. Contact us today to claim your free 3-day trial membership .