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Benefits of Strength
Training
Year round, day or
night, awake or sleeping, your body’s muscles are working. Strength training is the process of exercising this muscular
system with weighted resistance. Developing
a safe, efficient and effective strength training program is one of the
four essential elements of optimal health. (strength training,
cardiovascular training, nutrition/weight management and flexibility
training.)
We produce
strength through muscle contraction.
The contraction attempts to shorten the muscle.
This shortening / movement, or lack there of, depends on the
relationship between muscular forces and resistive forces.
Many factors affect this contraction performance.
The factors include: gender,
age, limb length, muscle length, tendon insertion, muscle fiber type, and
motor learning. These factors do not cause you to become unable to have
positive gains from a strength training program.
Positive affects of strength training have been shown to occur at
any age, gender, limb length, etc. Below
is a list of some of the benefits you will gain from an effective strength
training program.
- Increased
muscle fiber strength and size.
- Increased
tendon, bone, and ligament tensile strength.
- Decreased
risk of injury.
- Increased
metabolic rate.
- Profound
influence on physical capacity and physical appearance.
Unless we
perform regular strength exercises, we lose up to ½ pound of muscle every
year after age 25. This
gradual decrease in lean muscle tissue means that non-training adults will
experience ½ percent reduction in metabolic rate each year.
This decrease in muscle tissue causes a corresponding decrease in
metabolic rate, but the good news is that an increase in muscle tissue
will also cause a corresponding increase in our metabolic rate.
Fight
the sedentary aging process with a regular strength training program and
reap the many positive benefits it has to offer.
Make it a
Healthy Day
By Amy Bomar
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