Weight lifting or strength training has many important health advantages. You do not have to be a certain age, or an athlete to reap a lot of benefits. Here are some important reasons that you may wish add this important exercise to your routine.
Stronger Bones
As you age, your bone mass slowly begins to fade. Each year, your bones can be a little less dense than the year before. Strength training can help to counteract this loss of bone density. This type of exercise is especially important for the elderly. Elderly people do not have the same balance function as younger people, and they are more prone to accidents involving falls. The more brittle the bones are, the easier it is for them to break. Also, recovery time is much longer, the older you get.
When you lift something heavy, your bones have to work harder under the added stress. This also works the muscles that are attached to the bones. When you lift, muscles receive very tiny tears within the fiber, and a similar situation happens with weight lifting. Microscopic cracks occur in bone during strength training. Most people are completely unaware that this is happening to them.
This exercise helps to stimulate the formation of new bone material. Tiny cracks that are produced begin to heal with new bone matter. This increases the bone density and over time, can make bone sturdier and stronger. This helps to make bones less susceptible to fractures. The longer you engage in weight lifting, the better it is for the bone structure.
Weight Loss
Adding weight lifting to your dieting efforts can be very helpful. The first way that this type of exercise can help is in burning extra calories. Losing some of those extra pounds is about the mathematics of calories in, compared to calories out.
Another way that strength training helps is by adding muscle mass to the body. Every pound of muscle mass that you add burns more calories. It takes more calories to feed and nourish muscle than fat. When you add muscle mass, this increases your resting metabolic rate. Many of your calories are burned from the resting metabolic rate, or RMR. It is a known fact that adding exercise to your daily routine can help to burn fat. It works to speed the metabolism, too, and this helps to burn more calories.
Emotional Benefits
Many times, you may not feel like getting up off the couch. In fact, you may not feel like exercising at all. However, once you start, you may actually begin to feel better. This is because strength training helps to add endorphins in your system. Endorphins are “feel good” hormones, and this is where the “rush” of good feeling comes from, that exercise brings on.
Maybe you feel depressed or anxious. Some of these low feelings can come from not getting enough physical activity in your life. It is not good for the body or the mind, to lead a sedentary lifestyle. Walking is good, but weight lifting can get your blood pumping and make you feel alive again.
Lowering Risk Factors for Disease
When you have a strength training program, you can help to lower your chances of some kinds of disease. These types of exercises can help to stimulate the function of your immune system. This helps you fight off colds, flu, and more serious conditions.
As people age, the joints become stiffer. In fact, osteoarthritis is caused by wear on the joints, over the years. Weight lifting helps to keep the joints lubricated, and less prone to the wear and tear of osteoarthritis.
Back pain is a common complaint with aging. It is one of the main causes for lost time work, today. Many back conditions are brought on or aggravated by weak back muscles. The right kind of strength training will strengthen the muscles in the back, and this can help with some conditions.
Studies show that strength training helps to raise the good cholesterol, known as HDL. It also helps to modestly lower LDL or bad cholesterol levels. Both HDL and LDL are risk factors for heart disease and strokes.
Conclusion
If you are considering an exercise routine, it might be a good idea to include strength training. This may help to increase your bone density and decrease your chance for fractures, as you age. Strength training is also a very good aid to losing body fat. You also may feel better, as it can elevate mood in many people. You also receive important health benefits like lowering heart disease risk, boosting the immune system, and better bone density. There are many important advantages of weight lifting, and these are only a few of them.
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