The benefits of Strength Training
So why is strength training so important? Here are my top four reasons to strength train:
1. You’ll burn more calories
Muscle is a living tissue and requires energy to work. It has a higher energy requirement than fat. The rate at which we burn calories is called our metabolic rate. It follows then that people with a higher level of muscle mass have a higher resting metabolic rate. If we stop resistance training and lose muscle mass then we need to reduce our calorie intake to prevent fat gain.
2. Your risk of developing osteoporosis and fractures will decrease
As we grow older our bone density decreases. This can lead bones to break more easily. The stresses placed on the bones during resistance training activates cells which are responsible for bone remodelling, therefore slowing down the loss and in some cases improving bone density.
3. Your risk of developing diabetes will decrease
Your insulin sensitivity level is one of the key factors determining your risk of diabetes. Resistance training makes your body more sensitive to insulin and can lower blood glucose.
4. You’ll be mentally stronger
When you feel stronger physically, you usually feel stronger mentally. This is true for a number of reasons:
a) Firstly, when you exercise, your body releases chemicals which have a positive effect on your mood. The most well known of these are endorphins, which interact with the receptors in your brain to reduce your perception of pain. They also trigger a positive feeling in the body giving you that ‘high’ that is often experienced after exercising.
b) Secondly, resistance training teaches you the skill of perseverance; the ability to overcome discomfort and challenge yourself. This is a skill that carries over to all areas of our lives.
c) Resistance training also improves our self esteem, not just by virtue of the fact that when we look better we feel better, but also through the sense of accomplishment we get when we complete a hard training session or see how we’ve improved over time.
Nathalie Le Mottée (Founder & Managing Director)