Strength training isn’t just for looking better or building muscles. It has a myriad of positive side effects from mood enhancement to disease prevention to—of course—effective and efficient weight loss. In fact, the benefits of strength training are so widespread, it’s silly to not incorporate it into your routine. The The good news is, it doesn’t take much time or effort to reap all this goodness. Read on for 28 reasons to lift some weight and train those muscles.
1. Fat loss.
Strength training burns calories, but it also increases muscle mass. More mass means a higher metabolism, for extra fat-burning even while you sleep. Strength training also has a longer afterburn effect, so you burn calories as your body returns to a normal state after the exercise is over.
2. Reduced chance of osteoporosis.
Women are especially at a risk for developing osteoporosis. This might not be a concern for you now, but it may be someday. Strength training increases bone density, which then lowers the risk of osteoporosis.
3. Better posture.
In addition to increasing your bone density, including keeping your spine strong and healthy, improving your overall strength will keep you upright, and for longer. In a world where many of us are sedentary, we can develop very bad habits. The good news is that weight training calls our attention to these and can correct them. Shoulder strengthening can also improve those muscles and their positioning.
4. Reduced pain, especially back pain.
Even if you suffer from chronic pain, you might still get benefits from a strength training routine, provided you listen to your body. Studies have shown that a moderate resistance routine can alleviate neck, back, shoulder and knee pain, as well as pain associated with arthritis, osteoporosis and fibromyalgia. And strengthening your muscles and bones and improving posture and form will only help prevent pain in the future.
5. Reduced chance of injury.
Studies and anecdotal evidence has shown that strength training can greatly reduce injury among runners, who commonly experience training-related injuries. Because strength training is deliberate and a learning process, it heightens your own understanding of your entire muscular system. As you grow and improve, you’ll recognize the relief and effectiveness of proper movements and form, even in tiny adjustments. And with better posture and less pain, your capability to hold proper form and avoid bad habits will also prevent injury.
6. Reduced risk of heart disease.
We know that exercise in general will reduce the risk of heart disease, regardless of your genetic risk. But weight training for a mere hour a week was shown to reduce risk of heart attack or stroke by up to 70% in a recent study. These strength training benefits are present even without any cardio components, and the benefit did not increase when the training went over one hour. Bottom line: you only need one hour of weight training a week to reap the heart health effects. How cool is that?
7. Strength for everyday tasks.
I’ll never forget when we moved ourselves into a new apartment right before a 10-hour drive north to see family. I had just recently begun strength training and was astounded at how much furniture I could lift. Imagine hoisting your carry-on to the overhead bin without fear of dropping it or hurting someone (or yourself). Or being able to change out the water bottle at work without spilling water all over the place. Strength is extremely practical.
However, that’s the last time I move without hiring movers.
8. Improved brain function.
Any kind of exercise does wonders for your mental focus, memory, clarity, cognitive function, and self-esteem, as well as warding off dementia and Alzheimer’s. But what about strength training in particular? A recent Italian study looked at different types of exercise and their connections to different types of cognition. What they found was that the brain benefits of strength training specifically boosted the ability for practical tasks.
9. Higher energy throughout the day.
This sounds possibly counter-intuitive, I know. It’s true though; exercising and spending more energy actually gives you more energy throughout the day.
10. Improved mood.
This is my favorite reason of all, and I believe, the most important.
Recent research has shown that strength training alone reduces your risk of depression significantly. Better yet, improved mood happens regardless of whether you are prone to depression to begin with, and regardless of how much weight you lift or how often. We knew that aerobic exercise produced these results, but while these results aren’t different from those of studies involving aerobic exercise, the fact that the benefits from strength training alone are the same is new information.
We have known for a long time that exercise does loads—I mean, LOADS—to improve your mood. I can emphatically add my personal experience to this. There is nothing in my daily ritual that does more for me. Part of it is the wonderful brain chemicals, but also it’s the sense of productivity, zen-ness, and confidence that also shifts my emotional and mental state.
11. Less anxiety.
Studies have shown that strength training reduces anxiety both in the short- and long-terms. That means that you’ll feel less anxious immediately after your workout is over, but also that if you keep up a consistent routine, your anxiety in general will be less likely to escalate. It also make you better able to confront fears and fall asleep.
12. Improved sleep.
Strength training in particular has been shown to help you sleep better and fall asleep faster, in addition to the body of evidence showing that all exercise helps sleep to some degree. Getting a good night’s sleep can make the difference between a terrible day and a wonderful one, even with all factors the same. Sleep makes you more attentive, present, energetic, happy, peaceful and properly objective and less anxious, irritable, overwhelmed and even disease-prone.
13. Reduced risk of diabetes.
Again, exercise of any type reduces diabetes risk, but as most of the past studies included only aerobic exercise, a 2012 study suggests weight training has similar effects. But the most significant reduction in diabetes risk occurred when subjects did both cardiovascular and strength training as part of a regular routine.
14. Improved diabetes management.
For those living with diabetes, proper strength training can help insulin sensitivity and even lead to a reduction of medications.
15. Look better.
Okay, look, I like to put the emphasis on how you feel and not just how you look, but in general, people who exercise are healthier, and healthy shines through more than just that 6-pack (or keg!). It shines through your skin, giving you a healthy glow; it makes your mood better, so you’ll smile more, it probably leads to better eating habits, which will show up in healthier hair, eyes, nails, skin, you name it. But with strength training you’ll also be shaping your body how you want, which means you’ll not only have a physique you’re proud of, but you’ll be happier because it’s on your terms. And a happy you is a beautiful you.
16. Look younger.
We naturally tend to add pounds as we age, so the added metabolism and fat loss that strength training provides is a good start to reducing your apparent age. We also tend to lose muscle mass, so keeping your body strong and healthy also shaves off years. But studies have also shown that strength training specifically can not only slow down aging, but literally reverse it.
17. Better confidence.
This is a no-brainer. Working out with weights will make you look better, which will immediately make you feel better. But you’ll also feel better because this is something you did; no one handed you a rounder booty or that muscle definition in your shoulders. YOU did it—YOU. You worked for it, and you saw the results. I promise you, that’s enough to make your confidence shoot through the roof. Which leads to…
18. Feel like a superhero.
You’ll feel invincible. It’s not just about feeling better looking or attractive; it’s about feeling like you can make things happen. You’re not just a victim of your circumstances. You can take the body you were given, with all its flaws, and transform it into something that can lift weight and jump high and do amazing things.
19. You become productive and better at setting goals.
This is another of my favorite reasons for strength training, perhaps because it’s so practical and applicable to the rest of life.
Strength training is especially conducive to goal-setting because it requires you to constantly push yourself to fatigue. I mean, literally—that’s how muscle grows. So you might have a simple goal of wanting to use 10lbs dumbbells for curls. Or maybe you might want to do a pull-up. Maybe you want to do a Spartan race or one of those zombie races (I don’t know if that would be fun or terrifying). But setting goals in the gym is a lot easier than it is in life because it’s so much more straightforward and it’s generally more free of psychological fears and worries. But building up that goal-accomplishing muscle (if you will) will also build your confidence and give you a blueprint for accomplishing more of those outside-of-the-gym goals, even if they are slightly terrifying.
20. Reduce dangerous belly fat.
There are two types of fat: subcutaneous and visceral. Subcutaneous is the stuff underneath the surface of the skin, and visceral is the fat much deeper in your body that is packed around your internal organs. Even if you are not overweight, abdominal fat comes with loads of health risks, including coronary heart disease, diabetes and cancer. And strength training, particularly at a high intensity like we get with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), targets this fat best.
21. Reduced risk of cancer.
Strength training shines above cardio exercise as far as reducing cancer risk. A 2017 study showed that those who participate in strength training have a 30% less chance of getting cancer. Pretty crazy.
22. Reduced risk of death.
The same 2017 study also showed that strength training reduces chance of premature death by 23%. And having stronger muscles, especially later in life, has been linked to living longer, according to new research coming from the University of Michigan.
23. Improved flexibility.
It’s been shown that strength training, even without flexibility training, has an improvement on flexibility.
24. Improved balance.
Strength requires balance. If you’ve ever fallen over doing a kettlebell swing or lifting a weight above your head, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Lifting heavy stuff requires not just strength in the main muscles, but it also requires that the rest of your body brace and counter that weight in order to stay upright. So naturally, strength training will increase your balance alongside your strength. Another cool benefit of added balance is strengthened core muscles, aka abdominals. Having better balance means more agility, grace and less injury, but also more defined abdominals.
25. Better sex.
It all comes down to sex, amirite? But seriously, besides feeling more attractive and confident, which can absolutely boost your libido and sex life, strength training in particular boosts testosterone production which increases sex drive in men and women.
26. Improved mind-body connection.
When lifting, balancing and throwing around heavy things, including your own body, your coordination, which comes from your brain, is the most important factor—even more than strength. The mind-body connection goes both ways. Strength training will help you understand how your body reacts to various types of training, how some movements feel and how your body tells you it needs a rest, either from exertion or poor form. You’ll understand cues from your body (body––>mind), but you’ll also learn how to affect how your body performs (mind––>body). Those cues will help you perform movements safely, more efficiently and more effectively. It can also help you understand other factors affecting you, like stress or exhaustion, understand those effects in your body and track how well you’re doing to set yourself back on track.
27. Better efficiency of movement.
Getting coordination down for a squat or a kettlebell swing will help you tune into the most effective ways to use your body, and this will extend to everyday movements. You may not think that picking something up off the floor or how you sit at a desk matters, but bad habits that continually put stress on your system could end up as injury in the long run. You’ll also put less stress on your system and ultimately have more energy for the important things.
28. Increased collagen and growth hormone production.
As we age, we lose collagen and human growth hormone (HGH) in our body, making our skin thinner and our bones and connective tissue weaker. Strength training stimulates both of these in the body naturally, meaning not only does it keep you looking young, it helps keep you feeling and moving like a young person as well.
What are you waiting for?
I’m sure you noticed that many of these strength training benefits stem from the same core benefit, and many may seem similar. I mean, if you have less depression it seems likely you’ll have less anxiety and sleep better, right? Lists are great to appeal to our logical brain, but the reality is that we are complicated beings, and if you approach your fitness with the intent to also focus on your overall well-being, you’ll see huge strides in your looks, your health and your happiness.
Check out my workouts section here on the blog, which I add workouts to weekly, or as fast as I’m able. because I tend to get bored, and I’d rather go fast and furious, most of my workouts are metabolic resistance training, which basically means strength training but fast. I also have a post on why strength training is possibly the secret weapon that you’ve been avoiding to push yourself to the next level.
Keep in mind that you don’t need to use weights. You can get all the benefits of strength training above just from using your own body as resistance with bodyweight workouts.
Go get ’em!
