Why Should You Do Weight Training ?

 

Every now and then, I come across people who regard  Weight Training as ‘the forbidden zone’.

Recently, I met a friend of mine. I was meeting her after a long time. On seeing her, I was surprised at the amount of weight she had gained.

While conversing, I could notice that something was bothering her. After some chit-chat, I decided to dive into the matter. I asked her about her botheration .

She told me about her weight gain issues. How it has destroyed her self esteem. How body shaming, has forced her to isolate herself from the society.

As I felt sorry for my friend. I thought, may be I can help her out .

“So Neha, do you work out ?”I enquired.

“I have been working out for 6 months now, without seeing much changes. Apparently, nothing seems to work on my body.”

“Umm… really ? Tell me about your workout regimen. ”

“I do cardio 4 days a week.”

“Okay and what about weight training ?”I asked curiously .

“What about it ? It’s not for me !”she smirked .

“I go to the gym ,to lose weight . I don’t want to get bulky.”

According to Collins Dictionary, Weight Training(also called Resistance Training) is defined as,”a kind of physical exercise in which people lift or push heavy weights with their arms and legs in order to strengthen their muscles.”  Weight Training can be performed by either pushing or pulling weight against the force of gravity. You can use barbell, dumbbell or your own body weight, for this purpose.

Through this post, we shall look at the enormous benefits of Weight Training and who all should include it, in their workout schedule :

1. Weight Training helps in fat loss :

 

By lifting weights, you develop lean muscles.

Studies suggest that, naturally, males generate between 1-2 pounds of pure muscle mass in a given month and females will get about half of that, around 0.5-1 pound, all other factors being equal.

So weight training will help you build lean muscle. As you develop lean muscles, the amount of calories that your body burns while at rest, increases. An increase in the amount of calories burnt, results in greater amount of fat burnt ,that is stored in your body .

2.  Helps you improve, your metabolism :

 

According to dictionary, the term ‘metabolism‘ refers to “the chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.”

The term, ‘Metabolic Rate‘ refers to the amount of chemical energy a person frees from their body per unit time.Thus, greater the metabolic rate , greater is the amount of calories burnt by your body per unit time.

Children have a higher Metabolic Rate than adults. As people near middle-age, they gain weight many times, even though they may not change their eating habits. Thus even though their eating habit may not change, they start gaining weight over time. This is because,as people age they burn fewer calories and begin to synthesize more fat, even with a stable intake of calories.

Thus, in order to ensure that we maintain a healthy weight, improving the metabolism is the key.

How to do that ?

Yes,you guessed it right. By training with weights.

When you train with weights ,you build muscles over time. The muscles that you build , help you burn more calories , even when you are doing nothing.

Thus, weight training helps you boost your metabolism (and ego 😉 ) .

3. You improve your muscle strength :

 

Weight training is process of the use of resistance(weight) for muscular contraction to build the strength, anaerobic endurance and size of skeletal muscles.

It is based on the principle that muscles of the body will work to overcome a resistance force, when they are required to do so. By lifting weights, you are signaling your body to build stronger muscles, so that you can lift the same amount of weight, easily over a period of time.

“The basic principle is to apply a load and overload the muscle so it needs to adapt and get stronger,” explains Neal Pire, CSCS, an exercise physiologist and the national director of wellness services at Castle Connolly Private Health Partners in New York City.

“The thing about strength training is that you don’t get better during workouts; you get better in between,” Mr. Pire remarks.

4. Weight Training keeps your heart healthy :

 

When we talk about improving cardiovascular health, first thing that comes in our mind is slogging it out at the tread mill. Cardio is great, for improving the health of your heart, make no mistake about it. However, there are many of us, who dread the boring cardio. To all those,here comes the good news!

Weight training can significantly improve your heart health too! Ya, you read it right .

Research suggests that when it comes to improving certain markers of heart health, Weight Training is just good – if not better – than cardio.

Research out of Appalachian State University shows that moderate-intensity strength training significantly lowers blood pressure, both in the short and long term.

Also, numerous researches show that weight training helps in lowering Cholestrol levels of blood. Also weight training helps to maintain Less Fat Around the Heart.

5. Weight Training helps in strengthening of bones and reduces the risk of Osteoporosis :

 

 

Your bones are in a constant state of renewal — new bone is made and old bone is broken down. When you’re young, your body makes new bone faster than it breaks down old bone and your bone mass increases. As people age, bone mass is lost faster than it’s created.

In people suffering with osteoporosis, bone tissue breaks down faster than it is replaced. The bones become thinner and brittle (lose mass) and are more likely to break (fracture) with pressure or after a fall.

Weight Training helps you by not only building stronger muscles, but also helps you  build stronger bones and slows bone loss. Strength training helps strengthen muscles and bones in your arms and upper spine, your legs, hips and lower spine.Thus, reducing the risk of Osteoporosis.

 

6. Thanks to Weight Training, you can reduce the risk of diabetes:

 

A recent study suggests that, strength training is particularly helpful when it comes to managing and preventing type 2 diabetes.

A study concluded that moderate strength training results in increase in overall muscle mass. Which in turn,helps a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 32 percent, explained the study published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

For those,who are already diagnosed with diabetes, studies show strength training showed it reduced the likelihood of pre-diabetes progressing to type 2 diabetes.

Also studies demonstrate the benefits of regular strength training on combating insulin resistance, high blood sugar levels.

 7. Weight Training helps you to improve your self-confidence and fight Depression :

 

Depression is one of the most common ailments that individuals experience in our current society. Depression can be caused by various reasons.

However, weight training can be used an effective weapon to combat depression.

In a paper published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, researchers set out to find the effectiveness of weight training in combating depression. The study’s authors  conducted 33 randomized clinical trials involving more than 1,800 people. They found that people with mild to moderate depression who performed resistance training two or more days a week saw “significant” reductions in their symptoms, compared with people who did not.

“Interestingly, larger improvements were found among adults with depressive symptoms indicative of mild-to-moderate depression compared to adults without such scores,” says Brett Gordon, the paper’s lead author and a researcher at Ireland’s University of Limerick. “This suggests resistance training may be particularly effective for those with greater depressive symptoms.”

Weight training can be highly effective towards managing anxiety. Weight training helps you to focus on the present moment. The present set, the present repetition is all that matters.

Once you start lifting weights and start seeing progress, you develop confidence that, you have what it takes to fight through pain. Gradually, the same confidence is transcended to the confidence of fighting the problems in life.

Not to mention, the confidence boost you get, by looking good.

 

To sum it up, whether you are young or old, man or a woman , you have got to include some form of weight training in your work out schedule. Weight training offers enormous benefits. Whether you are a serious bodybuilder,an athlete or just want to get in shape, weight training can be the key in optimizing your performance in day to day life.

Before you start your fitness journey, I would highly recommend that you check out 5 fitness tips for beginners .

 

Dear readers,what challenges do you face, that stop you from achieving your fitness goals .Please let me know, in the comments below.Cheers! 🙂