Even everyday tasks like moving one’s body weight in and out of chairs, climbing stairs, or carrying heavy groceries and full of laundry baskets count. “Most of us are doing muscle strengthening activities throughout the day without even thinking about it.” says Eric Shiroma program, Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the national heart-lung blood institute. But it’s when a weight-bearing motion is repeated that muscle conditioning occurs. “As muscles adapt to resistance over time they become stronger and more resilient.” explains Amanda Paluch, a kinesiologist in the life sciences lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In such cases she says it is it about building muscle alone “it’s about building a stronger body that is better able to function and thrive during our daily living”.
GOOD FOR THE HEART. Research shows that adding just 30 minutes of resistance training to your workout routine each week could add years to your life in part by significantly improving your heart health “strength training is great for your heart because it helps improve blood pressure and cholesterol” explains Paluch.
It helps blood pressure by increasing blood flow and circulation and lowers cholesterol by reducing inflammation. Chronic inflammation can lead to the buildup of cholesterol in the arteries, which is also associated with blood clots.
“And we have found that even less than an hour of resistance training per week is associated with a 40 to 70 percent of reduce risk of cardiovascular disease morbidity such as a heart attack or a stroke,” says Duck-Chul Lee, a professor of physical activity epidemiology at Iowa State University College of Human Sciences, and co-author of supportive research.
GOOD FOR THE BODY. Strength training has also been shown to be helpful and many other body systems and improved balance and flexibility, despite perceptions to the contrary.
“Resistance training, particularly at higher loads, has long been perceived to increase body stiffness, and reduced flexibility,” McDonough explains, “but a body of evidence now suggests the opposite; that resistance training is just as effective, if not more effective than traditional static strength at improving joint range of motion.”
Increased range of motion has been shown to improve balance, and reduce the likelihood of injuries related to falls. Fredericson says resistance training can also decrease one's risk of musculoskeletal injury or outside damage to internal organs as larger muscle mass provides a protective barrier or cushion between external forces and the bones and organs contained within the body.
Resistance training has also been shown to strengthen joints, and bones is affected by medical conditions like osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. This is particularly important for older adults as aging is associated with biological changes that decreased strength and skeletal muscle mass. Research shows that such losses diminish physiologic resilience while also increasing vulnerability to injury and disease. Resistance training counters this deterioration by stimulating the cell is responsible for bone growth.
(Lifting heavy weights can help you mitigate osteoporosis. Here's how to get started.)
It also counters the effect of sarcopenia- a progressive loss of muscle mass that often begins in the 30s or 40s in more sedentary individuals. Resistance training fends off sarcopenia by creating microtears in the muscle, which leads to fusion of muscle fibers that create greater mass, explains by Monica Ciolino, a doctor of physical therapy at Washington University Physicians. Strength training helps lower one's risk of developing type two diabetes as well can help manage the disease.
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National Geographic