Exercise is one of the most powerful physical and mental health interventions anyone can undertake. It is beneficial for people of all ages, body types, and lifestyles. One form of exercise that is gaining popularity is strength training. It has numerous benefits and can transform your body in amazing ways. Unfortunately, most people do not prioritize strength training, especially women and seniors. However, as more people become aware of the benefits of strength training, it is experiencing a renaissance moment.

Increase Strength

One of the most obvious effects of a strength training program is the increase in physical strength. When you engage in strength training regularly, you can lift heavier weights, carry more weight, and perform movements with ease. Being physically strong has numerous benefits beyond impressing people in the weight room. It can make your life much easier. Carrying your kids, groceries, or cushions around your house will no longer leave you gasping for breath. All your activities of daily living become much easier and less of a strain when you’ve changed your body through strength training.

“Lifting weights is excellent for improving bone density, joint mobility, and body composition.” Not to mention that daily tasks such as lugging groceries, moving furniture, and climbing stairs become easier. —Alexander Koch, Ph.D

Increase Muscle Mass

Most of us start working out to look better naked, and strength training is one of the best ways to achieve that goal. Unfortunately, many people focus on “cardio” and yoga, which although beneficial in their own right, do not include building muscle. This results in someone who is very thin yet has a high body fat percentage and suffers from the dreaded “skinny fat” phenomenon. Many women are afraid to engage in strength training because they think it will make them bulky. However, most women don’t have the hormone profile to add appreciable muscle mass. And even if they do, it usually takes years of dedicated, intensive, weight training and diet to build extreme muscle mass. Adding some muscle mass, changing the size of a muscle, is really the only way to change the shape or “build” of your body.

Decrease Body Fat

Strength training results in an “afterburn” effect where calories are burned at an elevated rate for up to 72 hours after exercise. This makes it a powerful tool in the battle against body fat. While most people focus on cardio for losing the last 5 lbs of fat, most trainers will agree that the most effective formula for weight loss is usually a combination of nutrition and strength training. When combined with the increase in metabolism that results from adding more muscle to your frame over time, it’s obvious that strength training can be a powerful tool in the battle against body fat.

Improve Posture

Our “Desk Jockey” lifestyle has led us to exist in a hunched-over, hang off the skeleton, stance, which wreaks havoc on our health. Proper strength training can help strengthen weak postural muscles, even out imbalances, and help to reverse our poor posture. Not only will you appear taller, stronger and more attractive, but you’ll also feel better too.

“We found that the effect of the direction of thoughts (positive/negative) on self-related attitudes was significantly greater when participants wrote their thoughts in the confident than in the doubtful posture.” —Pablo Briñol, Richard E. Petty and Benjamin Wagner

Build a Better Skeleton

Building and maintaining bone density is essential as we age. Strong bones mean a lesser risk of the debilitating injuries that can result from bone breaks and fractures that become especially dangerous and prevalent as we age. Strength training produces strong bones that cardiovascular exercise just can’t match.

“Both aerobic and resistance training exercise can provide weight-bearing stimulus to the bone, yet research indicates that resistance training may have a more profound site-specific effect than aerobic exercise. Over the past 10 years, nearly two dozen cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have shown a direct and positive relationship between the effects of resistance training and bone density.” —Layne, Nelson

Improve Brain Function

According to Dr. Teresa Liu-Ambrose, weight training can beneficially change the structure of the brain, but “a minimum threshold of exercise needs to be achieved.” While we’ve known for a while now that cardiovascular exercise can physically change the brain by growing brain cells, research also points to benefits for strength training. Strength training, even as little as twice a week, possibly results in a physical change to the brain.

Conclusion

Strength training is a powerful tool for transforming your body, inside and out. By adding muscle mass, increasing strength, reducing body fat, improving posture, building a better skeleton, and improving brain function, strength training can profoundly change your physical and mental health. Moreover, it can make your life much easier and provide you with confidence and independence. If you haven’t tried strength training yet, it’s never too late to start. With the numerous benefits that it provides, it’s not hard to see why it’s having a renaissance moment.