Strength training, sometimes called resistance training or weight training, is a type of exercise geared toward increasing your muscle strength, endurance, and sometimes even muscle mass. To achieve these goals, you typically use some type of resistance (or weight) such as your body weight, hand weights, resistance bands, or other tools.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that you do two or more days of strength training a week and that you work all major muscle groups including your legs, glutes, back, core, chest, shoulders, and arms. They also recommend that you do 150 minutes of aerobic activity like brisk walking each week, too.
Overall, strength training is an important, but often overlooked, form of exercise. Yet, it can be extremely good for your health and well-being.
Here are 13 ways you may benefit from incorporating strength training into your weekly workout routine.
1. Increases Muscle Tone
By design, resistance training—or using your muscles to work against weight or force—improves your muscle tone.2 It may even increase your muscle mass, too, if you tailor your regimen accordingly. What’s more, you do not have to lift heavy amounts of weight in order to see results.
One study found that doing about eight to 12 repetitions (which is sometimes referred to as the “hypertrophy zone”) is ideal for building muscle.3 Hypertrophy means an increase in muscle size.
2. Improves Functional Strength
Strength training also can help build your functional strength, especially when your weight training activities mimic everyday movements like squatting, lifting, twisting, pushing, and pulling. This means carrying groceries, moving furniture around, or squatting to get something off of the floor, all become easier.
Exercises used to build functional strength include everything from squats and deadlifts, to medicine ball twists, step-ups, and farmer’s walk.
3. Helps Control Blood Sugar
Whether you have type 2 diabetes or not, resistance training is an effective way to manage your blood sugar levels. Not only does building muscle improve your insulin sensitivity, but when you are training, glucose is removed from your blood and sent to your muscles for energy.
Strength training also can reduce the chance of developing type 2 diabetes. In a study of more than 35,000 people assigned female at birth, people engaging in strength training had a 30% lower chance of developing the disease than those who did not.
4. Improves Heart Health
Most people believe that the only way to improve heart health is to engage in cardiovascular or aerobic activities. But research shows that strength training may be just as effective at boosting heart health as aerobic exercises.
For instance, a recent analysis found that people assigned female at birth who did 60 minutes to 120 minutes of resistance training per week had a 22% reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. These results were similar to doing 60 to 120 minutes of aerobic exercises.
5. Strengthens Bones
Strength training naturally puts stress on your bones. Doing so, sends signals to them to build up their strength.8 What’s more, this type of training can build bone density and structure as well as reduce your risk for osteoporosis.
For those who already have osteoporosis, researchers have found that alternating weights at 70% of your one rep minimum with weights of 50% of your one rep minimum twice a week increased bone mineral density in postmenopausal people with osteoporosis.9 (Your one rep minimum is the maximum weight you can lift in one repetition.)
6. Enhances Mobility and Flexibility
Maintaining mobility and flexibility are important to your overall wellbeing and quality of life. Plus, they allow you to move around easier, with less pain, and even improve your sports performance. In fact, there are multiple studies that show that doing at least three sets of multiple exercises increases a person’s flexibility.
More specifically, one study found using weights that were 40%, 60% and 80% of one rep maximum increased flexibility ranging from 3% to 12%, 6% to 22% and 8% to 28%, respectively.
7. Boosts Metabolism
When it comes to strength training, it impacts your metabolism in a number of ways. First, building muscle can increase your resting metabolic rate. In fact, one study found that after nine months of resistance training, resting metabolic rate increased by 5% on average, though it did vary somewhat among people.
Second, your body continues to burn calories even after you have finished your resistance training program.
8. Reduces Blood Pressure
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, affects approximately 1 billion people worldwide and accounts for nearly 14% of deaths caused by cardiovascular disease. But researchers are finding that resistance training could be used as a tool for reducing blood pressure.
In fact, one study found that engaging in strength training two or three days a week for at least eight weeks reduces blood pressure in people with hypertension.
9. Boosts Mood
Implementing a regular strength training routine can boost your mood in a number of ways. For instance, setting goals and committing to working out on a regular basis can build you sense of satisfaction, while the activity itself gives you a influx of endorphins that impact your mood as well.
There’s even evidence that a regular strength training routine may help reduce depressive symptoms regardless of a person’s health status.
10. Reduces Stress and Anxiety
Everyone knows that going for a walk or doing something physical can reduce stress or anxiety. But recent research shows that resistance training may also have the same effect. In fact, some studies show that it can be an effective way to reduce anxiety in both adults with a mental health condition as well as those without.17
11. Promotes Brain Health and Reduces Dementia Risk
If you participate in strength training, you may be promoting brain health as well as protecting it from cognitive decline. In fact, one study found that six months of strength training can help protect the brain from shrinkage in those especially vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease.
What’s more, studies of older adults have demonstrated that strength training can improve cognitive function including memory, processing speed, and executive function.
12. Reduces Risks of Falls or Injuries
When you participate in a regular strength training routine, you are building muscle and strength which helps support your balance, posture, and movement. This in turn, helps reduce the risk of injuries and falls and improves your overall functional ability.
In fact, one review of more than 23,000 people over age 60 found that those who regularly engaged in strength training along with balance exercises had a 34% reduced chance of falling.
13. Improves Well-Being and Quality of Life
Regular strength training also can improve your overall well-being and quality of life. Not only does it keep you active and able to go about your day-to-day activities, but it also can improve mental health, pain management, and vitality.
Meanwhile, some experts theorize that it also can influence chronic disease risk and contribute to healthy aging.
