If You’re NOT Resistance Training, You’re Missing OUT on all the benefits!

As I’m sure you already know, Exercise is one of the best things you can do for your health. What much of the population still doesn’t seem to know, are all the benefits of resistance training! According to a recent study, only 6% of adults do the recommended minimum strength training of 2-3 x/week.

Our muscles are so important. Without their support, we’d just be a pile of bones and organs, and we wouldn’t be able to move! A sad fact is that our muscle mass starts to deteriorate  in our 30’s, and after 40 we start to lose an average of 8 percent of our muscle mass every decade.  This process is called sarcopenia.

This relates to the onset of disease, limits mobility and has a detrimental effect on your bones. As we lose muscle with age, we consequently lose bone density as well. Our bones start to become brittle, a process called osteopenia.

 “The bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons in your musculoskeletal system all work together, and they either become stronger together or weaker together,” says Dr. Wayne Westcott, a professor of exercise science at Quincy College in Massachusetts. “Whenever you lose muscle you automatically lose bone – they go hand in hand.”

This puts you at much greater risk for: Osteoporosis, Arthritis, Chronic Back Pain, and Fractures.

Many people write this deterioration and other ailments off as an unchangeable process of aging. These people are really missing out. Enough studies show that you can slow and delay sarcopenia by years and even decades IF you follow a strength training program that works your entire body.

More Reasons to FIGHT BACK against Muscle LOSS:

• Live LONGER. In 2014, researchers followed about 4,000 healthy adults over the age of 55 for more than a decade and noticed that their muscle mass was tightly linked to their lifespans. The researchers did this by zeroing in on each person’s “muscle index” (muscle mass divided by your height squared). Those who were in the group with the highest muscle index had the lowest mortality, while those who had the lowest muscle index had the highest mortality rates. The research also showed that muscle index was an even better predictor of premature mortality than obesity.
  

• Improve Cardiovascular health. Resistance training with little rest in between sets increases blood flow throughout your body, which lowers your blood pressure and improves your VO2max (the measurement of the maximum amount of oxygen a person can utilize during intense exercise. It is used to establish the aerobic endurance )
  

• Regulate and dispose of blood sugar. Muscle soaks up glucose like a sponge, using it for energy or storing it as glycogen for later use.
  

• Makes you insulin SENSITIVE. To absorb glucose from your bloodstream, your muscle cells must be very responsive to the hormone insulin, which pushes the blood sugar into the cells. Type 2 Diabetes occurs when your muscles become insulin resistant. Weight training creates the opposite effect.
  

• Increase metabolism and lower body fat. The most visual result of losing muscle as we age is that we also get fatter. The average person gains about a pound of fat a year, in middle age. This means a dramatic shift in body composition and results in a slowing down of metabolism, which only perpetuates the issue. Before you get too depressed about this, read on. A recent study looked at the effects of diet and exercise on 250 people over the age of 60 to see how the different programs affected body composition. The group that did aerobic exercise lost 16 pounds of fat and 4 pounds of muscle, while The group that did RESISTANCE training lost more fat (18 pounds) and only lost 2 pounds of muscle!

Now that you realize the importance of building and maintaining muscle mass, you might be thinking, GREAT! Now how do I do this? What are the best exercises for me and what weights are enough for me to stimulate strength and muscle gain? You'll want your weight/reps to be challenging/intense enough to produce fatigue. For more info on how to CUSTOMIZE your workouts for building muscle, contact me today for a FREE SESSION!