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Why strength training is the best exercise
- Aug 19, 2022
- 10 min read
Updated: Dec 8, 2022
What will shock you is that only 30.2 % of the US population engage in the only form of exercise that can most effectively save them from obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, chronic pain, premature aging, depression, anxiety, and life-crushing illnesses.
Only 30,2% are doing the form of exercise that guarantees them an attractive, fit body, and a significant increase in their quality of life!
What is that one activity you might ask?
- It is resistance training, a system of muscle-strengthening exercises and techniques.
What's the problem with cardio?
First of all, it is important to note that exercise, in general, is great for you, as long as you are enjoying what you are doing and are consistent with it.
However, if you have limited opportunities to exercise, let's say 2-3 times a week, then strength training is the superior option.
Now, let's look at what's wrong with other forms of exercise, which is basically aerobic or cardio activities.
Cardio, other known as aerobic exercise, is any form of a repetitive period of time that promotes the circulation of oxygen through your blood. When doing cardio, you inhale more oxygen, which makes you breathe faster. Your heart beats harder too. It's a good workout for your heart, as it becomes more efficient at taking in oxygen and supplying it to every part of your body.
Cardio is important for our heart health. However, there a few misconceptions about aerobic exercise:
1. "You must do cardio to lose weight"- told and heard by many
This is not true. The relationship between cardio and fat loss is greatly misunderstood, especially in the context of modern life. With consistent aerobic exercise, our body adapts to it by making itself more efficient at using fewer calories each time. Why does that happen? If you look at our ancient history as human beings, our ancestors had to stay without food for long periods of time due to its scarcity. They were hunter-gatherers, with no transportation methods other than their feet and animals. Their body learned how to burn fewer calories because it was required for survival. You might be surprised, but thousands of years later, our modern body plays by the same rules. However, unlike our ancestors, our lifestyles are very inactive, and food is everywhere.
The best insurance against these modern-life factors is to get faster metabolism, which just cannot be accomplished with cardio.
Metabolism - is basically a combination of all the chemical reactions in the body's cells to convert food into energy. Our bodies need this energy to do essentially anything, from moving, to growing, repairing itself, and even thinking. So, metabolism is essential for our body to function properly.
Now, when our body needs to conserve energy for its functioning, it would become more efficient with its calories and make the metabolism process slower. This would have been an advantage in the ancient times, as the food was scarce. However, it has a drawback - people with slow metabolism would have difficulties in burning fat.
So, if your goal is to burn fat - you would not want an efficient metabolism, you want one which burns a lot of calories, even when you are just sitting behind your desk.
Exercise can really speed up your metabolism, if you opt for a right one. But it is not cardio, and here is why:
Whenever you exercise, you put your body under stress, after which your body "adapts" to this stress , so you can get better at it next time. When you run for a first time, you heart goes over and beyond, your muscles are burning, the activity feels hard. But it gets easier over time, so the only option you have is to do more and more cardio continuously. This is your body adapting to the stress. Now, until when will you be running to keep the results coming? 2 hours? 3 hours? In this busy world, it is just not sustainable to be consistent long-term, but necessary to burn fat.
Any exercise sends a signal to get better in the activity you perform. With cardio it means "get better in using less energy while doing it", so it does not feel as hard next time. Aerobic exercise adapts your body to use less calories, and reduces it's primary calorie-burning tissue, which is muscle. That's why long distance runners have very little muscle, they are very calorie-efficient. As such, metabolism slows down by reducing the muscle, which consumes a lot of calories. Another example is prisoners of war, who could survive off hundred calories a day, but they were left with a weak body without muscle mass.
The bottom line is - the less muscle you have, the less calories you burn in sedentary state, and the slower your metabolism becomes, the more difficult it gets to burn fat. It is quite simple.
2. "Cardio is the best exercise for health"
It is worth mentioning that there is no way we are saying that you should never do cardio. It is a great form of exercise, which is affordable, easy and quite beneficial for cardio-vascular strength. If you have time, it is a great idea to add aerobic activities like going for a 30-60 minutes walk 2-3 times a week, or adding it at the end of a workout. BUT IT SHOULD NOT BE ABUSED!
Inappropriate amount of cardio without proper strength training, can result in pretty serious health conditions, together with a slower metabolism.
Some of such health conditions include:
Heart complications. Researchers found that high levels of exercise may cause stress on the overies leading to higher coronary artery calcium (CAC) buildup - predictor of heart disease. This research has involved 3,200 people, who were monitored over 25 years, starting from their young age. Those who exercised 3 times more the recommended amount (450 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week), had 27% higher risk developing CAC, when compared to those exercising the least.
Longevity issues. Exercise is supposed to promote longevity, but overdoing it may cause some problems. The Copenhagen City Heart Study with a sample over 19,300 people of different sexes and races, has shown that moderate joggers (average pace 4 hours a week) had a 3x increased risk of dying compared to light joggers (<2,5 hours a week). For excessive joggers, the risk of dying was 9 times higher.
Repetitive stress injuries. Depending on the type of cardio you are doing, your joints can take a toll. It occurs because cardio usually involves a set type of movement that you do repetitively, usually disregarding the balance.
Low energy. Your body would not be able to adequately recover from constant overexercising, such as demanding growing performance of cardio to improve the progress. Without a proper recovery, it is quite difficult for your body to stay energized and have the optimal immunity level.
Good news is - there is a better way to lose body fat, become healthful and fight aging! - Any form of exercise that would help you build muscle!
The reason behind it is that muscle is an important, metabolically active tissue, meaning they require a lot of calories just to maintain themselves. If your don't use that muscle, or increase its mass, your body get the signal "hey, we don't need it anymore". To reserve its precious energy, it would start getting rid of it. Muscle is very expensive calorie-wise, so your body will get rid of it if does not receive the right signal, in an attempt to become more efficient and slow down metabolism.
When you do resistance training properly, you send the right signal to your body - "hey, we need some strength, we need to retain and build the muscle".
10 reasons why strength training is the answer!
1. If you have more muscle - you will burn more fat. Muscle is greedy when it comes to calories (which is good for us), and it accounts for a huge proportion of your body's daily total calorie burn. The more muscle you have - the more calories you burn, even when seated. They also burn more when they consistently get "we have to get stronger" signal, which your body receives after strength training.
Although cardio also uses muscles, they are actually utilized differently than when you lift weights or do other strength-based training. Cardio needs a lot of endurance and little strength, which again makes your body become more efficient in using calories, so you can run or walk longer with less energy. Together with using less muscles, you are sending the signal to encourage muscle loss.
But we want a faster metabolism, so we want MORE MUSCLE. Thus, for a sustained, faster metabolism, resistance training is the best form of exercise.
2. Helps to prevent and manage type 2 diabetes and other metabolic syndromes. According to systematic research, strength-training has shown to reduce insulin sensitivity, improve insulin and glucose homeostasis, reduced adipose visceral tissue (fat on organs), and decrease glycosilated hemoglobin. Furthermore, it has shown that resistance training may be preferable to aerobic exercise for improving insulin sensitivity.
3. It helps you to sculpt your body. You can literally architect your body in a way you want - achieve an hourglass shape by growing wider shoulders and glutes, regardless whether your waist is genetically small. You can change how any part of your body looks according to your aesthetic goals.
Want round butt? - do glute-focused exercises, wanna sculpted arms?- do more arm-focused strength training. You literally build your own shape, instead of your body deciding where to lose and where to add.
Because resistance training shapes and builds your muscle, it gives you a tool to aesthetically change the way you look.
4. Build strength. When you do strength training, you are literally training to get stronger every time you work out. With other forms of exercise, you will always have a limit to "how far" you can go. With resistance training, as soon as it gets too easy, you can add more weight, more resistance, change the tempo, focus on your form.. There are almost limitless ways to make it harder for yourself while not jeopardizing your health and cause injuries. PS. increasing the weight is not the only way, remember! Strength training is not about lifting as much as you can. It is about the balance between your ability to perform with the best form possible, weight lifted, and tempo with which you are performing the exercise! It is not all about weight!
5. Increases bone strength. Strength training does not just build muscle, it also builds bones!!! Through applying resistance, your bone density increases and they become stronger! Just like muscle, they get through stress and go through adaptation, which requires them to get stronger each time you train for strength. And it does not matter what age you are, it was proven to work even in the elderly! The study review has screened 1500 articles and went through 33 studies on how strength-training affects elderly participants. It was found that 20 to 30 minutes of strength (resistance) training, 2 to 3 times per week, positively affects risk factors for cardiovascular disorders, cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Furthermore, progressive strength (resistance) training is accepted in treating sarcopenia and to improve postural control.
Still not convinced? Let's continue then!
6. Strength training helps to balance your hormones. Hormones are basically messengers that help your body regulate cell, tissue, and organ functions, affecting everything from stimulating fat burning, and the female menstrual cycle to building muscle. Well-known estrogen, testosterone, and insulin are affected by the growth hormone, which is generated by volume and intensity through resistance training.
Your growth hormone can be elevated through body fat reduction and achieving higher intensity each time you are training, all of which can be achieved with strength training.
7. Strength training provides us with many anti-aging properties. By building muscle and strengthening bones, you prevent the well-studied muscle loss that we get when we age. According to research: "muscle mass decreases approximately 3–8% per decade after the age of 30 and this rate of decline is even higher after the age of 60. This involuntary loss of muscle mass, strength, and function is a fundamental cause of and contributor to disability in older people". The good news is it's never too late to start! It was well-established that you can build up that muscle mass and bone density no matter your age, sex, race, or any other factor!
Furthermore, it increases the influence of the growth hormone on fibroblast cells, which are responsible for collagen production. Yes, you DO NOT NEED TO TAKE collagen. Just get to resistance training if you want a non-surgical facelift!
8. Strength training improves your self-confidence! Yes, you heard it right! This is not just based on personal experience, hear us out here! Resistance training will push you to overcome challenges, work toward your goals, and appreciate your body’s strength. Especially, it can increase your self-efficacy — the belief that you’re able to succeed at or perform a task — which can greatly improve your confidence! Moreover, a review that systematically studied 754 individuals showed a significant link between strength training and positive body image, including body satisfaction, appearance, and social physique anxiety (the perception of judgment from others).
9. Improve your mental health. Studies by Annesi et al. have shown that 10 weeks of combined resistance training and aerobic activity improves significantly physical self-concept, total mood disturbance, depression, fatigue, positive engagement, revitalization, tranquility, and tension in adults and older adults. Moreover, in a classic study, Singh et al. found that more than 80% of the depressed elders who performed three weekly sessions of resistance training were no longer clinically depressed after just 10 weeks of exercise. Based on these studies, it would appear that resistance training is associated with reduced depression levels in older adults.
10. Strength training is the only form of exercise you will need to promote the best quality of life! As we have identified before, with all those benefits, it is not difficult to see how resistance training improves physical and mental health. In fact, one review of 16 studies including adults ages 50 years and older showed a significant correlation between resistance training and better mental health, physical functioning, pain management, general health, and vitality. Furthermore, it can significantly better the quality of life of those suffering from arthritis, as it has been shown to improve scores in pain and physical functioning in such adults.
Speaking from personal experience, from 2 women aged 27 and 50, we can say with 100% confidence that all those benefits are for real. We used to be crazy runners, doing 10-15 km marathons DAILY. Ever since we started strength training, we have never looked back!
This is exactly why we have put strength training at the cornerstone of Alyana Fit programs and have created a unique science-based approach to strength training made for women! We want to make strength training accessible, so women do not need to fear the weights anymore, because we want all of you to derive the benefits that we have achieved ourselves!
So, are you ready to start taking care of and investing in yourself, in your body, in your health, longevity, physical and mental well-being?
Are you scared that the technique is too difficult or do you lack the time or money to get a personal trainer? Are you afraid of being judged?
- Don't you worry! We got you! No matter your age, location, fitness level, and knowledge, join us at Alyana Fit! Through our unique approach, we will provide you with all the tools you will need to ace strength training, nutrition, and psychology of training! You will be able to structure your nutrition, and training the way you want! Train and learn anywhere with us!
Let's improve your quality of life together!
Yours,
Sources:
1. https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(18)32137-8/fulltext
2. https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/benefits-of-strength-training#benefits
3. https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/fulltext/2012/07000/resistancetrainingismedicineeffectsof.13.aspx
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804956/#R4
6. https://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/a19921172/how-working-out-can-help-your-skin-look-younger/
7. Sal Di Stefano, "The Resistance Training Revolution".
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