How can Weight Training Help Me?

Weight training involves lifting weights and using resistance devices to cause your muscles to contract in response. There are many benefits for those who partake in weight training and a couple of misconceptions that hopefully this article will resolve.

The Facts

The benefits of weight training include:

• Helps to build strength and stimulates muscle growth.
• It makes you happy! Weight lifting releases feel good endorphins in the brain, which helps to alleviate harmful feelings of anxiety and depression.
• Reduces the risk of Osteoporosis by strengthening bones and increasing bone density.
• Makes you less likely to suffer from back ache or back problems because weight training strengthens ligaments and tendons, making them less likely to be strained or pulled.
• Improves your posture which can instantly make you look slimmer.
• Speeds up the metabolism by up to 15%, allowing greater calorie burn which leads to weight loss.
• New found strength will build confidence and is great for your self esteem.
• Can actually reverse mid-life metabolic decline, making you feel younger and slimmer.
• Your immune system will benefit and will be able to fight off disease and infection far more successfully.
• Will improve your balance and co-ordination which will benefit you in other exercises and sports as well as in your day to day life.
• Weight training decreases your chances of developing diabetes.

The Fiction:

• Many women believe that weight training is strictly for men and that they don’t have the physical strength to do this type of exercise. This is not true at all, everyone can benefit from weight training, regardless of gender.
• Another common misconception is that weight training will give woman obscenely large muscles. Again this is very far from the truth. Weight training can only give women toned muscles. Women simply do not produce enough testosterone to develop huge muscles. This image probably derives from pictures of female bodybuilders who may use supplements and devote a lot of time competitively training. Women will not get anywhere near this type of result by doing an average weight resistance work out.
• It is often presumed that aerobic and cardiovascular exercise is preferable to weight training due to the larger amounts of calories burned when actually, for every pound of muscle gained by weight training, 50 more calories are burned every day. Weight training increases your body’s ability to burn calories... even when you’re sleeping.
Conclusion:
In summary, weight training reduces your chances of developing a number of health complications, increases your metabolism and your potential to burn calories, helps you stay slim and healthy and can be enjoyed by both men and women. Perhaps it’s time to give weight training a try and see the results!