The Importance Of Strength Training

When we think of strength training we often think of muscle-bound puffing out their pumped up arms and chests, eating chicken, rice and broccoli day in day out.

And even when we do some resistance training it’s often more for aesthetical reasons that health gains but, having an optimal amount of lean muscle tissue is important for many more reasons other than looking like a movie star.

Having a good proportion of muscle tissue in the body carries a wide array of benefits for everyone.  In fact, it’s essential to ensure you continue to lead a fit, active and independent life for as long as possible.

So, let’s discuss a few reasons why increasing lean muscle tissue is important for more than just looking good on your family beach vacation!

Increased Caloric Expenditure

Most of us know that in order to prevent excess weight gain, the number of calories we consume must be equal to or less than the amount consumed. This is a very straightforward equation. However, when thinking of ways to put this into action, we tend to do one of two things. The first idea is usually attempting to burn excess calories through some form of exercise, usually cardio. The second method is to cut back on the number of calories consumed each day.

While both of these options are beneficial in that they will get the job done, having more lean muscle tissue in the body also burns calories, but in a much more passive way.

Not only does muscle have relatively high oxygen and nutrient demand, but it also maintains a higher temperature than fat or skin. Because of these requirements, lean muscle mass burns a pretty significant amount of calories even at rest. Put simply, the more lean muscle present in your body, the more calories you will burn doing absolutely nothing. Consider this the anatomical version of passive income.

Maintained Vitality With Age

As we age, there are some inevitable declines throughout the body. One of these unfortunate processes is a decrease in overall muscle tissue. As this deterioration of muscle mass happens it puts you at risk for a wide array of injuries and decreased physical ability.

The solution to this issue is to ensure you work on maintaining your existing muscle mass.  However, this does not mean you should try to pack on as much muscle as possible in your younger years and cease working out at a certain age. At every stage of life, we still have the ability to gain muscle as long as we adhere to the basic principles of this process: regular exercise and sufficient nutrition. Long story short, the more muscle mass you have to lose, the less of a decrease in vitality and function you will experience over the course of your lifetime.

Enhanced Immune Function

The immune system works day in and day out to ward off almost constant threats of illness. When illness does occur, this system fights the intruder head on to maintain and restore normal function in the body. When thinking of ways to fortify the immune system, we often turn to vitamin C supplements and other pharmaceuticals to get the job done.

Another method for strengthening the immune system is to increase lean muscle mass. During periods when the immune system is working overtime to maintain your health, there is often a shortage of fuel.

When this occurs, the body actually begins breaking down protein stored in muscle tissue to keep pushing forward. Naturally, the more lean muscle tissue your immune system has available to pull from, the stronger the system becomes as a whole!

I know that there will be some people reading this who will be thinking, but I don’t want to get bulky.  TBH I’m talking about ladies here.  Well, you won’t.  Although you can improve your body composition and increase your muscle mass with a couple of half our resistance sessions a week, it’ takes much, much more to bulk up.

Bodybuilders that you see workout A LOT and they eat masses, absolutely masses of the right foods at the right times.  It takes years of dedication and extremely hard work and control of your diet to look like that and the majority of us just can’t do it, even if we wanted to.