Benefits of Resistance Training: More Than Just Muscles

Hey friends,

Resistance training. Lifting weights. Strength building.

Whatever you wanna call it, I’m excited because this week we’re jumping into one of my personal favorite topics. While it’s true that lifting weights can help you get bigger muscles, this week I’m gonna focus on exploring the many benefits of weight lifting that go beyond the visual appearance of your muscles.

Whether you are a seasoned veteran who has been lifting weights for years or someone who has never touched a dumbbell in your life, this week’s newsletter will shed some light on how beneficial weight training is and why you should incorporate it into your fitness routine.

1. Improves Bone Density

Resistance training encourages bone growth and increases bone density as the body adapts to bear the load you are placing on it through resistance training.

This helps to reduce the risk of general fractures as well as more chronic conditions such as osteoporosis.

Bone health is something that declines as we age, so resistance training is especially important for older adults to help combat these natural age-related changes.

2. Increase Metabolic Rate

Increasing the amount of muscle in your body increases your basal metabolic rate, which is essentially how many calories your body burns simply by existing without factoring in exercise.

This can help in the maintenance of a healthy body composition (having more muscle and less fat on your body) over the long term.

3. Improves Functional Abilities

Lifting weights strengthens the muscles you use to perform daily activities, meaning that lifting weights could make going up stairs or lifting your groceries easier for example.

It also improves your ability to play with your children (or grandchildren) as you get older because your body is better prepared for the stress of regular activity.

Resistance training will improve your outcomes of all sorts of activities that you partake in just going through life.

4. Supports Joint Health

Strengthening your muscles helps to provide support and stability to your joints, thus decreasing aches and pains that are common for many people.

As someone who works full time in an orthopedic clinic, trust me when I say that your knees, hips, and shoulders will thank you for strengthening your muscles.

Having strong muscles reduces your risk of injury and allows for greater mobility of your joints (which non coincidentally aligns with the functional abilities I just talked about in point number 3).

5. Improved Weight Management

Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat does at rest, which is why your basal metabolic rate goes up as I mentioned in point number 2. This makes for easier management of a healthy weight.

Having a healthy weight decreases your chances of (almost) all chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure.

Maintaining a healthy weight also helps to decrease the load on your body, reducing chronic pain levels in your back and joints.

6. Stronger Mental Health

Lifting weights releases natural endorphins that help to lift your mood. This can reduce depressive episodes or help with managing anxiety.

Resistance training is also an excellent stress reliever, allowing you to get rid of any frustrations or difficulties you might be having in life via a healthy way (instead of turning to something like drugs or alcohol to “relax”).

Reduced stress, anxiety, and depression help to provide increased happiness and satisfaction with your life.

Plus, lifting weights is just hard. Doing hard things can simply make you feel more accomplished about yourself. It’s always a benefit in my eyes to increase the number of opportunities you have for positive self talk.

7. Improved Balance and Coordination

Strengthening your muscles, especially your legs and core, helps to enhance your stability and spatial awareness. This helps to reduce falls and promotes long term independence.

Declining balance as we age is one of the biggest reasons individuals lose their independence and require a greater level of assistance for daily life activities such as bathing or cooking meals.

8. Cardiovascular Health

People most commonly think of doing cardio such as running or biking when they talk about cardiovascular health, but lifting weights is also beneficial for your heart.

Lifting weights reduces blood pressure and inflammation as well as improves cholesterol levels.

While resistance training, your muscles need increased blood flow which improves circulation and cardiac output.

Having a healthy heart is essential for decreasing risk of chronic health conditions and increasing longevity. According to CDC health statistics, heart disease is the leading cause of death in America.

9. Better Posture

Having stronger muscles improves your body’s ability to hold yourself upright properly, helping to reduce aches and pains. Poor posture is one of the biggest causes of back and shoulder pain.

In society today we are chronically hunched forward from looking at screens and sitting at desks for long periods. Strengthening your upper back and shoulder muscles is essential to combat this.

Good posture also plays a role into your appearance and confidence in yourself. Improving your confidence in yourself has positive mental impacts, tying in with point number 6 above.

10. Increases lifespan and healthspan

You can combine all the previous tips in order to arrive at this one, which is the ultimate goal in my opinion.

Lifespan simply refers to how long you are alive, whereas healthspan refers to how long you are alive, functioning and healthy. The difference between them is living life as opposed to just being alive.

Luckily for you, weight lifting will help you to improve both so that you can have a longer, happier life.

Maybe you don’t care about being “jacked” or looking muscular, but hopefully I convinced you at least a little bit this week why everyone needs to be strength training. There are so many benefits to lifting weights beyond just how you look in the mirror.

To give you one simple takeaway from this week : Muscle = Good.

So now you understand why lifting weights is beneficial for you, but how do you get started? How often do you need to be lifting weights? What exercises should you be doing? How do you avoid injury while lifting weights? Do you train with free weights or with machines?

Patience padawan.

If you have some of these questions, don’t worry! I’ve talked to countless people who’ve had these questions or something similar. I’ll talk about specifics more as we go, this week was just meant to serve as an introduction.

In future weeks, I will be going through answers to these questions and many more. Next week’s newsletter I’m gonna tackle the questions “How do I choose a gym and do I even need a gym membership?”

Ben’s Best

• My obsession this week was this apple pie overnight oats recipe. Never in my life have I been into overnight oats, but decided to give this recipe a try and it was phenomenal! Made it every day and brought it with me to work.

• My meal prep for the week: sloppy joe bowls. The flavor combos in these were fantastic. If you are trying to lose weight it would be easy to add veggies for volume, or add more sweet potato if you are trying to build muscle.

Podcasts from the week:

• Mind Pump 2356: Why Cardio for Fat Loss Sucks, How to Prevent Muscle Loss When Reducing Training, the Truth About Dietary Cholesterol & More (Listener Live Coaching)

• Huberman lab: Perform with Dr. Andy Galpin: How & Why to Strengthen Your Heart & Cardiovascular Fitness

Did this yoga video this week. It was a great one for balance and hip mobility.

Weekly Action Points

I want you to take five minutes this week to just reflect on some questions honestly. Here’s what I want you to think about:

• How experienced am I as a weight lifter?

• If I haven’t done much weight lifting, why is that? What parts of weight lifting do I dislike that are keeping me away?

or

• If I have done a lot of weight lifting, do I feel I am getting stronger? If not, why? What do I enjoy about weight lifting?

• What fears or concerns do I have in regards to weight lifting? Are these concerns realistic or just in my head?

• In your opinion, do I think it’s better to lift weights in the morning or evening?

• What do I know about nutrition in regards to weight lifting? - No wrong answers here, I want you do actually try and brainstorm just to see what comes to mind

❗️It would be helpful as a reflection exercise to write out your answers to these questions. I want you to ACTUALLY think about responses to these questions. It shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes out of your week.❗️ 

Exercise goal for the week: For the first time in this newsletter series I am going to give you a daily step goal if you have some sort of step tracker. Try to hit 7,000 steps every day this week, however you need to do it.

I know so many people talk about 10,000 steps as some sort of gold standard to achieve per day, but it’s an arbitrary made up number. So instead I’m saying 7,000 because for anyone with a full time job sitting at a desk, 7,000 is enough that you have to make conscious decisions to get up and walk around in order to hit your step goal.

If you don’t have a step tracker, aim for at least 20 minutes of total walking time each day. This time plus the steps you take just going about your day would likely get you to around 7,000.

Nutrition goal for the week: Every time you eat this week, eat your protein before eating other foods. You don’t have to change anything about your food choices, just choose to eat your protein before the other groups.

So eat your meat before your potatoes, your eggs before your oatmeal, your cottage cheese before your berries or whatever other foods you are eating.

Protein is the most filling macronutrient, so eating your protein first can help fill you up quicker and prevent over eating. Eating protein first in your meal is a simple way to monitor calories and hit protein goals, two things that benefit almost everyone.

Thanks for reading about my number one favorite topic in health/fitness to talk about. If you are sticking around each week, this won’t be the last time you hear me talking about all the benefits of weight training. I’m on a mission to get as many people behind the benefits of regular strength training as possible.

Have a fantastic week!

Ben