Why Should I Do Resistance Training?

Why should I do resistance training? That question came up today in a setting in which I could only give a brief answer. Posting a blog article on the question seems a good place to give a more complete answer and give those who asked the question, as well as others who may have posed the same question to themselves, something they can hold on to and think about. There are distinct benefits to be gained from resistance or strength training that cannot be gained from aerobic training alone. In fact, aerobic training alone can potentially exacerbate sarcopenia, one of the health hazards faced by those who do not do resistance training. Below is a list of proven benefits of resistance training.

Resistance training promotes muscle hypertrophy - a somewhat unnecessary way of saying it promotes an increase in muscle size of 20% to 45%. Aside from the fact that it makes guys look buff, not itself a health benefit, what is the advantage of increasing muscle size?
1. Muscle is metabolically active. It burns calories. Other cells only vacuum up your unused calories and stores them as fat to be used later - maybe. We call those fat cells. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even at rest, and the fewer left-over calories you have to be stored as fat. That is good. It is good not only for the way you look and the way you feel; it is good for your health and especially your heart.
2. Increasing muscle size help control and slow sarcopenia (the loss of muscle). In early to mid thirties men and women begin to lose muscle mass of about 1% per year. That does not seem like such a big deal; however, very few are found alive once they pass the 40% lean body mass line. Think about that. If you begin to lose muscle mass at a 1% rate when you are 35 years old and do nothing to correct or slow the process, 75 years old is it. If you did little in your teens and twenties to increase your muscle mass and are still doing nothing, the process can begin as early as 30 and increase at a slightly faster rate.
3. Resistance training helps increase and maintain strength allowing you to enjoy independence and activities late into life. 

4. No ladies, unless you ingest large quantities of testosterone and/or steroids, you are not going to become muscle bound.

Resistance training stimulates bone growth and may be the number one preventative measure you can take to avoid osteoporosis. Because women begin with smaller thinner bone than men and suffer a sharp decrease in bone protecting estrogen at menopause, osteoporosis is much more prevalent in women. That said, listen up guys, men are not immune to osteoporosis and the less skeletal loading men do the more susceptible they are to osteoporosis. As it is with the promotion of muscle growth, the earlier in we life begin skeletal loading; i.e. the sooner we begin activities that promote bone health and thickness, the better prepared we are for later years.  Because effectively stimulating bone growth needs progressive overload and load variation as well as the targeting of skeletal areas most susceptible to failure due to bone loss, seeking a personal trainer may be a good choice.

Resistance training has a positive impact on weight management. By decreasing body fat and increasing metabolically active fat-free mass as well as increasing post-exercise energy expenditure resistance exercise encourages the maintenance and progression of weight loss. 

Resistance training improves glucose tolerance, makes muscles more sensitive to insulin and helps prevent and control Type II diabetes as well as aiding in controlling Type I diabetes.

Resistance training helps promote healthy changes in blood lipid profiles; i.e. cholesterol levels.

Studies referenced: Staron et al., 1991;  Conroy, Kraemer, Maresh, and Dalshy, 1992; Young and Steinhard, 1995; Kokkinos and Hurley, 1990; Hurley et al, 1988; Smutck, Reece and Kokkinos, 1993