I am all for everyone loving and choosing their own form of exercise. There is certainly no lack of options between bodybuilding, powerlifting, Olympic weight lifting, CrossFit and the list goes on and on. What is even better is we don’t all have to do the same weight training or exercise to build muscular strength, muscular endurance, or even become better athletes. There are several ways to workout, and you can do more than one, to reach your fitness goals. 

Why You Need To Like What You do

I appreciate people focusing on their favorite genre of resistance training. I find this important in my experience as if you’re not doing what you like, chances are you’ll stop at some point. If you stop training, your strength gains will suffer and you will likely never reach your goals. Anytime someone is taking steps to improve their health, I am all for it, no matter what way they want to do it. While everyone has their own means to get into their best health their own way, I have learned over the years that strength training has a place for everyone! 

Why Strength Training?

Whether you like lifting weights, running long distances or hurling trees and axes for sport, what has always attracted me to strength training is when you put in the hard work and are consistent, your results will show. 

Physique Improvements

You can physically see results and the only person you have to depend, or blame is you. I have also been enamored with strength gains, building muscle (naturally – by personal choice) improving sports performance, and generally just trying to become a healthier person. Lifting weights is one of the best ways to accomplish all of these goals but at one time, it was only thought to be for those who want to have massive muscles.

It’s About More Than Just A Better Body

There is certainly nothing wrong with wanting to work all of your muscle fibers toward a better body. This is exactly why I train. But you can also relieve stress from your day job and many work out for this reason alone. It is more common than you think. Through the years, research has shown that strength training and lifting weights are one of the most beneficial things you can do for your body and there’s a place for strength training in everyone’s routine. Not only will it help you achieve the body of your dreams, but it’s also essential for aging gracefully and building a body that performs and functions well. So if I still have not convinced you of the benefits, take a look at some other reasons to make this a part of your fitness regimen.

The Many (but not exhaustive) Reasons To Incorporate Strength Training

• Your day-to-day activities become easier. Moving furniture, picking up kids and doing yard work all becomes easier. Who wouldn’t want your daily activities to be easier?
• Strengthening muscles helps reduce the chances of injury. The stronger we are, the better we can protect ourselves from injuries. This can mean being a stronger strength athlete, improved sports performance, or just better lifts at the gym.
• You will preserve muscle mass during weight loss and as you age. One of the worst aspects of aging is muscle lossand the reduction in what we are capable of doing in our day-to-day functioning. Why not prolong your ability to be independent?
• You’ll have more muscle, a higher metabolism, more daily fat loss, even when you are at rest. For every pound of muscle you gain, you burn an additional ~50 calories a day. For a male, they can gain 35-50 pounds of musclenaturally and women between 20-40 pounds. Think about how many extra calories that burns and how good you’ll look with that muscle. You will look darn good naked!
• Strength training increases bone density. Again, another long-term benefit for ou bodies as we age.
• Getting stronger and looking better builds confidence. Taking on the world baby! There is nothing like the confidence we build as we see our bench press, squat, and deadlift numbers consistently going up.
• Lifting weights helps improve sleep patterns and increases your deep sleep.
• Strength training and increasing muscle mass reduces a number of risks for diseases like; diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases and a slew of others.
• You’ll look great naked – this should probably be moved up to #1! Yes, I know this was mentioned twice. We want to look god for ourselves but also for our significant others.

Building muscle gets more out of your life and the advantages listed above are only a portion of all the potential benefits. So whether you enjoy; Powerlifting, Bodybuilding, Weightlifting, improving core strength, Yoga, Strongman contests, or anything else that involves lifting weights, get the most out of your life and your results and put on some darn muscle!