You Need Resistance Training To Improve Your Life

If your not using resistance in your training, you should be, here is why

If you are a retired athlete, someone who just likes to stay fit, or someone who is thinking about getting fit and losing bodyfat and you think that you can just go out for a jog, hit a spinning class or a steady bike ride and think that these type of Aerobic activities will take care of all your fitness needs, you need to have a re-think!  You should include some type of resistance training that is movement based.

Why?

Well there are a couple of important reasons,

As you get older and you start to lose your muscle mass and strength, you will also start to lose Stability and Balance. With a loss of Stability and Balance your chances of a nasty fall in later life and being less mobile increase dramatically.  The reason for this is that as you get older and weaker you will naturally want to bring your centre of gravity closer to you, because in greater ranges of motion you will not have sufficient strength to remain stable, hence the reason you see many old persons in Western Civilizations shuffling about using small steps when they are going somewhere and you often hear about them falling over. Many older people do not have the muscular strength to support themselves any more when using greater movement ranges. If you have worked at a desk all yourworking life and have done no manual labour or training since you left school, BEWARE! 

We are here to enjoy life as far as I am concerned, and how can you enjoy life if you are shuffling about, struggle to get out of bed in a morning and suffer from aches and pains, many of which could be avoided if you did some form of resistance training. For you runners and Cardio Junkies out there, I am sorry, but you may have healthy heart’s and great lungs, but it isn’t going to do a lot for your body strength as you get older.  In fact, as the stresses and strains of constant hours of pounding the tarmac build up, you may find all the Cardio work is actually detrimental to your health, as your joints just can’t hack it anymore.  The good news is, that if you add some resistance training into your training programme it will most likely increase your longevity for Cardio Vascular activity as you’re Ligaments, Tendons and Muscle will be stronger and make you less prone to overuse injury, sprains and strains associated with running based activities.

Resistance training increases your Metabolic rate for far longer than Cardio activities, giving you greater fat burning ability when at rest for longer periods.  As your muscle mass increases, your body demands more calories to supply your muscles with nutrients, so you end up burning more calories when resting on a daily basis.

Resistance training on a regular basis may give you greater longevity performing in your favourite Sport 

 Having greater strength will help you in times of a crisis or emergency if you have to get yourself out of a situation that demands physical strength.

So surely after reading the above it is logical that you should be doing some type of resistance training if you don’t want to be physically hindered as you approach old age.

Resistance training can be:

1. Bodyweight training, using your own body to supply the resistance, exercises such as:

• Pull ups

• Push ups

• Squats

• Lunges

2. Resistance Band Training

• The use of specifically designed strong rubber training bands that allow you to vary resistance and do a large and varied resistance training programme.

3. Weight training

• Using Dumbbells, Barbells and Kettlebells, or home made training aids.

By starting out on a resistance training programme now and keeping it up on a regular basis, you may be able to look forward to being more mobile and athletic as you start getting older.

 From a personal point of view, I think it is hard to define old age, but I class onset of old age as when you start to say to yourself I can’t do that anymore I am too old.  By doing your resistance training and some metabolic conditioning on a regular basis there is no need to give up your favourite sport or pastime in your 30’s(where many people seem to give up), with the right training programme you can go on improving your physical strength for years longer than the general public's perception.  Your speed will suffer as you get older, but you can definitely stall the slowing down process by following a good strength and power training programme.

So don’t give up on yourself, start or keep working on your resistance training and look forward to a more rewarding later life.

Steve