While any type of movement is beneficial to your health and wellness, I believe that strength training is the king of all exercise, when it comes to improving your body composition (the way you look). It is the difference between looking lean and “jacked” versus just looking “skinny”.
It has become such a major part of my life, even still at the age of 40. The reasons are simple.
- It builds muscle.
- It burns fat.
- It helps maintain muscle, while you’re losing fat.
- It bleeds over into every other aspect of your life.
- It is easy to track progression (get stronger)
- It doesn’t require you to sweat profusely
- It positively affects your mental health
- It gives you self-confidence
- It provides many health benefits
- Strength Training Builds Muscle
It is no secret that lifting weights builds muscle. Every time you do a strength training exercise, it produces tension on the muscle that you are training. Tiny, microscopic tears occur in the muscle, each time you train that muscle. Lifting weights essentially temporarily damages the muscle.
After you’re done the workout is when the magic happens. The muscle starts to repair itself. Through rest, nutrition and recovery, the muscle repairs the damage that you inflicted on it, causing it to be stronger (and bigger) than it was previously. Done so repeatedly over weeks, months, years and decades, causes the muscle to constantly be damaged, repaired, recovered and then strengthened. This is why you get stronger, the longer you lift weights. Your muscles are constantly adapting to new loads, which allows them to lift heavier weights, which makes them grow.
Now if you’re a female and you are worried about getting too big and “bulky”, there is no reason to worry. Myself, along with millions of other people have been lifting weights for decades, with the goal of getting “too big” and are still far off from that goal. I can tell you that it will likely never happen.
2. Strength Training Burns Fat
Like any type of movement or activity, strength training burns calories, which will allow you to lose fat. Plus, the more lean mass (muscle) you have on your body, the greater your metabolism will be, which will allow your body to burn more fat, even at rest. This allows you to eat more food.
More muscle = Burn More Fat = Eat More Food.
Sounds like a win to me.
3. Strength Training Protects Your Muscle During Fat Loss
Strength training helps to maintain your hard earned muscle, even when you are in a caloric deficit (a fat loss phase). The way to keep muscle is the same way to build muscle. Strength training. Lifting weights during a fat loss phase, helps you not only burn more fat, but is also the only way to maintain the muscle that you already have. There is no point in losing a ton of fat, while at the same time losing most of the muscle you have. You will end up looking weak, skinny and frail. This is not the look we are after. We are after the strong, sexy look.
During a fat loss phase, where you are really trying to lean down, it is very important that you continue to strength train, so that you keep all the muscle that you have. Strive for as long as possible to keep making progress in your lifts, even during a fat loss phase. The leaner you get, the more likely that you will start to lose muscle and strength. This is a major reason why you need to keep lifting and keep your protein intake at around 1 gram per pound of body weight.
The main goal of a fat loss phase is simple. Lose as much fat as possible, while maintaining as much muscle as possible. This will give you that strong, lean and healthy look that you are after.
4. Strength Training Gains Lead to Gains in Life
One of the reasons why I love strength training so much is that the positive effects bleed over into every other aspect of my life. When I get a workout in, I show up better. At work, at home, with my wife and kids, I am more present and a better man.
I get a lot of confidence from getting that workout in, knowing that I am one step closer to my goals. I carry that confidence with me in every other aspect of life. I eat healthier because I don’t want the workout to go to waste. I walk into a room with my head held high, ready for any challenge life or work has to throw at me. I know that I did a hard thing and I can do other hard things as a result. I’m sharper. I’m more confident. I’m unstoppable.
It’s one of the things in my life that I know I need to do and I have made a lifelong promise to myself to make sure it gets done on a regular basis. When I show up and get it done, it’s one more promise to myself that I followed through on. This is why my self-confidence is so high after it’s done. I know that I am stronger than yesterday, even if it’s by one more rep. I am a better version of myself.
Strength training positively affects my mental health. This is likely the number one reason why I train. I could be mad, sad, depressed or anxious. But if I go in the gym, crank the music and lift weights for 45 minutes, I emerge a new man. It anchors me. The positive chemicals such as dopamine and endorphins that are released during exercise, almost completely wipe out any negativity I had. If not, at least it gave me 45 minutes of reprieve from the problem and maybe I now have a fresh perspective.
5. It’s Easy to Track Progression with Progressive Overload
Progression is the key to your muscles growing. Your muscles need to be stimulated and challenged progressively more over time. The best way to do this is through Progressive Overload. This involves lifting either more weight or more reps on a specific exercise over time.
For example, let’s say your Shoulder Press on day 1 was as follows: 90lbs X 9 reps, 90lbs X 9 and 90lbs X 9 The next time you do the Shoulder Press (after adequate rest), you should strive to do 90lbs X 10 reps, 90lbs X 9 and 90lbs X 9. You have now done one more rep than you did last time. If you don’t track your workouts, you will have no idea what you did in the previous workout and you will be simply guessing. Always track and always strive for one more rep. This is progressive overload.
Let’s say you are working in a rep range of 8-12. Once you do all three sets of the shoulder press at 12 reps, it’s time to up the weight by 5-10lbs. This will allow you to keep progressing and stay within the rep range of 8-12. Your next workout will likely be 3 sets of 100lbs X 8 reps. If you can’t hit 8 reps, lower than weight to 95 lbs, so that you stay in the rep range of 8-12.
This way of progressing is the key to long term growth in the gym. It’s very important you start very light and build up over time. We’re playing the long game here. This is something you will be doing for the rest of your life. Take your time, be safe and over time you will be lifting much heavier weights and looking amazing.
6. Strength Training is Relatively Easy
Strength training does not require you to sweat profusely, go balls to the wall or risk significant injury. All that it requires you to do is learn the basics, start light and do one more rep than the last time you lifted. I barely sweat during my workouts. Of course, you can ramp up the intensity with supersets and circuits, if that’s what you are into. Ultimately, the entire goal of strength training is to tax the muscle just a little bit more than you did the last time. That is how you make progression.
7. Strength Training Provides Endless Health Benefits
Strength training also has an endless list of proven health benefits. It improves heart health, lowers your risk of injury due to added strength and mobility, increases balance, helps manage your blood sugar levels, improves flexibility, makes your bones stronger, improves your brain health, lowers your risk of disease and many other benefits.[i]
Maintaining a lean, muscular body will help you avoid many diseases and illnesses. It gives you the absolute best chance to live a long, healthy life.
Let’s connect on Instagram! I have a ton of great guides and information on Health and Fitness on my page!
https://www.instagram.com/jason_mf_peters/
[i] 2024. Davidson, Katey. 14 Benefits of Strength Training. https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/benefits-of-strength-training
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