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9 Reasons Strength Training is Critical for Long-Term Health, Fitness, and Longevity
Muscle plays a significant role in your long-term health, fitness, longevity, and even your ability to ward off disease and infection.
Yet the vast majority of Americans do little to no strength training.
Investing three to five hours per week, lifting weights and doing other movements that challenge your muscles, bones, and connective tissue is one of the healthiest activities you could take part in.
Provided people follow a well-designed strength training program, the benefits of muscle mass go way beyond aesthetics.
By the end of this article, you’ll understand why strength is one of The First 3 Habits of VIGOR(ESS) Health.
1. Muscle builds your quality-of-life savings account.
Muscle is your quality-of-life savings account. The more you have as you enter later adulthood, the longer you’ll be able to carry on the activities you love to do today.
Without consistently putting your muscles under sufficient stress, they get smaller. It would be like hoping you build a big financial nest egg, but never put any money into your retirement account. To build the next egg, you have to exercise discipline with your spending, and set money aside.
To build a quality-of-life savings account with muscle, you have to...well...exercise.
Throughout your life, you'll face injuries and physical setbacks that keep you from exercising. You might also get cancer, or develop heart disease, which causes cachexia. The more you have when that happens, the more you can afford to lose before facing serious health problems.
Muscle mass is an independent predictor of all-cause mortality in older adults. The more muscle mass you have, the lower your risk of dying.
2. Muscle mass increases your carbohydrate capacity.
The only places you store carbohydrates are in your liver and skeletal muscle. You're not going to increase your liver's size, so building muscle is the only way to improve your carbohydrate capacity.
If you have diabetes or insulin resistance, talk to your doctor about following a ketogenic diet for a while. If your doctor says a ketogenic diet doesn't help with diabetes, find a different doctor. But even with a change in diet, it's imperative to start strength training.
Type II diabetes and muscle loss create a vicious cycle. The more muscle you lose, the more likely it is that you'll develop type II diabetes. The worse your type II diabetes gets, the faster you lose muscle.
As muscle is the main organ of glucose disposal, reduced muscle mass leads to increased insulin resistance. Conversely, insulin resistance or T2DM (type II diabetes) itself is associated with accelerating loss of skeletal muscle, causing a bidirectional positive feedback loop between metabolic disorders and sarcopenia.Kim JA, et al.
Though most people with type II diabetes are also overweight, about 20% of those with the condition are at a normal weight. A lack of muscle, whether you're overweight or not, is a significant factor in type II diabetes risk.
3. Resistance training improves heart health.
Strength training depletes oxygen in the blood. In the absence of oxygen, your contracting muscles produce lactate. Lactate causes your muscles to burn.
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By Tom Nikkola | VIGOR Training
4.9
3737 ratings
Muscle plays a significant role in your long-term health, fitness, longevity, and even your ability to ward off disease and infection.
Yet the vast majority of Americans do little to no strength training.
Investing three to five hours per week, lifting weights and doing other movements that challenge your muscles, bones, and connective tissue is one of the healthiest activities you could take part in.
Provided people follow a well-designed strength training program, the benefits of muscle mass go way beyond aesthetics.
By the end of this article, you’ll understand why strength is one of The First 3 Habits of VIGOR(ESS) Health.
1. Muscle builds your quality-of-life savings account.
Muscle is your quality-of-life savings account. The more you have as you enter later adulthood, the longer you’ll be able to carry on the activities you love to do today.
Without consistently putting your muscles under sufficient stress, they get smaller. It would be like hoping you build a big financial nest egg, but never put any money into your retirement account. To build the next egg, you have to exercise discipline with your spending, and set money aside.
To build a quality-of-life savings account with muscle, you have to...well...exercise.
Throughout your life, you'll face injuries and physical setbacks that keep you from exercising. You might also get cancer, or develop heart disease, which causes cachexia. The more you have when that happens, the more you can afford to lose before facing serious health problems.
Muscle mass is an independent predictor of all-cause mortality in older adults. The more muscle mass you have, the lower your risk of dying.
2. Muscle mass increases your carbohydrate capacity.
The only places you store carbohydrates are in your liver and skeletal muscle. You're not going to increase your liver's size, so building muscle is the only way to improve your carbohydrate capacity.
If you have diabetes or insulin resistance, talk to your doctor about following a ketogenic diet for a while. If your doctor says a ketogenic diet doesn't help with diabetes, find a different doctor. But even with a change in diet, it's imperative to start strength training.
Type II diabetes and muscle loss create a vicious cycle. The more muscle you lose, the more likely it is that you'll develop type II diabetes. The worse your type II diabetes gets, the faster you lose muscle.
As muscle is the main organ of glucose disposal, reduced muscle mass leads to increased insulin resistance. Conversely, insulin resistance or T2DM (type II diabetes) itself is associated with accelerating loss of skeletal muscle, causing a bidirectional positive feedback loop between metabolic disorders and sarcopenia.Kim JA, et al.
Though most people with type II diabetes are also overweight, about 20% of those with the condition are at a normal weight. A lack of muscle, whether you're overweight or not, is a significant factor in type II diabetes risk.
3. Resistance training improves heart health.
Strength training depletes oxygen in the blood. In the absence of oxygen, your contracting muscles produce lactate. Lactate causes your muscles to burn.