Weightlifting isn’t just about bulking up and building muscle mass, nowadays it’s a very common form of exercise. Its benefits include improved posture, better sleep, gaining bone density, maintaining weight loss, boosting metabolism, lowering inflammation and staving off chronic disease, among many other positive benefits.
1. Better Posture and Balance
Strengthening exercises can increase flexibility and balance as people age, reducing falls and injuries.
2. Discipline
Discipline is developed through constantly challenging yourself to improve, getting better with every lifting session, or with anything in your life. Weight training on a consistent basis can have a major effect on your everyday life, and not just physically but it mentally disciplines you which has a knock-on effect on other areas of your life such as work, diet, and lifestyle.
3. Builds Muscle
In a study published in the February 2008 issue of Cell Metabolism, Boston University researchers demonstrated that type II muscle fiber, the kind you build when you lift weights, improves the body’s metabolism and in turn builds more muscle.
4. Reduces Symptoms of Depression
Like many forms of physical activity, a bit of weight-lifting can work wonders for your mental health. Strength training has been linked to reduced anxiety and depression symptoms as well as improved self-esteem, and studies have suggested it may even give your brainpower a boost.
5. Reduces Inflammation
Along with keeping away chronic disease, strength training has you burning through glucose, which is good news for those grappling with Type 2 diabetes who consistently need to manage blood sugar levels. Lifting weights even aids in fighting off inflammation which is the cause of many diseases such as cancer. Studies have suggested that regular resistance training sessions, on average about twice a week, resulted in drops in inflammation in overweight women.
6. Weight Control
As you gain muscle, your body begins to burn calories more easily, making it easier to control your weight.
7. Strengthens Your Bones
Strength training increases bone density and reduces the risk of fractures.
8. Improves Sleep
Regular exercisers especially those who really push the boundaries to improve their quality of sleep and weightlifting is no exception. In a small 2012 study in older men, researchers found that resistance training reduced the number of times the study participants woke up during the night, as compared to a control group who performed no exercise.
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