Resistance training is a fundamental process and is imperative for all populations to be doing as part of their weekly routine.  There is a major misconception especially among females that resistance training will have ‘weight gaining effects’.

Here are the facts and your motivation to start resistance training. 

After the age of 20 adults who do not strength train lose between 2.2kg-3.2kg of muscle every decade.  Cardiovascular exercise does not prevent the loss of muscle, only strength training maintains our muscle mass and strength throughout our mid life years.

Muscle is very active tissue in fact 1kg of muscle requires 50-100 calories a day, so the loss of muscle can dramatically reduce the amount of energy you burn therefore increasing the chances of fat accumulation and decreasing your metabolic rate.  Your metabolic rate is the amount of energy your body requires to function at rest and 70% of the total energy you burn off during the day is from your metabolic rate.

The more lean muscle you have the higher your metabolic rate will be so you will burn more energy at rest and during every bout of cardiovascular exercise you perform.  Your body will be a more efficient energy burning machine than if it did not lift weights.

Need more incentive….here are 10 great reasons to strength train:

University of Queensland research, published in the international journal Spine, has found that office workers who seldom exercise are at greater risk of suffering from back injuries.

Working on the European Space Agency’s Berlin Bed-Rest Study, the researchers monitored 20 healthy young men who spent 56 days in bed. The lengthy bout of inactivity was found to shrink the deep muscles that protect the back. Lead study researcher, Dr Daniel Belavy, said that in some cases it took up to six months for the muscles to recover, but that even after this period some subjects had not regained their full muscle size.

The prolonged inactivity resulted in the surface muscles closer to the skin, stomach and back becoming overactive. This continued to be the case for up to twelve months after the period of prolonged bed rest.

Belavy commented; ‘If you sit around too much long-term, such as a desk job with no sport in your spare time, the muscles can slowly change in a bad way, giving you a bigger risk of hurting your back’. He continued to outline an at-risk lifestyle of driving to work, sitting in front of a computer screen and lounging in front of a television that sounds all too familiar for many of our clients, and some of us in the industry.

It all sounds like doom and gloom for many of us living a 21st century lifestyle, but Belavy did proceed to offer some suggestions to remedy the poor posture endemic in today’s society; ‘I make sure my workspace is well set up so that I can sit with good posture and concentrate on sitting well. This, with regular attention to posture and regular ‘earth-like' exercise such as walking and jogging can help to keep all the muscles fit and functioning’ he said.

Source: University of Queensland