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By Vince Delmonte While some individuals are strictly interested in obtaining muscle for aesthetics, for most people, this isn’t an interest. Instead, you’re more interested in knowing what health benefits weight lifting will have for you… Far too many people overlook the many health and fitness benefits that weight training has to offer, and because of this, experience problems down the road with their body such as decreased bone density, a slowed metabolic rate, increased stress levels and other negative consequences that are associated with constant stress. Increased Bone Density Weight lifting, being one of the best weight bearing exercises you can do, will increase your bone density and help ward off osteoporosis or stress fractures in the future. Many people think running is the best exercise for increasing bone density, but this isn’t necessarily true. If the truth is told, running actually promotes muscle breakdown in the body, while weight lifting, being an anabolic process, helps to promote the building of tissues. Therefore, weight lifting is going to be much better at preserving your bone mass, not to mention it’s far less impact than going for an hour run. Decreased Frequency of Injuries When you strength train, not only are your muscles going to get stronger, but you’ll also work the ligaments and tendons that are connecting bones, muscles, and other tissues, thus reducing the chance they become injured when participating in other physical activities. If you’ve ever been injured, you know just how frustrating this can be. In about 80% of all injury cases, the injury is a direct result of a tendon, ligament, or muscle not being strong enough when a stressful force is applied. Since weight training will really hit all those deep tendons and ligaments, it’s the best injury prevention out there. Reduction of Health Related Risks Numerous studies have demonstrated that regular weight training can have a positive effect on health by showing reductions in the rate of insulin resistance, blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer. If you couple a solid weight training program then with a well-thought out diet, you’ll be putting your best foot forward at warding off these chronic problems Prevention of Fat Gain
The more you weight lift, the higher your metabolism will be, thus the more food you can eat while maintaining your weight. If that isn’t good news for your future and the fight against body fat, I’m not sure what is. Now, with all of this said, one big problem many people run into is the thinking pattern that using a muscle building program will make you big and bulky. This is most certainly not the case. Let’s look at an analogy to gain an understanding of this. Pretend you have two teams and each are going to try and build a house using the exact same building technique. One team is given 10,000 bricks to construct this house, and the second team is given only 1,000 bricks. Who’s going to build the bigger house? The choice should be obvious – team one since they have more bricks to build it with. It’s not just about the way they train, but more about the way they eat (if you’ve ever had a teenage son in the growing process in your house, you likely know just how much food must be consumed when growing at rapid rates). Whether it’s growing in height during puberty or trying to build bigger muscles later on, calories must be supplied for this growth process to take place. You can’t build a house out of nothing. Likewise, you can workout all you want, but if those building blocks – in the form of amino acids, carbohydrates, and dietary fats are not there, you aren’t going to see too much muscle growth. So, don’t get caught thinking that just because you add weight lifting to your workouts, you’re going to develop large bulky muscles. If you control your diet, this simply will not happen. Not choosing to include weight training as part of your current workout program is without-a-doubt the biggest mistake you could make as far as your long-term health and fitness level is concerned. Don’t let this exercise pass you by any longer. About the Author:
Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com He also specializes in teaching skinny guys how to get a six-pack and build muscle, without drugs, supplements and training less than before with his program found at http://6packquest.atozfitness.com
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