The Rise of Strength Training

For many years, strength training wasn’t really something that many people did.

Throughout recent history, there have always been strongmen – and in more modern times, powerlifters – but training for strength wasn’t something that most people would ever consider doing.

Instead, lifting weights was something that was most closely associated with bodybuilding. Bodybuilders – or meatheads, as they are less charitably called – have the primary goal of building more muscle mass. It’s less of a health pursuit and much more about how you look.

Strength training is different. While you’ll certainly build more muscle from strength training, this is often not the main goal, and more of a side benefit. Instead, the primary goal of strength training is to get stronger!

From the surge in popularity, it would seem that getting stronger appeals to a great many people – many more than were previously interested in just building more muscle for the sake of appearance.

Indeed, there are many benefits to strength training, far beyond just building muscle. Let’s take a look at some of the main benefits that you can get from incorporating strength training into your life.

You’ll Get Much, Much Stronger

Of course, one of the key benefits of strength training is that you’ll build a ton of strength!

This will carry over into your daily life, in ways that you might never have even considered before.

For instance, carrying a 30 lb bag of groceries home right now might feel tough, but if you were to build your strength up through proper training, it would suddenly feel significantly easier to do. You can literally get several times stronger than you currently are, with the right approach.

The impact of this on your life will be enormous. You’ll be able to do all sorts of things with ease that you could never do before – and will consequently feel much more capable in your day to day life.

You’ll Build More Muscle Mass

While the primary goal of strength training isn’t often to build lots of muscle, it is a nice side benefit!

In actuality, strength training is one of the most effective ways to build muscle – much more so than many more conventional bodybuilding methods.

This is because strength and muscle mass are very closely correlated, so as you get stronger your body will necessarily need to develop more lean muscle mass to support that strength.

You’ll Be More Coordinated

One of the things that many people overlook about strength training is that it can actually improve your balance and coordination.

This is because many of the traditional strength training movements – like the bench press, deadlift, and squat – require that many different muscle groups work in unison in order to move the weight properly.

Over time, you’ll find that this has positive carry over into the rest of your life, since your neuromuscular pathways will be much better adapted for efficient movement.

You’ll Find It Easier To Stay Lean

Losing body fat and staying lean fundamentally comes down to sustaining the right energy balance.

This simply means balancing the amount of energy that you take in from food with the amount of energy that you’re burning during the day.

Strength training can help considerably with this, since it is proven to effectively boost your basal metabolic rate (BMR), thereby allowing you to burn more calories each day than you would otherwise.

As a result, you’ll be able to lose weight with greater ease, and won’t be nearly as likely to put on additional body fat.

You’ll Be Less Prone To Injury

Getting injured can seriously impact the quality of your life – and while strength training isn’t a panacea for injury, it can limit the severity if you do get injured.

This is because strength training helps to develop your bones, tendons, and ligaments, making them more resistant to breaking or being damaged.

So, for instance, if you do take a bad fall, you’ll be less likely to break anything – and there have been many cases of people avoiding potentially life-threatening injuries due to the protective impact of strength training.

You’ll Have More Energy And Feel Better

Just as with other forms of exercise, strength training can significantly elevate your mood, due to the endorphins that get released after a tough lifting session.

This will make you feel more energized during the rest of your day, with a heightened sense of overall well-being.

In addition, getting really strong will undoubtedly result in greater confidence, making you feel better about yourself, which will have a positive knock-on effect in other areas of your life.

Getting Started With Strength Training

Diving into something new is always challenging, and many people find the prospect of strength training to be quite intimidating!

Thankfully, there are many ways that you ease into this, as you’re first starting out.

If you have a friend that is already strength training regularly, then one approach would be to simply tag along with them, and have them show you the ropes. They’ll also be able to provide motivational support before it becomes a fixed part of your regular routine.

Otherwise, if you’re not lucky enough to have such a friend, then another option would be to hire a personal trainer to help you out. You could either go with an in-person trainer, if that’s within your budget or work with one of the many online fitness coaches if you’re looking for a more affordable option. Either way, if you’d like to develop yourself with strength training, and experience some of the many rewards that it offers, then don’t file this one away for the future. There is a reason that it’s become so popular in recent years, and all of us could benefit from getting a little stronger.