3 Health benefits of strength training that have nothing to do with strength

If you’re looking for a workout that helps increase the power of your muscles, lengthens your endurance, and reduces your risk of muscle-related injury, it sounds like strength training is what you need. Strength training, or resistance training, is a conditioning workout that helps strengthen your muscles through resistance. These exercises will pit your body’s strength against a force – dumbbells, gravity, or even your own body weight.

Strength training has a lot of benefits for people looking to build up their bodies. It makes you stronger, improves balance, and even increases your bone density, helping you avoid osteoporosis down the line. (Related: Strength training improves your brain power, recent studies show.)

But did you know that the uses of strength training aren’t limited to your muscles? Here are three other health benefits that you can get from strength training:

1. You’ll start to disavow sugar

Resistance-based workouts like strength training improve your glucose metabolism, lowering the levels of glucose in your blood. Glucose metabolism is the process by which your body uses proteins to take the energy found in sugar molecules and transports it to the rest of the body. This means that if your glucose metabolism is stronger, your body is going to crave sugar less because it senses that it is receiving adequate amounts of it. When you’re engaged in strength training, your glucose metabolism goes up. Not only does this lower your body’s blood sugar levels, but it also helps you burn more unnecessary fats.

2. Your metabolism will work harder than before

After a bout of strength training, your body activates what is called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). This means that even after your workout, your body will still think that it’s exercising, which means your body’s metabolism will stay at the level it had during your exercise and will still be burning just as many calories. This process can last for up to 24 hours. This is great news if you’re looking to lose weight. Your strength training will help you build up your muscles, and you’ll be burning more fat even after your workout.

3. Strength training reduces the effects of a sedentary lifestyle

If your job involves staying sedentary for extended periods of time, strength training can help give your body a proper foundation for staying strong. This strong foundation will help take pressure away from parts of your body that will be most prone to damage while you’re at your cubicle. Namely, your glutes and your lower back. Strength training will empower these muscle groups so that they can remain strong even during your most laid-back moments. This means that you’re less likely to get negative complications related to those areas of the body, such as back and spine injuries.

Strength training can give you many other benefits — too many to list them all down, in fact. A study from Australia even suggests that strength training can reduce your risk of dying from cancer by 31 percent.

So, if you’re looking for a well-rounded workout routine that not only empowers your muscles but also helps you lose weight, discourages your sugar cravings, and enables you to avoid back and spine injuries by strengthening your core, consider adding a strength training routine to your workout.

There are some beginner exercises that you can do to introduce yourself to the world of strength training. Push-ups strengthen the chest muscles, planks empower the core, and squats put resistance on the thighs and the gluteus maximus.

Here are six beginner strength exercises, including the ones just mentioned, that you can do at home:

Get more exercises to boost your strength at Slender.news.

Sources include:

MindBodyGreen.com

MayoClinic.com

AceFitness.org

ScienceDirect.com