10 Reasons to Lift Weights: Benefits of Strength Training
By Marnie Kunz, NASM-certified trainer
There are many reasons to lift weights - from boosting your bone health to cutting down on abdominal fat and improving confidence. And weightlifting is beneficial for every age, including later in life as strength training becomes crucial to prevent muscle and bone loss and injuries. Whether you’re new to strength training or have been weightlifting regularly for a while, these benefits of weightlifting will motivate you to keep lifting.
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How Often to Lift Weights
According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, adults should do strength training exercises using all the major muscle groups at least twice per week. Strength training can include any exercises that have resistance, including bodyweight strength exercises, resistance band exercises, and weightlifting. As a trainer, I advise people to lift weights at least twice a week, and if you need to break up the workouts, you can do more frequent, shorter workouts throughout the week such as weightlifting targeting your lower body Monday and Wednesday and focusing on your upper body weightlifting on Tuesday and Thursday.
As a trainer, I have learned firsthand the benefits of weightlifting, as it’s helped me to build and retain muscle into my 40s and helped keep my metabolism up despite running fewer miles than I used to in my 20s and 30s.
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Top Reasons to Lift Weights
1. Improves Your Strength
One of the foremost reasons to lift weights is to get stronger. Having stronger muscles helps you do daily tasks such as lifting groceries and overhead suitcases, as well as improves athletic performance. You can become a faster runner, for instance, by strength training regularly.
2. Lowers Your Risk of Injury
Weightlifting helps reduce your chances of getting injured - in daily life and in sports. Strength training helps improve your balance, stability, and range of motion of your muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Having more range of motion allows your body to move more freely and with less tightness, which helps cut down on your risk of injuries. Also, weightlifting can help correct muscle imbalances, which, left untreated, can lead to injuries. According to a study of over 7,000 athletes, strength training helps reduce athletes’ risk of injuries by up to 33 percent.
3. Boosts Your Metabolism
Weightlifting also boosts your metabolism in two ways. First, since weightlifting adds more lean muscle tissue to your body, this makes your body burn more calories. Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue. The second way that weightlifting speeds up your metabolism is by accelerating your metabolic rate. After a weightlifting workout, your metabolic rate is increased for up to 72 hours. This means that even if you do not do more activity for the next few days, your body will be burning more calories thanks to your workout.
4. Improves Your Mood
Another one of the reasons to lift weights is to improve your mental health. As many of us who work out know, a weightlifting session can help with de-stressing and feeling more positive. Strength training can reduce anxiety, according to researchers, which is one of my biggest motivators, as someone who experienced anxiety. And the mental health benefits of weightlifting extend to your mood as well, even reducing symptoms of depression.
5. Reduces Abdominal Fat
Weightlifting reduces abdominal fat. Studies show that strength training helps cut down on fat stored around the abdominal area (belly fat). Visceral fat is fat stored in your abdominal region and it’s particularly harmful to your health. Visceral fat can build up in your arteries and increase your risk of developing diabetes, prediabetes, and heart disease.
6. Prevents Muscle Loss that Happens with Age
According to researchers, muscle mass decreases approximately 3 to 8 percent per decade after the age of 30, and this rate of decline is even higher after the age of 60. Losing muscles means your metabolism slows down, your body is more likely to have higher percentages of fat, and you will be more likely to get injured or be unable to complete daily tasks in life like carrying groceries, etc. The good news is weightlifting will help slow down the process of muscle loss and will help your body build muscle.
7. Builds Confidence
One major benefit of weightlifting that I’ve seen in myself and clients that I train is improved confidence. It’s not easy to learn new strength training exercises, work on form, and lift weights that get progressively heavier. Being able to learn how to lift weights and meet the challenges of adding more weight gives you a boost of confidence. Lifting weights has also been linked to improved body image and self-esteem. In one study of 754 adults, there was a significant link between strength training and positive body image.
8. Improves Brain Health
Strength training has been shown to improve cognitive function and boost brain health. According to researchers, strength training exercise programs help improve brain functioning in older adults. One of the best reasons to lift weights is to reduce your risk of developing cognitive disorders like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Weightlifting can improve blood circulation to the brain and boost brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is linked to memory and learning.
9. Boosts Bone Health
Weightlifting causes tension between your muscles, tendons, and bones, which stimulates the bones to produce more bone tissue. This added bone strength and density help reduce your risk of bone-related conditions such as osteopenia, osteoporosis, and fractures.
10. Improves Heart Health
Another one of the reasons to lift weights is to improve your heart health and reduce your risk of heart-related diseases. Regular weight lifting boosts your circulation and strengthens your heart and blood vessels, which can decrease blood pressure and lower the levels of “bad” cholesterol in your body. Weightlifting can help lower your risk of cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure.
How to Get Started Weightlifting
With so many reasons to lift weights, you may be excited to get started with a program. If you’re a newbie, don’t worry - lifting weights doesn’t mean you need to go to an expensive gym and use complicated equipment. You can get started with just a pair of dumbbells in your home. Some beginner-friendly exercises to try with dumbbells include lunges, squats, chest press, shoulder press, and dumbbell rows.
Check out my Beginner’s Muscle-Building Workout Program for free sample dumbbell workouts to help you get started. And if you need more detailed guidance, I offer a limited amount of virtual personal training with one-on-one instruction and a customized workout program tailored to suit your needs.
There are so many benefits of weightlifting and I hope to help as many people as possible get lifting. Follow @Runstreet on Instagram and YouTube for more strength training workouts and tips. Happy lifting to you!😊💪
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Marnie Kunz is a NASM-certified trainer and USATF- and RRCA-certified running coach based in Brooklyn, NY. Marnie likes helping people get and stay active to enjoy a better quality of life. When she’s not doing fitness things, Marnie enjoys exploring with her dog, a mischievous rescue Akita.
