A lot of people think you only need to lift weights if you want to look like a bodybuilder or become a powerlifter, but there are a few more reasons to weight train you may not have considered, that can have a very positive impact on your everyday life.
- You wont need help getting off the toilet
People who are physically inactive can lose between 3-5% of their muscle mass every decade after the age of 30. This is known as sarcopenia, you can see the effects in the diagram below. That’s a lot of your muscle by the time you are 80 years old and can lead to being weak, unable to care for yourself or perform simple tasks such as getting off the toilet. The good news is weight training stops this process and will even reverse it by building new lean muscle. Your bones will also get stronger leaving you less likely to cause a break if you have a fall.
2. You can eat more
I’m not talking about “oh I worked out today so I am going to reward myself with 2 large pizzas”, that’s unhealthy behaviour but for another post. The more lean muscle you have the higher your resting metabolic rate will be. Which basically means you use more energy doing nothing when you have more muscle, so can eat more without gaining weight. Who doesn’t want that?
3. Everyday tasks get easier
Whether it is walking up a few flights of stairs, playing a round of golf or carrying your tools/ shopping, the stronger you are the easier things get. You might be saying that’s pretty obvious but I get clients come in and tell me how they have noticed this all the time and are surprised at how transferable the training is to everyday life.
4. You move better
Through strength comes stability and mobility. If you follow a good training program you will develop your strength, stability and become more flexible. This will allow you to move more freely with less aches and pains.
5. You will surprise yourself
I have a client who hated push ups. When she started she could not do 1 rep of a regressed variation. Six months later she can do 12 proper push ups no problem. On day one if you told her this, no way she would have believed it. You will be surprised how far you can progress, all you have to do is start.
Have a question? Need some help? Leave a message below and ill be in touch.
Cheers
Shane