Strength Training That Makes You Feel Young Again.
Longevity is the big health and wellness buzzword these days. A quick google search describes the meaning of longevity as:
“Longevity focuses on increasing both your lifespan (the number of years you live) and your healthspan (the years you live free from chronic disease or disability). It relies heavily on targeted lifestyle strategies rather than just genetics”.
Does this sound about right to you? I can honestly say that the majority of people I work with are looking for exactly that, and in my opinion, it is not a bad thing.
Strength training is an ideal place to start when it comes to looking for ways to increase longevity, and here’s why. When you strength train, you apply large amounts of force through the body. This force is produced through the activation of muscles. These high levels of force lead to two important outcomes: increased muscle size and increased strength.
There are a lot of cool things that take place within the muscles themselves while lifting weights, but I won’t bore you with them now. However, it’s worth acknowledging that adaptation is an important part of the process. Adaptation is the result of a stimulus applied to the muscles (lifting weight), which influences a chemical response inside them. The adaptation phase takes place when we rest between training sessions, not during the session. When this process is repeated consistently over long periods of time, usually months and years, the body starts to require a greater stimulus.
To ensure these stimuli continue encouraging the body to adapt, we need to add more weight or perform more overall work. The major advantage to this process is stronger and thicker muscles, tendons, and ligaments, along with increased bone density. These claims are backed by substantial research. Multiple studies have investigated the benefits of strength training. For example, the risk of developing common age-related conditions such as osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and arthritis can all be reduced or slowed through regular strength training.
There is also research to suggest that strength training can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes because of the large amounts of energy required to perform the exercises. This energy demand helps to increase insulin sensitivity through the use of the body’s glucose stores (sugar). Research also suggests that strength training improves body composition and muscle-to-fat ratio and, when done in conjunction with a balanced diet, can help to reduce body fat stores.
Therefore, when aiming to improve longevity in your life, it makes sense to priorities strength training. In addition, it is worth acknowledging that a healthy lifestyle does not stop in the weights room. Healthy lifestyles are formed through habits and behaviours practiced consistently across an individuals day, week and month, it requires deliberate effort.
