Sanitarium

The Health Food Company

More about our healthy steps programme

What is strength training?

Of the common styles of exercise available, many people find strength training unnerving. Strength training, or ‘lifting weights’ is often thought to be something for professional athletes or people who want big muscle bulk. However, building muscle strength through activity is something that holds value for all of us.

The muscles we use for moving about are the skeletal muscles and they create movement by contraction (muscle fibres contract and 'pull' on your bones). If muscles perform these actions often, against a resistance and for longer duration - they will adapt and increase in strength. It is by this notion that people 'resistance train' to build their muscle mass.

At this stage, it is good to remember that only a specific strength training programme designed for ‘body-building’ will increase your muscle ‘bulk’ significantly.

Why do strength training?

• Manage a healthy weight - building our muscle tissue lifts the efficiency of the way our bodies use energy from food.

• Strengthen our bones - regular strengthening activities have a positive effect on our body’s process of bone formation and bone turnover.

• Improve our balance and agility - regular movements which develop muscles and bones, also develop our nervous system and the style in which our body moves and stays upright.

• Improve our confidence in movement - all of these positive effects ‘add up’ to increased confidence in the way we move. This can be especially important as we age.

You will be pleasantly surprised in the health benefits of regular activities that develop our muscle strength through resistance.

References

1. Nelson M.E. (1997). Strong Women, Stay Young. Lothian Aurum Press: Port Melbourne Australia. 2. Wilmore J.H. & Costill D.L. (1994). Physiology of Sport and Exercise. Human Kinetics Champaign, Illonois.