I grew up playing soccer and riding bicycles, and while I still really enjoy both sports, I’ve now learned that when it comes to boosting overall health and wellness, nothing comes close to resistance training.
In fact, no other physical activity can offer the sheer number and variety of health benefits than resistance training can. Although other pursuits and sports may have their own specific benefits, muscle-strengthening exercises are by far superior.
And I’m not just saying this because I enjoy lifting weights. The scientific evidence supporting these statements is nothing less than overwhelming.
Numerous studies show that resistance training has benefits well beyond what most people typically associate with it—muscle growth and strength gains, which are, by themselves, also major benefits.
People who do resistance training on a regular basis “are less likely to die prematurely than those who don’t,” according to the Harvard School of Public Health. “There is an increasing amount of evidence suggesting that resistance training may significantly improve many health factors associated with the prevention of chronic diseases,” a Sports Medicine article says.
I’d even go as far as to say that, if you must pick one form of exercise to do a couple of times a week, anything you choose that is not resistance training would be the less-optimal choice.
In this blog post, you’ll learn about ten amazing health benefits of resistance training. Some of them, you’ll already know, while others may come as a (big) surprise.
But first, let’s talk about what “resistance training” actually is.
What Is Resistance Training?
Resistance training is a term that covers all exercises during which your body resists weight. This resistance can come in various forms, from bodyweight and elastic bands to machines and free weights, such as kettlebells, dumbbells, and barbells.
There are several different subcategories of resistance training you can choose from, depending on your goals, available equipment, or simple preference.
Strength training, weightlifting, powerlifting, bodybuilding, and bodyweight workouts, for example, are all types of resistance training.
10 Amazing Health Benefits of Resistance Training: Why You Should Resistance Train
There are numerous undeniable benefits to resistance training, all of which will help you boost your general health, protect against diseases and injuries, and improve your overall quality of life.
Yes, your life will literally be better when you resistance train!
1. Bigger Muscles
Let’s start with the most obvious benefit. Resistance training, when done with a proper program and eating sufficient amounts of protein, will increase your muscle mass, which is often many people’s primary goal.
In combination with sufficient rest and enough protein in your diet, resistance training will result in muscle hypertrophy, the scientific term for muscle growth.
With more muscles, you’ll reap several more benefits from resistance training, such as a faster metabolism at rest, lower risk of type 2 diabetes, and reduced injury risk, which I’ll talk about in more detail below.
2. Increased Strength
Resistance training is often used interchangeably with strength training, but it’s technically not the same, although many benefits do overlap.
(Strength training focuses specifically on getting stronger and uses fewer reps with heavier weights, while resistance training may have other goals, such as bigger muscles, increased bone density, and/or body recomposition.)
When you do resistance training workouts on a consistent basis—meaning for several weeks up to several months—and use the principle of progressive overload, you’ll see significant gains in muscle strength, too.
You’ll literally become stronger, which is usually one of the main goals of people who start a resistance training program. (See a bunch of great exercises for beginners here.) And the beauty of increased muscle strength is that it carries over to many other aspects of your life.
For example, when you’re stronger, you’ll notice that many everyday tasks and movements become easier.
Examples include carrying bags of groceries, picking up things from the floor, playing with your (grand)kids, getting up from the couch, moving furniture when cleaning the house, and opening jars, among countless others.
3. Faster Metabolism
A faster metabolism is the direct result of more muscle mass, which you can build through resistance training. In fact, just ten weeks of resistance training may lead to an increase in resting metabolic rate of 7%.
This is mainly due to the fact that muscles require much more energy than most other bodily tissues, especially fat. Muscles are a very metabolically active tissue that requires a constant supply of energy to function properly.
This is true even when you’re resting—you will quite literally burn more calories while sitting or even sleeping when you have more muscle mass.
In turn, this will help overweight people burn more fat in the long run, while people who are already lean may get to eat even more when they build more muscle.
4. Body Recomposition
This is kind of a summary of points 1 and 3 above. Increased muscle mass and a faster metabolism both can contribute to significant changes in how your body looks. Building muscle while losing fat is known as “body recompositioning.”
Now, it’s important to point out that this may not come with a lower number on the scale, simply because muscles weigh more than fat. Therefore, in the grand scheme of getting healthier, stronger, and leaner, how much you weigh is pretty much irrelevant.
Resistance training, combined with healthy nutrition, may not help you lose weight, but it will help you lose fat. This is an important distinction to make. Essentially, although your weight may stay the same (or even increase), your body will lean out and look so much better.
5. Improved Mobility and Balance
This is one of the benefits of resistance training that many people may not realize. It could even be a bit counterintuitive.
However, resistance training exercises, when done correctly and with good form, help you increase your joint range of motion (ROM), according to a systematic review and meta-analysis.
This is because many of these exercises will require you to put tension on your muscles when they’re in a lengthened state, effectively stretching them out with weights. This can be as effective in improving mobility as intentional stretching.
I should emphasize, though, that improved mobility through resistance training is possible only if you actually go through the full range of motion of the joint you’re training.
Put simply, you should ensure that you use your joint to its fullest potential, from extended all the way to flexed entirely (or vice versa).
As you become more mobile and your muscles stronger, your balance will also improve. This is especially true if you train with free weights, such as dumbbells, barbells, or kettlebells.
In contrast to machines, which offer (some) support, free weights require your body to brace and balance itself when lifting weights. Your core will be engaged much of the entire time when working with dumbbells, barbells, or kettlebells, strengthening it and, as such, improving your overall balance.
Combined with better mobility (joint movement) and stronger muscles, this will transfer to a safer day-to-day life. You’ll literally be less likely to fall, trip, or stumble.
6. Boost in Mental Health and Self-Esteem
There are two main reasons why resistance training can boost your self-esteem. The first one is quite obvious: you’ll start to look better as you gain muscle mass and lose fat. This alone will make many people feel better about themselves.
The second reason has to do with your mental health and feeling of self-worth. Because it’s often pretty challenging, people who resistance train consistently will develop more mental resilience.
You’ll physically feel that you’re working on yourself—going close to failure during sets will hurt—and there’s a strong psychological component to pushing yourself during workouts.
Resistance training has both physiological (how you look) and psychological (how you feel) effects, which can be quite powerful.
Additionally, people who resistance train also report less fatigue during the day, reduced anxiety, and fewer symptoms of depression, all of which contribute to a better quality of life.
7. Stronger Bones
While everyone knows that lifting weights can help you build muscle and get stronger, a less known fact is that it also promotes bone health. In fact, few, if any, other forms of exercise have such a beneficial effect on bone density.
This is because your bones adapt to the mechanical stress put on them when resistance training. As living tissue, bones will remodel themselves and become minerally denser—and stronger—when they’re regularly put under pressure. This makes resistance training the best form of exercise to prevent osteoporosis.
A resistance training program that targets your entire body will strengthen the bones everywhere in your body, from your neck and shoulders to your hands and arms, to your spine and hips, and to your legs and feet.
Performing load-bearing exercises increases mineral density in the bones that are most likely to fracture due to falls: wrists, shoulders, spine, and hips. This makes resistance training particularly important for older individuals, who may become less mobile and suffer from osteoporosis.
8. Lower Risk of Injuries
One of the greatest benefits of resistance training is a significant reduction of your risk of getting injured. This is kind of a summary of several points I made above.
When you resistance train, you’ll become stronger, increase your mobility, and improve your balance. All of this will help prevent falls, which can be debilitating, may result in long-term health issues, or could even be fatal.
And if you do happen to fall, your larger muscles will act as a buffer, while your increased bone density will protect against actually breaking a bone. It’s an all-round win-win.
Additionally, resistance training will, of course, also strengthen specific muscles. This reduces, for example, your risk of developing back pain or injuries, shoulder issues, or hip problems, many of which are the result of a sedentary lifestyle.
9. Cardiovascular Benefits
Many people still think about cardiovascular exercise as being limited to things like running, swimming, rowing, or biking. However, numerous studies have provided evidence that resistance training also has significant benefits to your cardiovascular health.
You do not need to run or bike long distances to improve your cardiovascular health. Unlike commonly believed, classic “cardio” is undoubtedly beneficial for building endurance and boosting your cardiorespiratory health, but it’s not uniquely beneficial to your cardiovascular health.
You can reap amazing cardiovascular benefits when just doing resistance training. For instance, a conclusion from a literature review said that “there is a strong support for the notion that resistance training (weightlifting) is at least as effective as aerobic endurance training (cardio) in reducing some major cardiovascular disease risk factors.”
Resistance training benefits to your cardiovascular health include lower blood pressure, better endothelial function, higher HDL cholesterol, and decreased LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.
And, as anyone who’s done heavy weightlifting before knows, those workouts will significantly elevate your heart rate and leave you out of breath, too.
10. Reduced Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
A massive benefit of resistance training and its associated increase in muscle mass is that it can help reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes. It can also help manage the symptoms of type 2 diabetes.
The explanation lies in the fact that muscles use large amounts of glucose, especially when they’re being used, but also, to a lower extent, when at rest.
On top of that, muscle is the biggest storage area for glucose in your body—glucose is stored as glycogen in skeletal muscle. This means that you can store significantly more glucose, effectively removing it from your bloodstream, if you have more muscle.
There may also be insulin resistance-related benefits to having more muscle mass and actively using it.
These ten health benefits of resistance training are why everyone should resistance train at least two times a week.
Resistance training is extremely powerful and effective. It affects virtually all aspects of your overall health, from feeling stronger and increasing your self-esteem to protecting against falls and injuries, to improving your cardiovascular health and possibly allowing you to eat more (healthy) food.
In summary, resistance training will greatly improve the quality of your everyday life right now, while also ensuring that our bodies stay as resilient as possible as we age in the future.
