Skip to main content

Why strength training should be an essential part of your gym routine

Resistance training benefits: 13 great reasons to go to the gym

Man at squat rack
Shana Van Roosbroek / Unsplash

Strength training (also referred to as weightlifting or resistance training) involves more than just building muscle. Getting stronger is certainly a plus, but there are numerous benefits to strength training beyond that. And whether you are a gym goer or you prefer outdoor workouts or exercising at home, you can participate in this activity. You don’t need a ton of expensive equipment; general resistance is the only thing required.

In fact, any form of resistance works, from dumbbells to barbells, kettlebells to weight machines, and resistance bands to just your own body weight. The key is just to place your muscles under a load.

Recommended Videos

A good set of resistance bands, adjustable dumbbells, or even a TRX suspension trainer can be all you need at home to get in a challenging, total-body strengthening workout. If you’ve been counting yourself out of strength training workouts because the gym just isn’t your scene or you’ve been reluctant to venture over from the cardio equipment at your gym to the weights, keep reading for a list of the benefits of strength training, which may be just the inspiration you may need to diversify your workout routine and take your fitness to new levels.

Benefits of strength training

In addition to its versatility and convenience, strength training is an efficient and effective workout that provides a variety of physical and mental health benefits, including the following.

Man doing curls.
Andres Ayrton / Pexels

Strength training strengthens muscles and connective tissues

The first one is straightforward: strength training makes your muscles, tendons, and ligaments stronger. By requiring your muscles to work against a load, they develop more strength, which can make everything easier, from running a marathon or sprinting down the court to sink a layup to carrying a bag of groceries up the stairs.

Strength training builds lean body mass

Particularly if you are lifting for hypertrophy, which refers to increasing muscle size and involves lifting heavy weights or working under high loads, strength training can build lean body mass. Putting on muscle can not only look good and cause favorable shifts in your body composition, but it also improves markers of health, increases your metabolic rate, and makes you stronger and fitter.

Strength training reduces body fat

Man doing cable exercises
Valery Sysoev / Unsplash

Like all forms of exercise, strength training burns calories, but the main metabolic payoff is building lean muscle mass. When this happens, strength training helps increase your metabolic rate. Because your muscle mass is the primary determinant of your metabolic rate, putting on more muscle helps you burn more calories in a day, even at rest.

Because of these beneficial body composition changes, weight training is one of the best forms of exercise for those looking to reduce body fat. Studies have found that 8-12 week strength training programs are usually just as effective— if not more so — at reducing waist circumference and body fat percentage as long-duration cardio exercise workout routines.

Strength training increases bone density

Increasing your bone density is critical for the prevention of fractures, particularly as you age. Strength training loads the bones, which signals them to lie down a denser, more mineralized bony matrix. Furthermore, when stronger muscles contract, they pull more forcefully on the bones, which also signals your body to deposit more minerals and strengthen the structure of your bones and create new bone cells.

Strength training helps prevent injuries

Man doing deadlifts
Victor Freitas / Pexels

Strength training reduces the risk of overuse injuries from other sports (running, cycling, tennis, swimming, basketball, etc.) as well as activities of daily living because it strengthens your muscles, tendons, joints, ligaments, and bones. Building muscular strength allows the muscles and tendons to absorb more of the forces involved when you land during each step, running stride, or jump, removing undue stress that your bones and cartilage absorb when otherwise weak muscles fatigue.

Strength training improves neuromuscular control

Some of the greatest initial gains in muscular strength after embarking on a strength training program are actually due to enhancements in the communication between the brain and the muscles via nervous impulses. Strength training helps your brain and muscles coordinate their activities such that a greater number of muscle fibers are recruited with an impulse from the brain, and they contract in a more coordinated fashion. This makes for more forceful contractions. This can also translate to overall improvements in coordination and muscle control, whether taking on fine motor skills or large, gross movement patterns.

Strength increases core strength

man doing mountain climbers.
Li Sun / Pexels

Particularly when you perform unilateral exercises, such as a single-arm farmer’s carry or a rear-elevated Bulgarian split squat with a lateral rotation, strength training can improve core strength. Your core muscles, which include the abs, obliques, hip muscles, and lower back muscles, connect the upper body and lower body muscles and are instrumental in movement efficiency.

Strength training boosts athletic performance, speed, power, efficiency, and economy

By increasing strength, power, force generation, coordination, core strength, and balance, strength training increases your overall athletic performance, movement efficiency, and fitness. Gains in the weight room can lead to faster running, higher jumping, better swinging and hitting, and further throwing.

Strength training can improve markers of health

Man doing rows in the gym
Gordon Cowie / Unsplash

Studies have demonstrated the ability of strength training workout programs to improve numerous markers of health. For example, resistance training programs have been shown to lower blood pressure, improve blood sugar control, and decrease triglycerides and cholesterol.

Strength training can optimize hormonal balance

Strength training can improve your hormonal balance by stimulating the production of hormones like testosterone and growth hormone and inhibiting stress hormones like cortisol, which, when high, can contribute to weight gain.

Strength training can boost your mood and reduce anxiety

Man doing lat pull-downs in the gym
Sam Moqadam / Unsplash

All forms of exercise produce endorphins, the feel-good chemicals that can elevate your mood. It’s also a great way to relieve stress and anxiety, as it has been shown to reduce stress hormone levels.

Strength training can increase your confidence

Let’s face it, when you feel good about your body, you walk around with confidence and a little more swagger. As you get stronger, you feel better about yourself, and that can carry through into all areas of your life, from workouts to work to relationships.

Strength training can help you sleep better

Would you believe that one of the benefits of resistance training is better sleep? Strength training can promote better sleep in a couple of ways. It challenges your muscles, leading to a healthy level of tiredness. This fatigue promotes a natural desire for sleep, making it easier to drift off and potentially sleep more soundly. Strength training is also thought to influence the production of adenosine, a chemical that promotes drowsiness. As your muscles work during exercise, adenosine levels rise, signaling to your body that it’s time to wind down.

Amber Sayer
Amber Sayer is a fitness, nutrition, and wellness writer and editor, and was previously a Fitness Editor at Byrdie. She…
Topics
Do hiking poles really help your balance in the great outdoors? Here’s the study
To use hiking poles or not to use hiking poles? What does the research show on the benefits?
hiking poles

Some people prefer their trusty hiking shoes, while others won’t go without their favorite drink flask for much-needed hydration. I prefer my cushiony hiking shoes and vast trails with tall trees canopying the path ahead, with waterfalls as gleaming treasures along the way. Researchers have found hiking is accessible and can reduce depression and blood pressure while improving overall health and wellness. 

In our busy, digital modern world, where we spend a lot of time indoors, hiking provides a welcome escape into nature and a way to get our muscles moving. Many avid hikers use hiking poles, also known as trekking poles, to enhance stability, balance, and posture while hiking and to help reduce strain on the joints, especially on varying terrain. Trekking poles are lightweight and adjustable and are usually used in pairs by backpackers, hikers, and trekkers. They originated in Finland and were designed for Nordic walking.

Read more
Do warm-up sets improve your weightlifting performance? Researchers find out
If you're short on time, does it matter if you skip your warm-up sets? Will it hinder performance?
man doing bench press in the gym

Warm-ups and stretches add time to your workout; even so, plenty of fitness professionals discuss the benefits and reasons why you should include warming up in your workout session, especially when preparing to lift moderate or heavy weights. What about warm-up sets? Can warm-up sets help or hinder your weightlifting performance? Recently, researchers decided to find out in a new study. Before we delve into some of the latest research, what exactly are warm-up sets?

What are warm-up sets?

Read more
Why do lizards do push ups? Fitness inspiration from the animal kingdom
We're not the only ones working those upper body muscles.
Why do lizards do push ups? Fitness inspiration from the animal kingdom

I was walking by my window the other day, and I saw a lizard doing push-ups, powering through rep after rep before taking little breaks in between. I laughed to myself while I observed the little guy for a moment, and I wondered: why do lizards do push-ups? We aren’t the only ones working out. 

Why do lizards do push-ups?

Read more