The Right Resistance Training

So far, we have discussed nutrition and the right way to fuel our bodies.  Now we will come to understand the importance of resistance training (or weight lifting) for everyone.  You don’t have to be a professional or varsity level athlete to benefit from this activity!  In fact, it is essential to include some kind of resistance training to your fitness world in order to keep things in balance.

The weight on the scale has validity, but the number you should really be concerned with is your body composition value:  lean muscle mass versus body fat.  Muscle mass is active tissue.  It helps support and move our body.  Fat is also necessary in our body.  It helps protect our organs, transports hormones and nutrients to the right places, and provides stored energy.  Here again we come back to balance.  Excess fat in our bodies is unhealthy.  As we age, we begin to lose muscle mass.  In order to fight that loss, we must provide the muscles with resistance training, i.e. weight lifting.  As active tissue, the muscle mass in our bodies is key to our metabolism.  Because it is active and needs to be fed nutrients, muscle mass demands that our furnaces stay hot.  Fat is not active tissue and does not demand any energy.  So the key to keeping our metabolism high is keeping the right body composition.

Weight lifting and functional resistance training not only helps to shape our bodies, but helps the muscles learn to coordinate in the best way possible so we can enjoy the recreation of our choice.  Runners can work on their upper body and core strength so their torsos remain upright and strong even at the point of fatigue.  Golfers can learn how to transfer lower body force to the upper body for longer drives. Tennis players can build strength in the muscles surrounding their knees and shoulders to protect those joints as they go through extreme ranges of motion.  And who doesn’t like to feel a little less “wobbly” when putting on a swimming suit!

And finally, keeping our muscles strong helps keep our bones strong.  Bone density is another concern in the aging process and proper weight bearing activities will encourage the bones to constantly remodel themselves. 

So what is the "right" resistance training?  There are many ways to design a weight lifting program and the "right" one depends on who you are, where you're coming from and what you want to accomplish. A personal trainer can make sure you are doing the right kind of lifting to move you towards health and help your body be the best it can be.  (We'll talk later about what to look for in a personal trainer.)