Resistance training or lifting weights is something that we preach all the time. Generally speaking, people understand the benefits of cardiovascular training for overall health but tend to underestimate the value or resistance training for overall health beyond getting more muscular. However, something that people don’t realize is that resistance training has tremendous benefits beyond aesthetics….in fact it may just save your life. With this blog post, we’re going to explain a little bit about why we’re always preaching resistance training, and provide you with a free PDF download to give you a process for programming your workouts.

Function

One of the major reasons we’re always promoting strength training is the benefits it has on your function. Essentially, lifting weights makes your daily life easier, which means you can get more done and have a sense of autonomy. You become more in control of your life and the choices you make. Consider this scenario: your son asks for your help moving a couch. You start to question whether this is a good idea or not, will your hurt yourself, will this make it so you can’t do anything for the rest of the day. Most people want to be able to decide to help the people they care about and/or choose to do things for themselves that involve lifting and physical labour and strength training can help you with this. Further, having more function through strength training can save you money. Instead of having to hire someone to move your stuff, do your yard-work, and shovel your driveway - you can do this all yourself! Sometimes we use the term ‘one-rep max living’ for people who don’t resistance train. What this means, is if you’re not training your strength, you’re going to be lifting your one rep max OFTEN. That 40 pound bag of concrete might be 90% of what your lift and this is quite fatiguing. Alternatively, if you’ve been doing squats and your one-rep max is 185 pounds then 40 pounds is nowhere near your one rep max.

All Cause Mortality

The second reason we promote resistance training is because it’s one of the best ways to reduce your all cause mortality (which is simply dying from any cause). Most people realize that cardiovascular training reduces your chances of things like diabetes, stroke, and heart attacks, but are surprised to learn that strength training does as well. I hope you’re ready for a mind-blowing statistic!

Resistance training just twice a week is associated with ~21% reduction in all cause mortality risk (1)

This is staggering, about a 20 percent less chance of dying than not resistance training. The incredible part is that in all likelihood this is dose-dependent, meaning more would likely lead to even more of a risk reduction. However, twice a week is a very low barrier to entry to significantly reduce your risk. So if you’re questioning whether or not resistance training is safe (hint - it is), maybe you’re asking the wrong question. Instead, we think you should ask yourself whether or not it’s safe to NOT resistance train.

Above all, we think once you build the habit that strength training is fun and feels great!

And if you’re looking to make this change now, but don’t quite know where to start….we’ve created a FREE PDF for you entitled, “How to Create a Workouts for Dummies” - check it out below.

References:

(1) The association of resistance training with mortality: A systematic review and meta-analysis