Strength training doesn’t necessarily mean hitting up the gym and loading up a barbell. You can perform strength training workouts at home or in the gym. You have four options to provide appropriate resistance:

Body Weight

• Ideal for the home or when you don’t have access to a gym
• You provide your own resistance
• Examples: Push-ups and Pull-ups

Resistance Bands

• Plastic tubing that provides resistance based on thickness
• Ideal for the home or gym
• Examples: Resistance Band Curls

Weight Machines

• Ideal for the gym
• Machine guided movements that include weighted resistance
• Examples: Lying Leg Curl Machine

Free Weights

• Ideal for the gym and home
• Exercises that utilize barbells, dumbbells, benches, etc
• Examples: Incline Bench Press

Why You Need to Start Strength Training 

4.Boost Your Brain

A physical workout is doing more for you than you think. Your brain is also reaping the rewards of that strength training workout. Studies show that adults who exercise may be able to improve their cognitive skills such as processing and acquiring information. 

3. Build Up Your Bones

Bones need to be exercised to stay strong. You need to make your bones work. One of the primary reasons you see older adults suffering from bone-related diseases is because they aren’t active. It’s the “use it or lose it” idea. If you aren’t working out your bones then you’ll lose the strength and hardness, which leads to diseases like osteoporosis.

How do you make your bones strong? Strength training.

Strength training puts resistance on your bones, forcing them to respond by increasing bone density.

2. Maintain a Healthy Weight

If you think that focusing on cardio is the best way to lose or maintain a healthy weight, then think again. Strength training is a fantastic way to lose or maintain your weight.

Strength training workouts can be altered to increase intensity, resistance, rest breaks, and several other key factors that can influence the amount of calories and fat that you burn. The one thing you can do with strength training that you can’t do with a standard treadmill workout is apply different training systems. Here are several training methodologies that you can utilize to keep your body lean:

• H.I.I.T.
• German Volume Training
• 5 x 5 System
• Pyramid System
• Failure Sets

1. Build Lean Muscle Tissue

The most important reason to use strength training? You can build lean muscle tissue.

Lean muscle tissue does more for your body than just draw positive attention your way. Strong muscles help with improving the quality of your life. You’ll be able to perform basic tasks with greater efficiency and safety such as picking up groceries or playing with your kids. Lean muscle tissue is also a fat burning machine. The more lean tissue you have, the more calories you can burn while doing nothing at all.

Tell Us What You Think!

What’s your favorite strength training exercises?

How has strength training helped you?

Let us know in the comments section below!