July 2024
Well another month has just flown by again, yet would it be fair to say we finally have summer, sunshine has been consistent, what a delight. Lets recap on the well-being balance of life pie chart, a segment each month to explore the different aspects that help us stay on track and take care of the mind and body, to the best ability as we can, remember we are all in it together and lets face it, is a journey not just the final destination right. Last month I spoke about Cardiovascular health, hope you enjoyed the read. This month i want to focus on the next segment, Strength training. What does it mean and why is it so important to our well-being.
Strength training is exercise that uses resistance to contract muscles in order to increase strength, boost anaerobic endurance, and build skeletal muscles. It will lengthen muscles and help build on bones density. Examples include weight training, Pilates, yoga, and body weight exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups.A recent study at Harvard Universality, a meta-analysis found that people who do muscle-strengthening workouts are less likely to die prematurely than those who don’t, adding to previous evidence that strength training has long-term health benefits. The study found that just 30 to 60 minutes a week of strength training may be enough.
What are the benefits of strength training you may ask?
Strength training may enhance your quality of life and improve your ability to do everyday activities. Strength training can also protect your joints from injury. Building muscle also can contribute to better balance and may reduce your risk of falls. This can help you maintain independence as you age.
What happens to your body when you start strength training?
Your muscle metabolism improves. The metabolism of your muscles gets better, allowing improved buffering of pH, resulting in delayed fatigue and greater muscular endurance. Interval training helps this. Your bones get stronger. Your bones get thicker and stronger as bone density improves. Did you know that your metabolism rate runs faster after a strength training workout over a cardio workout. Which means you body will burn more calories and run faster after doing the exercises to consume fat as energy. This is because the cardio activity is so repetitive it is easy for your body to adapt and find a way to conserve energy so it can either last longer. Strength training is great for this because there is so many combinations of changing your workout. We can change exercises, tempo, methods, loads, rest time, sets and reps that make everything seem like a new workout. Your body is left continually guessing and being forced to work at a peak level and of course its searched for energy ad using the fat deposits to do so and building stronger muscles. If you do not want to get diabetes, cancer or any life threatening disease, having more muscle will help prevent this, as muscles play a pivotal role in controlling our hormones (hence menopause women, it is highly recommended to do strength training workout – balance your hormones). Plus strength training will keep your bones strong preventing fractures, osteoporosis and various injuries. I don’t know about you but that sounds good to me. Many people are oblivious to the fact that muscle is a very important regulator of all the hormones that can cause many problems to your health
I am sure we all know that stretching and strengthening helps to rehabilitate and injury and also prevent injuries. Yet there is still a reluctance for people to consistently adopt an exercise program that does this. Often people wait until something goes wrong and then decide to do something about it. And even then, many people rely on a physiotherapist or some form of medication to “fix them”. The older you are the more important this becomes for part of the ageing process means you begin to lose muscle, known as Sarcopenia, and this speeds up once you over the age of 50. For females muscle loss occurs even faster than males due to a lack of testosterone. This results in being a risk for osteoporosis and developing bone density problems that could lead to fractures.
So recap strength training takes a fraction of the time compared to long slow cardio! But it is important to balance the two forms in your lifestyle weekly routines. It only takes about 30 minutes of a well designed strength training workout 3-4 times per week to have dramatic results on your body. That is only 2 hours per week! Basically, by exercising in short bursts, followed by periods of recovery, you recreate exactly what your body needs for optimum health. And as we have already discussed, increased muscle will result in lowering your body fat, speed up your metabolism, boost your energy, strengthen your bones, improve athletic speed and performance. These type of exercises naturally increases your body’s production of human growth hormone (HGH) which is essential to promote muscle and effectively burn excessive fat and of course help regulate blood sugars & glucose levels.
Points to consider when looking to add strength training to your weekly lifestyle routines
It does not mean strength means going to gym setting and lifting heavy weights to build muscle, we can build good lean muscles with light weights and high repetition.
On that note people we dont need to use weights at all. you can simple do a Pilates or Yoga class to build stronger muscle mass, your own body weight acts as the weight and increase stronger bone dentistry.
Think about it nearly everything we do requires muscles strength taring , acts of walking up stairs or carrying groceries, to picking up our children. So think squats, lunges climb the stairs in a set of 5 reps rest do it again, think out the box.
Join a HIIIT class, body condition, cross train or a circuits class. Walk & Tone UK is adopting this rule , with cardio and the strength all rolled into one, so join us and get booked on on te next walk. Visit web for future dates of our walks and areas (www.walkandtone.uk)
Signing off now from July’s strength blog, thank you for investing in me and reading as always. I am pleased to say we have had an exciting July month, especially with the sun appearing and summer time has arrived.
How to feel happier everyday…
Practising positivity is about nurturing an optimistic attitude remember – embracing the present moment as if it was your last.
This month we are on ‘C’, C is for Compliment, its a act as a mood booster, giving you a little lift for the rest of the day. It also offers a little extra confidence, a well planned compliment can even manage the way you think about certain things. Look in the mirror and give yourselves some self compliments and share that love to others throughout the day and days ahead .
‘’Be the reason someone smiles today’’’ (Me – Victoria)
Have a great July ahead everyone and let’s hope the sun keeps shining. Look forward to continuously meeting you in classes or walks throughout.
Big love XX
