Knowing which workout routine to do is tricky if you’re just starting to work out. After all, it seems like everyone is telling you something different - from your friends who swear by cardio, to the magazines that recommends lunges.
While everyone is different, all beginner workout routines should include some strength training a couple of times a week. Many assume that strength training is just for bodybuilders, but the truth is that everyone can benefit from regular strength training, regardless of age, fitness level, or fitness goal.
Why Is Strength Training So Important?
Incorporating strength training into your workout routine twice a week has plenty of benefits. Regular strength training can:
Help Increase Your Muscle Mass
Even though your muscle mass will naturally decrease as you age, you aren’t powerless to stop it. With strength training, you can preserve and even increase your muscle mass at any age to become stronger and look more fit!
Make It Easier To Burn Calories And Control Your Weight
Strength training can also help if you’re trying to lose or maintain weight. After all, strength training results in more muscle; the more muscle you have, the more quickly your body will burn calories. With a higher muscle mass, you’ll have a higher basal metabolic rate, meaning you’ll burn even more calories by doing nothing other than breathing! What’s more, your metabolic rate is higher for up to 72 hours after a strength-training session (ever heard of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption?), so you’ll be burning extra calories for the hours or days following your workout.
Improve Bone Strength
Since strength training places stress on your bones, it can increase your bone density. This additional stress tells the cells responsible for building bones to rebuild your bones even stronger than before, which can lower your risk of osteoporosis and fractures.
Boost Brain Health
Strength training can also improve your brain health and slow age-related cognitive decline. After all, strength training results in reduced inflammation, improved blood flow, and increased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, all of which can help your brain.
Increase Joint Flexibility And Mobility
While you may not think of strength training as a way to become more flexible and mobile, it’s true! Regular strength training will help your joints stay flexible and reduce symptoms of arthritis, as it increases joint range of motion. Just make sure to use your entire range of movement when performing exercises to reap the most benefits.
Improve Your Mood
There’s a reason strength training is a legitimate treatment option for symptoms of depression. Like all forms of exercise, strength training increases mood-boosting endorphins, but that’s not all it does. It can also help you sleep better and can reduce anxiety!
Increase Your Overall Quality Of Life
Strength training can raise your overall quality of life. Think about it. Increased muscle and joint strength mean you can continue to do everyday activities like carrying groceries to your car or lifting your kids up, even as you age. Better balance means a lower risk of falls and injuries.
Plus, strength training can improve your heart’s health, lower your blood pressure, increase blood circulation, and reduce your risk of hypertension and heart disease, all of which can help you live a longer, healthier life. Strength training can even help manage chronic conditions like arthritis, diabetes, and back pain.
What Types Of Exercises Should You Use?
When creating your workout, you’ll want to include compound movements (movements involving more than one muscle group). For example, a squat is a compound movement because you’ll need to engage your core, hip flexors, glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calf muscles.
By using compound exercises as the base of your strength training workout routine, you can maximize time and calorie burn. After all, you’ll use multiple muscle groups at once, meaning you’ll get more done and burn more calories in a shorter time.
Compound exercises can also help quickly increase your range of motion, dynamic flexibility, and coordination as well as build a foundation of strength and functional fitness. Compound movements like push, pull, squat, and lunge simulate the actions we need to do in everyday life, which means incorporating compound exercises into your workout routines can also help you with things like carrying grocery bags, shoveling snow, and other activities.
In addition to squats, you can try push-ups, planks, deadlifts, wall sits, barbell rows, pull-ups, lunges, kettlebell swings, barbell hip raises, and more to reap all the benefits of compound movements.
You’ll also want to do a full-body workout, not a body part split. Body part split workouts can be beneficial if you need to work a specific muscle, maximize muscle growth, or minimize rest days, but full-body training is the best option for most people.
In a full-body workout, you’ll be able to burn more calories, increase strength, and build more muscle in less time. What’s more, you’ll be relatively fresh for each exercise and will hit a much higher percentage of your body’s total motor units per day than a body part split workout. Plus, full-body workouts are a lower time commitment than body part split workouts and are great for both pros and beginners alike!
Get Started With Strength Training Today
The good news is adding strength training to your workout routine is easy. You don’t necessarily need an expensive weight machine or gym membership. Exercises like push-ups, planks, lunges, and squats don’t require any equipment, and many other strength training exercises require relatively cheap equipment, such as resistance tubing, medicine balls, barbells, and dumbells. No matter what exercises you do, don’t be afraid to start slow and gradually increase your resistance, reps, or weight.
Ready to learn more about the basics of strength training? Download Strength Training 101 from my website for free!