If you want a lean, toned profile, there’s one thing you should not forget about – strength training. Not every woman wants sculpted arms, but strength training offers a much broader range of benefits.
Importantly, strength training is something more trainers should be encouraging, as the benefits are ideal for both men and women alike.
Improved Mentality
Strength training is a great way to get your mind in the right attitude since it’s built around achieving and consistently improving your goals. The end result is that it becomes easier to stay focused and motivated.
Combined with a healthy workout regime and diet, you will use your brain more, improving its capabilities. Likewise, strength training is an effective way to reduce stress. By focusing on higher, more achievable goals, your mindset is able to remain positive and motivated.
Increased Metabolism
Women, like men, naturally lose muscle mass as they age. One result of this process is that your metabolism often becomes slower, increasing your chances of gaining bulk weight and fat. This can happen from your thirties onward, but there are a few exercises that can reignite your metabolism.
Dumbbell lateral exercises, for instance, can accelerate your metabolism. The effect is quite long lasting, as the body will be able to burn fat hours after the original exercises.
Stronger Bones
Weak bones are a common problem for many women. Fortunately, strength training does more than just improve the muscles.
A major benefit of these exercises is the strengthening of bone tissue. Strength training is actively linked to improved bone density, helping to reduce a number of risks such as fractures and osteoporosis. Strength training can even offer better bone density along your spinal cord, which provides more protection for your nervous system.
Some exercises, such as hack squatting, are a great way to promote healthy joints, as well as developing stronger muscles and bones. Strength training can actually improve your joints, thus reducing your chances of muscle or joint pains.
This process can also remove back pain – something many women experience. By actively training on a regular basis, you can live a life with less of these pains entirely.
A Healthier Heart
Strength training doesn’t just strengthen the bones, joints, and muscles. It can also benefit important organs, such as the heart.
By improving your metabolic rate, you can start removing excess fats and cholesterol, which have a strong, negative impact on your heart’s condition.
Similarly, working out with strength exercises can help prevent Type 2 diabetes. This is because muscle training reduces the levels of glucose – as well as triglycerides – in your bloodstream.
Burn More Calories
Likewise, strength training is a great way to burn calories. Even after you’ve completed your strength exercises, your body will continue to burn calories, something many professions call physiologic homework.
Aside from an increased metabolism (up to 15 percent faster), muscles simply require more fat to build and maintain. This makes such exercises an excellent way to stay slim or start a weight loss plan.
Become Leaner And More Powerful
When you want a lean body, it’s instinctive to turn to cardio exercises, but these offer a very slow process. Strength training, however, burns more calories thanks to your improved metabolism.
The effect offers the desired lean results on a much faster scale. As an added bonus, it also supports your internal health thanks to the added bone and muscular strength.
A Reduced Risk of Personal Injuries
Injuries are always a risk when working out, but strength training helps to reduce the chance. When you have healthier, stronger joints, bones, and muscles, you can cope with more pressure.
Your body will accept bigger challenges, handle larger amounts of stress, and emerge unscathed. Likewise, your muscles can become more adaptive and are less likely to hurt because you stretched them the wrong way or otherwise stressed them.
Enhance Your Body’s Mechanisms
Improved coordination, combined with a greater sense of balance, can help to vastly improve your posture and flexibility. This can have some surprising benefits, such as reducing the risks of falling down by as much as 40 percent.
More than just getting toned, strength training can help improve your muscles, internal system, and mental attitude. It is a great way to support and enhance your overall health and makes strength training an excellent addition to anyone's fitness plan.
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Author Bio:
Demmy James is a fitness buff, strength and conditioning specialist and content contributor with Muscle & Strength. He is constantly looking to inspire and motivate others towards achieving their own health and fitness goals through his writings.