What are the benefits of strength training?
“There are many priceless benefits,” says Scott Danberg, MS, Director of Exercise at the Pritikin Longevity Center in Aventura, Florida. “What’s most amazing is that you start to feel – and see – the benefits very quickly, often within just one to two months. One GREAT benefit: strength training, also called resistance training, burns fat.”
Fitness Advice Guide - Exercise Routine
Follow the exercise routine recommended by Pritikin's exercise physiologists.
Strength Training
The rewards of strength training include:
- A leaner body. As we get older, muscle tends to be replaced by fat. Yes, we’re biologically destined to get flabby. “But flab is not inevitable,” stresses Scott Danberg, whose team of exercise physiologists at Pritikin have for three decades helped more than 90,000 men and women launch fitter, healthier lifestyles. “Strength training can help you retain lean body mass – and build more.”
- An easier time losing weight. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn, and the leaner you get.
- Stronger bones. Just as muscles deteriorate with age, so do bones. They literally start to go soft, and it starts happening as early as age 35. “The best type of exercise to not only keep but also increase bone density is strength training,” explains fitness expert Scott Danberg.
- More power, better coordination, better agility, and better balance, all of which make daily living, from carrying groceries to picking up children, much easier to perform – and much more enjoyable.
How much strength training is enough?
A little goes a long way. You’ll get the many benefits of strength training with just 2 to 3 sessions per week. For each session, the exercise physiologists at the Pritikin Longevity Center recommend a full body routine consisting of 10 simple, practical exercises proven to have long-term success for thousands of guests at Pritikin: “10 Resistance Exercises For Losing Fat and Building Muscle.”
How many repetitions of each exercise should I do?
Do 8 to 15 repetitions (i.e., 8 to 15 calf raises, 8 to 15 bicep curls, and so on). Use any type of resistance (such as free weights, elastic bands, or weight machines), as long as you’re comfortable with it.
Try to pick a weight that gives you a “somewhat-hard to hard routine, or what I call a ‘meaningful weight,’” says Scott.
Your weight is not meaningful if 15 repetitions are too easy – if, in other words, you’re doing about 20 repetitions with no problem. If so, increase the resistance. Go, for example, from 8-pound to 10-pound weights.
If 8 repetitions are too hard, meaning, you tire out and cannot do them with proper form, the resistance you’re using is too heavy. Decrease it.
How many sets should I do?
1 to 3. Pumping out 1 set (for example, doing just 12 bicep curls) is a great start, and yields most of the benefits of doing 2 or 3 sets. But certainly, 2 or 3 sets (24 or 36 bicep curls in total) brings even more gains. “The least conditioned person will gain from one set,” says Scott Danberg, “but the conditioned individual must perform 3 or more sets to continue making gains.”
Whatever level you’re at, do be sure to rest a minute or two between each set.
How long should each strength training session be?
Here’s the really good news: Just a few minutes and you’re done. One to two sets of the 10 resistance exercises should only take about 20 to 30 minutes.
How often should I train?
Just two to three times weekly. “That’s all it takes,” encourages Pritikin Director of Exercise Scott Danberg.
To give your muscles enough time to rest and recover between strength training workouts, do not exercise on consecutive days, for example, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Allow at least 48 hours between sessions.
Also, do not forget to stretch either after strength training or between exercises, or both.
Toning Up: The Rewards
“Good luck!” encourages Scott Danberg. “Every day our guests at Pritikin tell me how much strength training has improved their lives – and in so many ways. Guests tell me, ‘My arms are firmer. I stand up straighter. I look younger. I act younger. I have fewer aches and pains!’
“Yesterday, a guest in her 70s who’s been vacationing at Pritikin every year for many years told me: ‘I don’t have to wait for my son to come by to help me with heavier chores. I’m independent!’ That, in and of itself, is reason enough for everyone, at any age, to begin strength training.”
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