Strength Training

At Fitness Lab, we truly believe everyone should be doing some form of strength training. No other form of exercise matches this if strength and muscle gain is the end goal. This is of course obvious, but what is often overlooked is why we should aim to build muscle. There are a huge number of benefits associated with strength training. For example, muscles themselves are highly metabolically active. In other words, they require a lot of energy to simply exist, so compared to other cells in the body (like fat), they burn more calories. Having more muscle mass increases your metabolic rate, meaning you will burn more fat throughout the day. This makes fat loss markedly easier.

Strength training is also a key factor in injury reduction. Simply put, an injury occurs to a part of the body when the force placed on it exceeds what it can handle. Muscles act to absorb force, and therefore when we build up our muscle mass and strength, it increases the amount of force we can handle. On top of this, strength training also increases bone density, which not only decreases the chance of an injury occurring to the bone itself, but offsets osteoporosis.

Resistance exercise has been shown to improve mobility (a key factor for injury) in many areas, as well as reducing the likelihood of having increasingly common health issues. Higher levels of strength are associated with a lower risk of osteoarthritis heart disease, cancer and all-cause mortality. It has also been associated with a reduction in the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Finally, weight training has also been associated with decreased depression and increased sleep quality.