Curious about the benefits of resistance training? This blog dives into how it builds strength, boosts metabolism, and improves overall health for clients of all fitness levels. Whether you’re designing workouts or learning more about its advantages, we’ll show you how resistance training can transform lives. Empower your clients with this essential fitness tool and see the results!
Resistance Training Benefits
Resistance training, often referred to as strength training or weight training, is more than just a way to build muscle—it’s a cornerstone of a healthy, vibrant lifestyle. Whether you’re aspiring to build muscle mass, lose weight, or simply stay fit, resistance training offers profound benefits for your health. It’s adaptable, suitable for all ages, and can be done anywhere—no gym required. Let’s explore why incorporating strength training exercises into your fitness routine is a game-changer for your health and well-being.
What Exactly is Resistance Training?
At its most basic, resistance training is defined as any type of exercise that’s aiding your muscles to contract against an external force of resistance. Typically, this happens with resistance tools like bands, dumbbells, suspension equipment, weight machines, or even your own body weight (that’s right, bodyweight exercises are considered to be resistance training exercises).
Resistance training is an incredibly vast type of exercise—it can range from things like Olympic lifting to pushups to weighted bands to medicine balls. It’s broad, but with the right tools, it can make for a heck of a workout.
This type of training can help to increase muscle tone, strength, mass, and endurance. So, in other words, it’s a relatively well-rounded way to exercise. The idea behind strength training is that your body will work hard to overcome a resisting, external force when needed (so, like when your body needs to pull up on a bar or your leg needs to stretch a rubber exercise band away from a stationary object). That resistance stimulates muscle contraction, and when trained consistently and repeatedly, can help increase the size, tone, and endurance of your major muscle groups.
The Advantages of Resistance Training
Because of everything that can be encompassed in resistance training, it probably already makes sense how it’s an excellent, universal exercise for most—if not all—of your clients. Resistance training is adaptable, flexible, can easily be adjusted, and when done correctly can offer serious benefits to your clients.
Here are some of the top advantages of resistance training:
Build and Maintain Muscle Mass
As we age, muscle mass naturally declines. This is known as “sarcopenia,” a medical term for the loss of muscle and strength caused by the natural aging process. Studies published by the National Library of Medicine prove that resistance training counteracts sarcopenia by significantly enhancing muscle strength, increasing muscular endurance, and improving one’s functional capacity. The muscle strengthening activities involved in resistance training are vital in combating this natural decline.
Strengthen Bones & Joints
Weight-bearing exercises in resistance training stimulate bone remodeling and increase bone density, which can help reduce the risk of osteoporosis, a condition that nearly 10 million Americans face. Additionally, resistance training strengthens the connective tissues around joints, enhancing stability and reducing the risk of injuries.
Improves Posture and Mobility
Resistance training strengthens the core and stabilizing muscles in areas like your lower back which connect to your spine and core, improving posture and alignment. A study published in Sports Medicine that can be found on the National Library of Medicine proved that resistance training is just as effective as stretching when it comes to enhancing one’s range of motion/mobility.
Supports Heart Health
Although cardio is often associated with heart health, resistance training is just as important for your heart as aerobic workouts. It is proven that strength training improves your blood pressure, glycemia, lipid profiles, and body composition, particularly in older adults and those with heightened cardiometabolic risks. Engaging in strength training exercises can significantly benefit cardiovascular health.
Who Benefits from Resistance Training?
Because resistance training has so many different types of exercises underneath its encompassing umbrella, it’s truly a beneficial choice for every type of client you might want to work with. If you have a client who’s primarily focusing on cutting weight and toning up, introducing them to reliable resistance training equipment can help them focus on aerobic exercises with quick, light reps in order to engage their cardiovascular system while working muscles. There are several companies, such as SPRI, TRX, and Cybex, that create affordable and effective resistance training equipment, making it easier than ever to incorporate this type of exercise into your clients’ workout plans.
If you have a client whose primary focus is to bulk up and put on mass, strength training through free weights, resistance bands, and weight machines can be hugely beneficial. Resistance training is immensely valuable for all types of clients, with all types of goals, on all types of fitness journeys—it’s one of the only types of exercise out there that can be tailored to anyone and everyone.
It Doesn’t Have an Age Limit
Resistance training is hugely beneficial for clients in any range. Unlike more intense exercises (like heavy lifting, endurance training, and exercises that require big, compound movements), resistance training can be perfectly adjusted to fit the needs of whichever age range you’re working with. From the young-and-buff 20-something that you’re helping to prepare for competition to the more delicate 80-year-old client who just wants to stay in tip-top shape, resistance training can work wonders for both of them. There’s no specific client type, as we mentioned above, which also means there’s no specific client age. Because of the flexibility, adaptability, and broad range of strength training exercises out there, this is a section of exercise that anyone, no matter what age, can take part in.
You Don’t Need a Gym
The best part about resistance training? You don’t need a gym membership, a ton of equipment, or even a personal trainer (sorry, guys, but it’s true) to do it regularly. This should be a huge selling point for your clients for several reasons. Strength training absolutely can and should happen at a gym, but it’s by no means required. If your clients invest in some of their own resistance training equipment and work with you, their trainer, to come up with a comprehensive program, they’re more than likely going to be able to exercise anywhere—not just at a gym. Just make sure you’re covered with personal trainer insurance to protect yourself while guiding clients in any setting.
Tips for Resistance Training
- How often should you do resistance training? People should aim to do resistance training at least two days a week for maximum benefits with 1-3 sets of 8-10 different exercises that target all your major muscle groups.
- Warm-up before and recover after: Perform 5-10 minutes of warm-ups with light resistance bands that target the muscle groups you will be working out, or do some light cardio like brisk walking or cycling. After your workout, be sure to do deep stretches to aid recovery. Also, allow 48 hours between working the same muscle groups to allow muscle repair and growth.
- How heavy should you lift? It’s better to go with light weights when you’re first getting started—you should use weights that make you feel like your muscles are tired but not failing by the last rep. Over time, use gradually heavier weights as your strength improves.
- Who should not do resistance training? For the most part, people with uncontrolled high blood pressure, unstable heart disease and arrhythmias, aortic dissection, and Marfan syndrome should not do resistance training. It is recommended to consult with a physical therapist first if you have diabetes, controlled high blood pressure, pacemakers or defibrillators, have had a stroke, have musculoskeletal issues, or are pregnant before starting resistance training.
- Focus on form and technique: Proper form is crucial to not only maximize effectiveness but to also avoid injury.
- Listen to your body: Pay attention to what your body is telling you during and after workouts. It’s normal to feel tired and challenged during resistance training, but nothing should be hurting you beyond typical muscle fatigue. Stop immediately if you encounter this and adjust your program accordingly.
Resistance training is a versatile and highly effective form of exercise that offers benefits for people of all ages and fitness levels. From building muscle and improving posture to supporting heart health and combating natural muscle loss, it is a cornerstone of a balanced fitness routine. Whether your goal is to bulk up, tone your body, or simply maintain mobility and strength as you age, strength training provides a customizable solution that can be done at the gym or at home.
