Strength Training
Muscular strength training benefits
Developing muscular strength produces many positive adaptations in the human body. Benefits of strength training include:
An increase in muscle and bone density- Increasing your resting metabolism and the efficiency of neural pathways
- Creating the ability to contract a muscle with greater force (increases strength)
- Being highly beneficial for patients recovering from myocardial infarctions (heart attacks)
Interestingly Daub, Knapik, Black(1996) found that low to moderate strength training may have less chance of causing further complications while recovering from a heart attack compared with the complications experienced when patients were made to perform cardiovascular work. - Decreasing your body fat percentage
Geliebter, Maher, Gerace, Gutin, Heymsfield & Hashim (1997) conducted a study which focused on three groups of obese people, who all followed a controlled diet. The three groups involved individuals who: strength-trained; trained aerobically and a diet group which did not exercise at all over the 8-week period. Results involved all three groups losing 9kg of body weight, however the strength-trained group was the only ones who decreased their body fat percentage, meaning they became leaner.
It was also discovered that resistance training can benefit the cardiovascular system, experts began to take interest in this area once more. Ferketich, Kirby, Alway(1998) found a greater improvement in their subjects' cardiovascular systems when strength and cardiovascular training was combined, compared to just training the cardiovascular system on its own. This underlies the importance again of including strength into your training and not just running for miles and miles and wondering why you're not improving anymore.
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