Yes, you should be strength training

Strength training – often called resistance training – plays a major role in maintaining your overall health. You don’t have to bulk up or go the gym every day to see results. A Baylor College of Medicine orthopedic surgeon details the importance of strength training and how to get into a good routine.

Strength training entails putting a load on your muscles and joints to gain muscle mass. Its benefits include:

• Increases bone health: When your bones see a load or resistance, they respond by increasing their bone cells. This increases bone mineral density.
• Encourages healthy lifestyle choices and body changes: Muscles are metabolically active, which is important for glucose control. Strength training is crucial for diabetes, heart health and brain health because the brain is affected by glucose levels in the bloodstream.
• Benefits mental health: Physical activity is linked to improved mental health, and strength training can help the body and mind feel good.

“Resistance training is very important, especially for women as they age because they have a higher risk for low mineral density, especially when they reach those menopausal years and hormonal changes,” said Dr. Candace Mason, assistant professor in the Joseph Barnhart Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Baylor.

It’s never too late to incorporate strength training into your routine. Start with light weights and high reps. As you improve and focus on form, you can ramp up the weights once you feel comfortable. Mason recommends strength training at least two days a week for about 30 minutes each session, mixed with cardiovascular exercise on other days.

“Take it slow, especially if you’ve never done it before. You don’t want to put yourself in a place where you’re prone to injury,” she said.

Stationary weight machines in the gym are a good start if you are not yet comfortable using free weights like dumbbells. They typically have clear instructions, so you can target one muscle group at a time using different machines. You also can do bodyweight exercises anywhere – the gym is not the only place for an effective workout. Squats, lunges, pushups, planks and ab exercise are important and should be integrated into your routine; and you can do them in the comfort of your home.

“Even after you eat a meal, it is so important to do something to help get the glucose into your muscles so your muscles can use it. They constantly need energy,” Mason said. “Even if it’s just doing 10 squats after you eat, that could make a huge difference overtime because all those squats add up.”

A healthy diet also is critical to maintain muscle mass. Healthy protein promotes muscle mass, and vegetable sources of protein suffice (not just meat).

“When you’re young, you’re always running around, and as we age, we tend to have a more sedentary lifestyle. Over time, hormonal changes affect our bones and our muscle integrity, so it’s important to be fighting those changes and making sure we put in the extra work to maintain our bones and keep our muscles healthy,” Mason said.

By Homa Warren