What Are The Benefits Of Resistance Training?

Lifting heavy objects. An activity that humans have been doing for thousands of years. Our ancestors would lift heavy animals, rocks, and tree branches, and in return build the strength and muscle to repeat this action with less struggle. In the modern world, we have exploited this process to build our bodies in the way we want to, aiming to reap the same rewards without the life-or-death stakes of the wilderness.

Resistance training offers fantastic benefits to everyone - young and old, those who compete in sport recreationally and at the elite level, as well as people just looking to give themselves a healthier life. Regardless of your goal, this form of training builds your body's ability to produce force, useful for both athletic and everyday tasks, while increasing muscle mass, helping prevent chronic health issues.

But is that even appealing?

Well, 61% of adults in the UK are completing two resistance training sessions per week, demonstrating how enthusiastic people are about the rewards of this training method.

But what actually are the rewards? What should you expect when you start resistance training? For this blog, I will divide these benefits into three areas: The impact on your muscles, your health, and the subsequent influence this will have on your life.

Resistance training helps increase muscle mass and improve health

Muscle

Starting with the most visible transformation, your muscles. Resistance training drives three specific adaptations: strength, power and hypertrophy.

These definitions are often used interchangeably. I wanted to clear up what they mean and how you should vary your training to focus on each element.

Strength is how much force a muscle can create. Changes in strength are most obvious when you are picking up a heavy object, and it feels lighter than it did before. Strength training is most commonly done by lifting heavier weights, above 80% of what you can do for 1 repetition (also known as a 1 Rep Max). However, as highlighted in this study, if you are new to the gym, you can train at lower intensities (<50% 1 Rep Max) and still see improvements in strength.

Power is often a word that is overlooked when it comes to gym training, but still equally as important. This is how quickly you can apply your strength. An essential trait for both athletes aiming to perform in-season and non-athletes wanting to quickly complete a task, like getting up off a chair. In fact, power training is a better alternative to strength training alone in older adults to help maintain a high volume and quality of movement across daily life. Power is enhanced by training with lighter weights, often no weight at all, but with an emphasis on moving as fast as possible.

Hypertrophy relates to the size of the muscle. Having a greater volume of muscle mass across the body has multiple health and metabolic benefits, including a reduction in the risk of osteoporosis, diabetes and obesity, as well as an increase in resting metabolic rate (calories expended at rest). Muscle size has long been assumed to be directly associated with strength, but recent evidence shows that size and strength are different qualities, and can be trained as such. The optimal method to train for muscle size comes down to proximity to failure - providing 5 or more reps are lifted, as long as you are lifting close to failure (within 2 reps of failing), you will eventually see some changes in muscle size.

Short Summary:

Strength - Lift Heavy

Power - Lift Fast

Hypertrophy - Lift close to failure

Health

Staying healthy is an essential part of living a long life, and resistance training can be a great tool to ensure this. Exercise offers not only physical benefits, but hormonal benefits too, whereby your body responds to resistance training in a variety of positive ways. For example, resistance training can reduce diabetes by ensuring that more glucose is transported into cells. It can also reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease by increasing white matter in the brain and protecting against a reduction in the size of the hippocampus. Further benefits of resistance training, as highlighted by the NHS, include a reduction in the risk of:

• Various types of Cancer

• Depression

• Falling in older adults

• Coronary Heart Disease

• Strokes

The NHS recommends 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week, as well as two resistance training sessions, to maximise the health benefits of exercise. In fact, research suggests that resistance training twice per week is sufficient to show significant improvements in key health markers, outlining the importance of this training method in our daily routines.

Short Summary:

Be active for 150 minutes per week, plus two resistance training sessions, to achieve the most health benefits.

Life

The ability to live your life is something that people take for granted until they can no longer do it. As referenced in one of our previous blogs about the decline of strength with age, you will begin to lose strength and muscle size naturally beyond the age of 40.

Without intervention, this ultimately leads to an impaired life. What initially starts as struggling to lift an object or bend down can ultimately lead to being unable to get out of a chair without assistance. This potential reliance on others can have significant negative impacts on psychological wellness, as highlighted in this study published in 2024, which found that psychological factors, most notably depression, were strongly related to independence. Therefore, maintaining a good level of strength, power and muscle mass throughout your whole life is essential to ensure you can live a happy life and function on a day-to-day basis without the help of others.

Short Summary:

Resistance training will help you live a long and functional life.

In Summary

Ultimately, resistance training is more than just a trend; it's a vital investment in your future. By understanding the distinct roles of strength, power, and hypertrophy, you can tailor your training to both build a strong physique and shield your body against chronic disease. Embracing resistance training ensures that you don't just add years to your life, but life to your years, preserving the independence necessary to navigate the world on your own terms.

Practical Recommendations

We suggest lifting weights twice per week, with a balanced focus on strength, power and hypertrophy training across both sessions. Aim to complete your strength and power training first within the session, followed by hypertrophy. We also recommend having at least 1 day of recovery between each session to limit any soreness or fatigue from one session to the next.