![]() One of the unique benefits of resistance training, one that cannot be realized any other way, is increased bone density. And every bit of strength I have makes those tasks easier. But carrying five-gallon water containers from the car, putting my luggage into the airplane overhead bin, moving furniture around while cleaning the house, those are things I do all the time. When was the last time you had to run at a sustained effort for 30 minutes, outside an organized race? At least for me, that’s not something I encounter frequently (or ever). I would also argue that strength has much more every-day applicability than endurance. I’m sure she could easily do a couple hundred unloaded squats.) ![]() (If you want to see this principle in action, check out this video of a woman first squatting a barbell weighing over twice(!) her own bodyweight and then squatting a barbell weighing her own bodyweight 33 times. On the flip side, being able to do 50 regular pushups doesn’t do much for your ability to do one-arm pushups. In simple terms, if you can do a one-arm pushup, you could easily acquire the ability to do 50 regular pushups in a row. But just because you have endurance doesn’t mean you can easily add strength. Once you have strength, it’s relatively easy to build endurance on top. The exercises truly are that exhausting.) Second, there is better transfer from strength to endurance than the other way round. (Incidentally, that’s why you need a few minutes break between sets of heavy resistance training. Thus, you get way more exercise bang for your buck. By comparison, a single set of five barbell squats, at a weight that you can lift only about five times in a row, will have hit nearly every single muscle fiber in your leg muscles. If you go jogging for 30 minutes, even at a pretty fast pace, you may feel tired afterwards, your legs may even be sore, but a substantial fraction of your leg muscle hasn’t actually done anything. So why should you do resistance training? First, only heavy resistance training can actually activate and train all muscle fibers, including the strongest fast-twitch fibers. But if you can easily crank out twenty, pushups are an endurance exercise for you and you have to move on to something harder for resistance work. For example, if the max number of pushups you can do in one go is four, pushups are a viable resistance exercise for you. If you can’t do more than about eight to ten repetitions, you’re in the resistance range. To find out whether a particular exercise can be considered resistance training for you, find out how many repetitions you could do at most. If you’re regularly cranking out planche pushups, one-arm chins, or one-arm handstands, you probably don’t have to pick up a barbell anytime soon. For example, there are many excellent bodyweight resistance exercises. However, other forms of exercise can be resistance training as well. Conventional resistance training involves barbell work, e.g. the barbell squat or the deadlift. ![]() And those five-minute breaks are absolutely necessary if you’re doing it right, in particular if you care more for strength than size.īefore I continue, though, a word of clarification: While the title of this post says “lift weights,” what really matters is that one engages in resistance training, i.e., putting heavy loads onto the muscles, tendons, and bones. Further, it is likely the most important type of exercise we can engage in, in particular as we grow older. Only when I started to read up on exercise physiology did I realize that lifting heavy is an extremely beneficial activity. Do they even break a sweat? I don’t call that exercise, I call that sitting around on your lazy behind. I mean, look at those guys 1 in the gym: they take a barbell, lift it five times, and then they take a five minute break. I was convinced that my fitness regimen of endurance training (running, cycling, walking), flexibility (yoga), and basic whole-body movements (more yoga) was far superior to stupidly lifting weights in a gym. Actually, not looks even, just sheer size. If you lifted weights, my thinking went, you cared more about your looks than your health or fitness level. For the first forty years of my life, I thought lifting weights was for meatheads.
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