Strength Training is for Everyone

Posted By elissa on Feb 14, 2011 | 1 comment

The LA Times explains why:

A growing body of research shows that working out with weights has health benefits beyond simply bulking up one’s muscles and strengthening bones. Studies are finding that more lean muscle mass may allow kidney dialysis patients to live longer, give older people better cognitive function, reduce depression, boost good cholesterol, lessen the swelling and discomfort of lymphedema after breast cancer and help lower the risk of diabetes.

“Muscle is our largest metabolically active organ, and that’s the backdrop that people usually forget,” said Kent Adams, director of the exercise physiology lab at Cal State Monterey Bay. Strengthening the muscles “has a ripple effect throughout the body on things like metabolic syndrome and obesity.”

…Strength training often takes a back seat to cardiovascular training, but it can benefit the heart in ways that its more popular cousin can’t.

Click the link at the top and read the whole thing.

Seriously: there’s a lot more to it than getting hyoooge, or training to perform a max lift.  So no excuses… just do it!