WHAT IS STRENGTH RESISTANCE TRAINING?
Muscular strength is the ability to produce force against a resistance and is a fundamental attribute of fitness that influences other attributes such as mobility, flexibility, and balance, not just power and endurance.
Power is the ability to produce force quickly.
Endurance is the ability to produce force repeatedly over sustained intervals.
Full mobility requires joint integrity and the ability to produce force over a full range of motion.
Balance is the ability to maintain a stable position against the pull of gravity with minimal postural sway.
Strength training is a program of carefully chosen exercises performed over an extended period designed to increase your ability to produce muscular force in useful movement patterns.
HOW DOES STRENGTH TRAINING WORK?
It relies on the principle of a steady increase in the applied training stress which produces a corresponding increase in the physiologic and performance adaptation e.g., increasing the number of sets of a specific exercise of increasing the number of repetitions in each set. Recovery and adaptation are also very important in strength training and depend on proper nutrition, adequate sleep, active rest between training days, and stress management.
“WHY” IS IT IMPORTANT FOR YOU?
There is a myriad of benefits to strength training:
- Increased muscular strength protects against frailty and falls and therefore against injury such as hip fractures and subsequent loss of independence.
- Improved body composition with reduced visceral fat mass, increased lean muscle mass, and increased bone density.
- Increased insulin sensitivity.
- Improved diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis to name a few.
*****Do consult your healthcare provider prior to engaging in strength training exercises to help determine what would be safe for you.