by Mitchell Reynolds

Created on: October 11, 2008   Last Updated: October 20, 2008

Are you one of those people that limit your workouts to cardio-only? Most people do for many reasons, but they need to understand the effects of strength training. Strength training increases muscle mass, which means you have bigger muscles. But the thing most people don't understand is that muscles burn calories. So that means if you have more muscle mass you burn more calories. You burn more calories driving, more calories walking, more calories by just sitting there. And that leads to a better looking body, tone muscles, bigger muscles, less fat, the ability to eat just about anything you want, the list goes on and on. But training wrong can lead to big problems in the long run, so train hard, but train right.

Beyond increasing your metabolism, strength training also improves your every-day performance. It helps injury prevention, improves bone density, and helps prevent aging. Increases muscle mass keeps the skin tighter, which in return will prevent wrinkles and sagging skin. Strength training can also decrease cholesterol and lower blood pressure. It will also prevent you from becoming sore throughout the day. But of the most obvious results, you get stronger. You can lift more, do more, do the stuff you enjoy doing more, and keep your live on track.

Some other facts a lot of people don't know about is the effects of strength training is it's prevention against aging. At about age thirty, your metabolism starts to decline. That causes you to burn less calories and is why a lot of people hit thirty and start to gain weight. Strength training can prevent and even reverse the effects of that metabolism change. Strength training can also energize you. As you get older, your alertness and that energizing feeling start to go away. Strength training exercises you and in turn makes you more alert and that energized feeling. Strength training also lowers your resting heart rate, the sign of a more efficient heart. Effects like these are not to bad for the minimal time investment.

Some women are afraid of strength training because they don't want big muscles and to look buff. But for most women, strength training just tones and smooths their muscles. To achieve this, you just do more repetitions at a lower weight. Women don't posses the hormone testosterone in the large quantities that men do. This is why women don't bald and be as naturally as hairy.

So if you think about it, strength training is a very important part of any training regiment. The effects are well worth your time, and even extend your life. But your whole training should not consist of all weights. You should add some cardiovascular work in there, but remember the effects of strength training and use them correctly.

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