We Strength train because it puts stress onto your body you otherwise wouldn’t get (the good kind). Honestly, working out is a replacement for the movement we used to do many thousands of years ago. It’s a modern fix for a modern lifestyle.
Your body adapts — very well. It will not work harder than it needs to, ever. If it doesn’t need to make more muscle, it will not. Same with food. Your brain knows when you’re getting the next meal, but the rest of your body still operates like an animal. It doesn’t know when there’s going to be food – so the excess you consume gets stored just in case… who would have thought!
But regardless, this is one of the many caveats of today. When we remove the things (movement) that sculptured our genes, it should be no surprise that when there’s a lull for a period of time, we react badly.
So, we say Strength training.
But how do you know you’re doing it correctly?
It’s always a good idea to find a trainer or allied health professional that understands the body. Not just on a surface level, but knows how it connects and works together. They’ll be able to perform a bio-mechanical assessment that reads your body and understand how it moves. We do this for all clients before they come into our group classes. People might move very similarly, but sometimes we do this and someone won’t even know if their hyper or hypo-mobile. Which can be very important when bringing someone into a group environment.
After that, it’s simple. Strength training combined with some anaerobic training helps keep the body active, supports muscle and joint stability, keeps the blood flowing, and just generally sets you up right.
One of the major benefits that you may not think about are the endorphins. Exercise releases “happy chemicals” that make you feel good. Specifically, Dopamine, Serotonin and Oxytocin. And you know what, it’s absolutely worth defining these so you know how these actually affect you.
Endorphins
- They serve one purpose – to mask our pain. Often released in response to stress or fear, they mask physical pain with pleasure. The “runner’s high”.
- An obvious example of endorphins is laughing. Our body releases the ‘feel good’ chemical to mask the pain of our organs being convulsed.
Dopamine
- It is responsible for the feeling after we’ve accomplished or completed an important task, a project, reached a goal or even reached a marker on towards our bigger goal. The feeling when you cross something off the list – that’s dopamine.
- When we are given a task to complete, a metric to reach, as long as we can see it or clearly imagine it in our mind’s eye, we will get a little burst of dopamine to get us on our way.
Serotonin
- Responsible for the feeling of pride. The feeling we get when we perceive that other like or respect us. It makes us feel strong and confident.
- As social animals, we more than want the approval of those in our tribe, we need it. It really matters. We all want to feel valuable for the effort we put forth for the good of others in the group, or the group itself.
Oxytocin
- This is most people’s favourite chemical. The feeling of friendship, love or deep trust. The feeling we get when we’re in the company of our closest friends or trusted colleagues.
- It’s the feeling we get when we do something nice for someone, or someone does something nice for us. Without oxytocin we wouldn’t want to perform acts of generosity. Without oxytocin there would be no empathy. We couldn’t develop bonds of trust or friendships without it.
- If we are among people we trust, and who trust us, that responsibility can now be shared among the entire group.
There are so many benefits not only to Strength training, but exercise in general. This isn’t even scratching the surface, but we think they’re some of the key benefits that get overlooked to creating and fulfilling a healthy future.