My name is Matthew Petersen and i have been a trainer/coach for 12 years. I have competed as a bodybuilder and as a powerlifter and at. one stage held the all-time Australian record for the. under 125kgs weight class with a total of 872.5kgs (squat 332.5kgs, bench press 210kgs, deadlift 330kgs). I still have the urge to compete as a bodybuilder, but it has taken a backseat recently as i needed to have bilateral hip resurfacing surgery due to the injuries i sustained as a powerlifter.

I have always enjoyed training and competing and i also love helping others. After being a coach for over 12 years i decided that i really wanted to work with men. So I developed a program that i call- Reinventing the man, this is a program i have developed to help men become the best versions of themselves inside and outside of the gym. I have used a lot of my own personal experiences, setbacks, adversities, training principles, nutrition principles and mindset training to develop Reinventing the man. For more details you can go to my Instagram mattpetersen_


I want to give you all my top 5 Benefits of strength and weight training.


How strength training helps your health

Besides the well known (and frequently Instagrammed) benefit of adding tone and definition to your muscles, how does strength training help? Here are just a few of the many ways.

  1. Strength training makes you stronger and fitter.

This benefit is the obvious one, but it shouldn’t be overlooked. Muscle strength is crucial in making it easier to do the things you need to do on a day-to-day basis. Especially as we get older and naturally start to lose muscle.

Strength training is also called resistance training because it involves strengthening and toning your muscles by contracting them against a resisting force. There are two types of resistance training:

  • Isometric resistance involves contracting your muscles against a nonmoving object, such as against the floor in a push-up.
  • Isotonic strength training involves contracting your muscles through a range of motion as in weight lifting.
  1. Strength training protects bone health and muscle mass.

At around age 30 we start losing as much as 3 to 5 percent of lean muscle mass per year thanks to aging.

If we can just aim for 30 minutes twice a week of high intensity resistance and impact training it has been shown to improve functional performance, as well as bone density, structure, and strength in postmenopausal women with low bone mass — and it had no negative effects.

Also, muscle-strengthening activities help preserve or increase muscle mass, strength, and power, which are essential for bone, joint, and muscle health as we age.

  1. Strength training helps keep the weight off for good. 

Aerobic exercise such as walking, running, and cycling is well-known as a way to help increase the number of calories you burn in a day and thereby shed extra kilograms. But strength training helps, too (even if you’re not burning a huge number of calories during the workout).

Strength training is helpful for weight loss because it helps increase your resting metabolism (meaning the rate at which your body burns calories when you’re just going about your day, not exercising).

A good resistance workout increases your excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), referring to the calories your body continues to burn after a workout. Resistance or strengthening exercise keeps your metabolism active after exercising, much longer than after an aerobic workout.

 

A study published in the journal Obesity in November 2017 found that, compared with dieters who didn’t exercise and those who did only aerobic exercise, dieters who did strength training exercises four times a week for 18 months lost the most fat.

  1. Strength training boosts energy levels and improves your mood.

Strength training will elevate your level of endorphins (natural opiates produced by the brain), which lift energy levels and improve mood. All exercise boosts mood because it increases endorphins, But for strength training, additional research that’s looked at neurochemical and neuromuscular responses to such workouts offers further evidence it has a positive effect on the brain. As if that isn't enough to convince you, there’s evidence strength training may help you sleep better, too.

  1. Strength training translates to more calories burned.

Strength training helps boost your metabolism (the rate your resting body burns calories throughout the day). But weight or resistance training can help boost your calorie burn during and after your workout, too.

You burn calories during strength training, and your body continues to burn calories after strength training (just like you do after aerobic exercise), a process called "excess post-exercise oxygen consumption" or EPOC. When you do strength, weight, or resistance training, your body demands more energy based on how much energy you’re exerting (meaning the tougher you're working, the more energy is demanded). That means more calories burned during the workout, and more calories burned after the workout, too, while your body is recovering to a resting state.

Matt is a Personal Trainer working out of FitazFk gym Brisbane, QLD, Australia. If you would like to contact him to discuss any of these topics, or an individual training plan, you can reach him at matt@fitazfk.com

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