Unlocking the Power of Resistance Training: Exploring Its Surprising Benefits

Resistance training enhances physical and mental health, including improved performance, control, walking speed, independence, cognitive function, and self-esteem. It helps manage type 2 diabetes by reducing visceral fat, lowering HbA1c, and boosting insulin sensitivity. It also improves cardiovascular health, reduces bone loss, alleviates pain from arthritis and fibromyalgia, and counteracts muscle loss and metabolic decline with age.

Regular training increases muscle mass by ~1.4 kg and resting metabolic rate by 7%, while decreasing body fat by ~1.8 kg. It elevates metabolism by 5% to 9% for up to 72 hours post-session, and helps burn about 5000 calories a month. It significantly reduces belly fat and improves insulin sensitivity, contributing to diabetes prevention and management.

Training also enhances bone density by 1% to 3% and boosts mental health by reducing depression, anxiety, and fatigue. Overall, resistance training effectively combats aging effects, metabolic issues, and physical decline.

Resistance Training

Resistance training offers a multitude of benefits, including improvements in physical performance, movement control, walking speed, functional independence, cognitive abilities, and self-esteem. It can aid in the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes by reducing visceral fat, lowering HbA1c levels, increasing the density of glucose transporter type 4, and improving insulin sensitivity. Additionally, resistance training may enhance cardiovascular health by reducing resting blood pressure, lowering LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and increasing HDL cholesterol. It also promotes bone development, with studies indicating a 1% to 3% increase in bone mineral density. Furthermore, resistance training can alleviate low back pain, arthritis discomfort, and fibromyalgia symptoms, while also reversing certain aging factors in skeletal muscle.

According to "Resistance Training is Medicine: Effects of Strength Training on Health" by Westcott Inactive adults lose between 3% and 8% of their muscle mass every decade, which leads to a decrease in their resting metabolic rate and an increase in body fat. Resistance training over ten weeks can counteract these effects by boosting lean muscle mass by about 1.4 kg, increasing resting metabolic rate by 7%, and reducing body fat by 1.8 kg. Additionally, resistance training offers several benefits, including better physical performance, improved movement control, faster walking speed, greater functional independence, enhanced cognitive abilities, and higher self-esteem. It can also help in preventing and managing type 2 diabetes by reducing visceral fat, lowering HbA1c levels, increasing glucose transporter density, and improving insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, resistance training supports cardiovascular health by lowering resting blood pressure, reducing LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, and increasing HDL cholesterol. It also promotes bone health with a 1% to 3% increase in bone mineral density and can alleviate low back pain and symptoms of arthritis and fibromyalgia. The growing concern over sarcopenia, especially in an aging and increasingly sedentary population, underscores the need for resistance training.

Muscle loss contributes to a decrease in metabolic rate and increased fat accumulation, which affects a significant portion of older adults, potentially leading to higher rates of obesity than body mass index calculations alone would suggest. Muscle mass typically declines by 3% to 8% per decade after age 30, accelerating to 5% to 10% per decade after age 50. Since muscle makes up about 40% of body weight and is crucial for managing metabolic health, its loss exacerbates risks related to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Muscle tissue is vital for glucose and triglyceride management, so its decline heightens the risk of metabolic issues. The breakdown and synthesis of muscle proteins significantly impact resting metabolic rate, which drops by 2% to 3% per decade, leading to increased fat accumulation as resting metabolism, which constitutes a large part of daily calorie expenditure, decreases.

Reversing Muscle Loss

Research shows that even short sessions of resistance training, done two or three times a week, can build muscle in adults of all ages, including those up to 90 years old. After about three months of this training, people can gain around 1.4 kg of lean muscle. A large study with over 1,600 participants aged 21 to 80 found that doing 12 exercise sets per session twice or three times a week led to this same average muscle gain, with no significant differences across different age groups.

Improving Resting Metabolism: Resistance training boosts muscle protein turnover and affects your resting metabolic rate in two ways.

1. Long-Term Effect: As you build more muscle from regular training, your body needs more energy to maintain that muscle. For example, gaining 1 kg of muscle can increase your resting metabolism by about 20 calories per day.

2. Short-Term Effect: After a resistance training session, your muscles need extra energy to repair and rebuild, which can raise your metabolism for up to 72 hours.

Studies show that after several weeks of resistance training, your resting metabolic rate can increase by about 7%. Even after just one session, your metabolism can stay elevated by 5% to 9% for three days. For example, a high-volume workout can increase metabolism by 8% to 9% for three days, while moderate to low-volume workouts can lead to a 5% increase. Overall, regular resistance training can boost your daily energy expenditure by 100 calories or more.

Resistance Training and Body Fat Reduction

Excess body fat increases the risk of high cholesterol, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure, which can lead to type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Strasser and Schobersberger recommend resistance training to manage obesity and metabolic disorders. Studies show that resistance training can help people gain about 1.4 kg of muscle and lose around 1.8 kg of fat.

For abdominal fat, research shows that resistance training significantly reduces belly fat in both older men and women. In a study, premenopausal women who did resistance training gained much less visceral fat compared to those who didn't train (7% vs. 21% over two years). Hurley et al. suggest that resistance training may help reduce belly fat by increasing resting metabolism, improving insulin sensitivity, and boosting sympathetic activity.

Resistance training also helps burn calories. For example, a 20-minute resistance workout uses about 200 calories, with an extra 50 calories burned in recovery within the first hour. Over the next 72 hours, metabolism can stay elevated, burning an additional 100 calories per day for muscle repair. If someone does two 20-minute resistance sessions a week, they might burn about 5000 calories a month through these workouts and recovery.

Reversing Age Factors

Recent research has looked into how resistance training affects muscle mitochondria, which are essential for energy production. Circuit resistance training, which involves short rest periods, can increase the number and function of mitochondria in muscles. Another study found that standard resistance training can reverse age-related mitochondrial decline. After 6 months of training, older adults (average age 68) showed improvements in mitochondrial function similar to those of moderately active younger adults (average age 24). The changes in 179 genes linked to aging and exercise suggest that resistance training can help reverse some effects of aging in muscles.

Improving Physical Function

As people age, their physical abilities often decline, making daily tasks harder. However, research shows that resistance training can help improve these issues, even for older adults. For example, a study with nursing home residents around 89 years old showed that doing two sets of six resistance exercises each week for 14 weeks led to a 60% increase in strength, a 1.7 kg gain in muscle, and a 14% improvement in their ability to perform daily activities. Other studies also confirm that resistance training helps older adults move better, perform daily tasks more easily, and walk faster.

Fortifying Against Type 2 Diabetes

As obesity rates rise, so does the risk of type 2 diabetes, with forecasts suggesting that one in three adults will have diabetes by mid-century. Flack et al. found that resistance training can help older adults maintain better insulin sensitivity and prevent diabetes. Studies support this, showing that resistance training improves insulin resistance and lowers blood sugar levels. It also helps reduce belly fat, which is linked to insulin resistance. Flack et al. recommend higher-intensity resistance training for better results, aligning with the American Diabetes Association's guidelines of working out major muscle groups three times a week with high intensity.

Strasser et al. found that resistance training decreases belly fat and lowers HbA1c levels, making it effective for managing and preventing type 2 diabetes.

Phillips and Winett noted that resistance training helps regulate blood sugar and insulin by increasing muscle mass and improving how muscles handle glucose. They suggest that resistance training might be more effective than aerobic exercise for better insulin sensitivity and lowering HbA1c levels.

Improving Cardiovascular Health

A 2011 review by Strasser and Schobersberger found that resistance training is just as good as aerobic exercise for improving heart health. It helps with body composition, reduces abdominal fat, lowers blood pressure, improves cholesterol levels, and controls blood sugar.

Resting Blood Pressure

About one-third of American adults have high blood pressure, which is a major heart disease risk. Studies show that after two or more months of resistance training, blood pressure often decreases. For instance, people who did resistance training twice a week reduced their systolic blood pressure by 3.2 mm Hg and diastolic pressure by 1.4 mm Hg. Training three times a week led to even greater reductions. Research also supports that resistance training lowers blood pressure as effectively as aerobic exercise.

Blood Lipid Profiles 

Around 45% of Americans have unhealthy cholesterol levels that increase heart disease risk. Resistance training can improve cholesterol levels, but results can vary. It might increase HDL (good cholesterol) and decrease LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides. Some studies show that combining resistance training with aerobic exercise is better for improving cholesterol levels than either type of exercise alone. Genetic factors may also influence how much resistance training affects cholesterol levels.

Strengthening Bone Mineral Density

About 10 million American adults have osteoporosis, with 8 million being women. Another 35 million have lower bone mass, known as osteopenia. It's estimated that 30% of women and 15% of men will suffer bone fractures due to osteoporosis. Research shows that losing muscle (sarcopenia) can also lead to bone loss (osteopenia). Without resistance training, adults can lose 1% to 3% of bone density each year.

Exercise that builds muscle often helps increase bone density, and many studies support this. For example, resistance training over 4 to 24 months can significantly boost bone density. A meta-analysis found that exercise could prevent or reverse about 1% of annual bone loss in women, while more recent studies show resistance training can increase bone density by 1% to 3% in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

However, not all studies find significant bone density increases from resistance training, which might be due to small sample sizes, short study durations, or other factors. Some studies also suggest that bone density improvements can be lost if resistance training stops.

While most research focuses on older women, there is evidence that young men can also improve bone density by 2.7% to 7.7% with resistance training. Overall, resistance training is shown to positively affect bone density more than other exercises like aerobic or weight-bearing activities.

Improvement of Mental Health

A review by O'Connor et al. highlights that resistance training benefits mental health in several ways. It can reduce fatigue, anxiety, and depression, ease pain from conditions like osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, and low back issues, boost cognitive abilities in older adults, and improve self-esteem.

Cognition

Research shows that resistance training alone can significantly enhance cognitive skills in older adults. A study by Colcombe and Kramer found that combining aerobic and resistance training improved cognitive function more than aerobic exercise alone.

Self-Esteem: While self-esteem tends to be stable, resistance training can still lead to positive changes in self-esteem for various groups, including older adults, younger adults, women, cancer patients, and those in cardiac rehab.

Other Psychological Benefits

Studies by Annesi et al. found that combining resistance training with aerobic exercise improved mood, reduced depression and fatigue, and enhanced overall mental well-being.

Depression

Resistance training has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression. For example, research by Singh et al. found that over 80% of depressed older adults who did resistance training three times a week were no longer clinically depressed after 10 weeks. Overall, resistance training appears to be a helpful tool for lowering depression levels in both older adults and other populations.

To summarize resistance training benefits both physical and mental health. It addresses the common issues of muscle loss and reduced metabolism that come with aging and inactivity. Research shows that resistance training effectively increases lean muscle mass and metabolic rate while decreasing body fat. It also improves physical performance by reducing low back pain, alleviating arthritis discomfort, boosting functional independence, enhancing movement control, and speeding up walking. Studies have found that resistance training helps manage type 2 diabetes by improving glucose and insulin levels. Cardiovascular benefits include lower resting blood pressure, better blood lipid profiles, and improved vascular health. Resistance training also positively impacts bone density, showing greater effects than other physical activities. Additionally, it offers mental health benefits such as reduced depression, higher self-esteem, a better physical self-image, and improved cognitive function. Overall, resistance training can reverse some of the negative effects of aging on muscle health.

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