When it comes to your health, muscle plays a very intrinsic role in many areas of your health, both physical and mental. Strength training is a very important part of any fitness plan and as we get older, maintaining muscle tone is a very important ingredient for your long-term health. Diet is important, of course, but nutrition doesn’t supply all of the answers. What you eat will provide you with what you need to conduct your strength training but once you hit 40, you begin to lose a percentage of your muscle as the years progress. In order to have a strong metabolism, you need strong muscle function and if you continue to lose it, then you will lose out both physically and mentally. We all live very stressful lives and we are constantly eating fast food because we are on the move a lot. There will come a point in your life when you will start to lose muscle mass faster than you can create it and this is an unfortunate effect of the ageing process. You can, however, delay all of this by taking part in strength training.
In order to be able to enjoy the benefits of a stronger body, you first need to purchase the essential equipment from your body building shop. Once that’s put in place, you can then begin to appreciate how muscle provides support for your body and mind.
- It helps to manage your blood sugar levels – Many people include far too many carbohydrates in their diet and when you take into consideration the lifestyles that they lead, which begins with being a couch potato, you can understand why almost 2/3 of the population is over their natural weight, or even obese. Living a lifestyle like this can cause you to be a pre-diabetic, or if you are unlucky enough, a diabetic. Many people wrongfully assume that if you don’t have a pot belly, then you have nothing to worry about but many people suffer from pre-diabetes even when they are at their healthy weight. Creating a wellness strategy will allow you to have a much stronger mental and physical capacity if you cut down the carbohydrates in your diet. If you train with weights, it will help to reduce your blood sugar and you will burn more fat.
- It builds strength & stamina – As you get stronger using your bodybuilding equipment, you start to build more muscle and after about three months you will begin to notice small changes in the shape of your body. Your workouts can then become more intense as your fitness levels rise and you will notice that your recovery periods become much shorter. As you continue, you will have a level of fitness that can provide you with more energy and it becomes much easier to do the things that you found difficult in the past. You will need to increase your protein intake to help you build muscle and for other advice about food health, have a look here.
- The extra muscle controls your body fat – As you continue to do your weight training, your body fat will reduce and muscle will increase. Don’t be worried if you step on the scales and you weigh exactly the same as you did three months ago, because what was once fat has now become muscle. Start to measure things like your waist and your biceps, to appreciate how well you are doing and how your body is changing for the better. It is important that you reduce your cardio exercise and rely on your strength training to change you into a lean and fit machine. You will notice that your posture will also improve due to your muscle building and you will start to become more upright. This will assist with your emotional state, you will find yourself being much happier with a lot more energy. Your self-confidence will rise and you will feel like a completely new person. This will help you both in your working life and in your social life.
By investing in yourself and in your health, you are creating a better quality of life that will carry you into your retirement age and beyond. Once you begin to do your strength training, make sure that you continue. Just because you are 70 years of age doesn’t mean that you need to stop lifting weights. You may have to reduce the weight a little bit, but you should continue on with your strength training while you can. It is important that you have a strong body and a strong mind and if you don’t, you will experience the opposite of this. It is important to remain mentally and physically resilient as the years pass you by. You need to start making the changes in your lifestyle today and stop putting it off until tomorrow.
