1. Makes you stronger
Strength training helps you become stronger. Gaining strength allows you to perform daily tasks much easier, such as carrying heavy groceries or running around with your kids. Furthermore, it helps improve athletic performance in sports that require speed, power, and strength, and it may even support endurance athletes by preserving lean muscle mass.
2. Burns calories efficiently
Strength training helps boost your metabolism in two ways. First, building muscle increases your metabolic rate. Muscles are more metabolically efficient than fat mass, allowing you to burn more calories at rest. Second, research shows that your metabolic rate is increased up to 72 hours after strength-training exercise. This means that you’re still burning additional calories hours and even days after your workout.
3. Decreases abdominal fat
Fat stored around the abdomen, especially visceral fat, is associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases, including heart disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Multiple studies have shown the benefit of strength-training exercises for reducing abdominal and total body fat.
4. Can help you appear leaner.
As you build more muscle and lose fat, you will appear leaner. This is because muscle is denser than fat, meaning it takes up less space on your body pound for pound. Therefore, you may lose inches off of your waist even if you don’t see a change in the number on the scale. Also, losing body fat and building stronger and larger muscles showcases more muscle definition, creating a stronger and leaner appearance.
