Push, pull, lift, grunt. These are expressions of … ugh…lifting weights. Sister has always been of the opinion that strength training is an important component of fitness….although she has always said that aerobic exercise is MORE important simply because that is what research suggested. Well, Sister stands corrected.
An article in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Current Sports Medicine Reports by Stuart Phillips and Richard Winett purports resistance training to be as beneficial, and in many cases, more beneficial for overall health than cardiovascular training. The authors go on to say that there should be a public health mandate urging the general population to partake in some sort of resistance training program. Now that is some serious talk.
Now a little history lesson. In the late 1960’s, Kenneth Cooper’s book, “Aerobics,” pretty much dissed strength training as useless for health benefits. As a result, exercise research focused almost entirely on what the authors call “cardio-centric” studies….that is, all the goodness that can come from aerobic exercise. As a result, strength training received little acknowledgment on its risk reduction benefits. Unfair!
The authors point to some compelling evidence regarding strength training and its’ impact on health. These benefits include the obvious one of increasing skeletal muscle. Some previously unacknowledged benefits include a reduction in LDL (the bad guys) and an increase in HDL (the good guys), positive changes to blood pressure, body composition (who wouldn’t want that?), Type II diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and positive results in cancer rehabilitation protocols. Wow. Who would have thought that a little grunting could do all this?
The authors point out that currently, only 10-15% of middle-aged to older adults engage in resistance training as compared to the 35% engaging in aerobic training. Sister finds these low numbers troubling. When checking the article references, these particular numbers come from a Centers for Disease Control report. Not being one to argue with the government, Sister has to take these dismal numbers as fact. Scary.
In the exercise research community, there has always been an ongoing debate as to exact protocols for strength training; that is, how much, how fast, how many reps, how many sets, how many days. The authors believe that in order for more people to partake in a regular resistance training program, there needs to be a shift in recommendations. They state, “Moving towards greater public health relevance, we believe, …will require a different way of conceptualizing RT [resistance training] which then directly will impact its presentation to the public, the accessibility of RT, and possibly effectiveness at a population level. These broad conceptual changes are a true paradigm shift.” Those are some heavy words. What the authors are saying is keep it simple! Specifically, they propose a a program with a minimum of one set with 10-15 multiple muscle group exercises executed with good form. Now THAT is simple and is something Sister can get behind.
Once again, back to Sister’s mantra…let’s get going! Move it, shake it, and yes, LIFT IT!! Discover the joy of pushing, pulling and grunting your way to a better life…but don’t forget to breathe.
Now if you will excuse her, Sister is going to go pump some iron.