Strength And Muscle

As a skinny pimple faced teenager, I lacked self esteem and battled bouts of depression.  This led me to seek out ways to build confidence to help escape these emotional struggles.  To me, growing up as a competitive athlete, I was drawn to bodybuilding and reading/buying many Muscle and Fitness Magazines.  This inspired me to study fitness and take steps to put on muscle and help build my physique.  

Through this personal journey not only did I learn the value of building muscle for enhancing my outward appearance I also personally experienced how my training routines tangibly enhanced my emotional state.  

Its one thing to hear the expression “The Runners High" but its another to actually experience releasing these God given neurochemicals when we actively participate in an exercise routine.  

Strength training provides both the benefits of building muscle and supporting our emotional well being by tapping into this reservoir of happy, feel-good chemicals.

Enhancing and building lean muscle tissue has so many benefits and in my opinion is the single most important activity that an individual can engage in.  Strength training is truly the "one stop shop" for body and mind wellness.  

Muscle is truly a machine and helps us in a vast array of bodily processes.  When we age, we are susceptible to both sarcopenia, osteoporosis, and hormonal decline.  

Sarcopenia is a condition where our bodies begin to lose muscle in a state called catabolism (muscle breakdown).  This is a condition caused by a normal state of aging where our testosterone levels decline hence causing loss of lean muscle tissue.  Furthermore, this loss of muscle, can eventually lead to a condition called osteoporosis in our later years where we start losing bone mass. This typically leads to premature fractures such as broken hips etc in our elderly populations. 

In addition, lean muscle can help create greater insulin sensitivity which allows our bodies to better utilize the foods we consume as energy and less likely to store as fat.  Individuals who don't participate in strength training activities are very susceptible to a condition called insulin insensitivity where adequate lean muscle is absent hence incapable of utilizing insulin effectively.  This lack of lean muscle eventually leads to increased fat storage on the inside of our arteries(arteriosclerosis) and on our bellies(visceral fat). 

This lack of lean muscle mass, sedentary lifestyles and poor eating habits eventually lead to metabolic disease in the form of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and low testosterone levels.  

For these reasons, along with improving mental and aesthetic value, we should all look to incorporate a strength training routine into our lifestyles.