People often think of muscle as merely a tissue with the capacity to lift, push or pull — or as something to show off on spring break. But those guns play many other important roles in your body as well. For example, muscle is the main driver of heat generation and also largely influences your body’s metabolism.
But no matter your motivation, building strong muscles takes work. To increase muscle mass, you have to build muscle fiber girth — not add new muscle fibers — since the number of such fibers is established at birth. The best way to impact muscle fiber size is by resistance training or weightlifting.
Fortunately, the musculoskeletal system is one of the body systems that responds most readily to exercise. In other words: We have a great capacity to change it. Unfortunately, that change works both ways: Strength training provides benefits in a short amount of time, but those improvements also rapidly decline when you let your weights get dusty.
Incorporating resistance training into your exercise routine is an importance facet of overall wellness. Here are some of the many reasons to boost your muscle mass — beach body not included:
1. To get stronger.
You need muscle strength to complete a host of activities — whether that’s carrying groceries, going up a flight of stairs or running a marathon. Strength can be measured in two ways: First, how much can you lift with one contraction; and second, how long your muscle can sustain a contraction. One of the necessary components of a good resistance program is to lift something heavier or for longer than you did last time. After all, your muscles have to undergo relative stress if they’re ever going to change.
2. To be more coordinated.
When muscles contract, they engage the nervous system, which enables the muscles to fire. Resistance training increases these nerves’ firing rate, which allows you to better coordinate movements. This is why, when you start a strength program, you typically find it easier the second or third time around. You didn’t get stronger in that period of time — your nervous system simply learned how to turn your muscles on and off. This adaptation translates to more effective movement, which can positively impact all types of activities from daily tasks to high-level sports.
3. To boost your bone density.
The skeleton also receives stress during weight training. Muscles are attached to bones through tendons, and when muscles contract and generate force, the tendon pulls on the bone. This pull is perceived as stress and stimulates bone growth. In fact, people who use a wheelchair or are confined to a bed are at high risk for osteoporosis, since they are not putting force on their bones. The same is true for space travel: In an anti-gravity environment, the musculoskeletal system starts to atrophy. That’s why it’s so important for astronauts to strength train. In fact, Scott Kelly completed 700 hours of exercise during his 340 days in space. For us Earth-dwellers, research shows weight training has the greatest effect on bone mass, although many physicians recommend plyometric and weight-bearing activities for management and prevention of osteoporosis.
4. To lower your risk of injury.
Putting force on your muscles also impacts your tendons. Tendons are mostly made of collagen, so they are more rigid than muscle fibers, which have some elastic properties. Due to this stiffness, tendons are prone to injury. But when you resistance train, you increase your tendon thickness and make them more resistant to injury.
5. To get your blood flowing.
Your muscles need oxygenated blood to keep lifting, pushing or pulling, so your body preferentially shunts blood to your arms, for example, when you’re doing bicep curls. These changes accumulate and translate to improved circulation throughout your whole body. Not only will the vascular system deliver oxygen more effectively, but it will also remove waste products more easily.
6. To improve your joints.
Strong muscles allow your joints to do their jobs. Weak muscles, on the other hand, lead to injuries, which put increased stress on the ligaments and joints. Take, for example, someone who sits with slouched posture. This stance puts an increased strain on the neck and lower back. If that person had strong deep abdominal and back muscles, it would allow him or her to maintain upright posture and avoid increased stresses to the spine.
7. To boost your metabolism.
Your resting metabolic rate — or how many calories you burn just by breathing — is directly proportional to how much muscle tissue you have. Muscle produces heat and is highly responsive to hormones that allow us to effectively use what we eat — both energy-consuming processes. On the other hand, fat tissue is highly inactive when it comes to metabolism. Therefore, the more muscle you have, the more calories you use both at rest and during exercise.
There are many types of exercise, and they all have benefits. But hardly any pack as much punch as strength training. While people often think this type of training is the most difficult, it may be because they don’t know how to start. But there are many options: Body-weight training, free weights, machines and elastic tubing are just a few of the ways to incorporate resistance into your exercise plan. The key is finding something that is easy to fit into your routine and that you enjoy. That way, it will become habit.
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7 Reasons to Build Muscle That Have Nothing to Do With Looks originally appeared on usnews.com
