The Top 5 Reasons to be Strong

This is a HUGE deal, so pay attention! Especially if you don’t ‘believe’ in the benefits of resistance training.

SO many times I’ve been into gyms, and worked within sports clubs, and seen people training for their health using the wrong methods!

I typically see bodybuilding style training…or training for ‘the pump’…which will NOT benefit long term health as much as training for strength.

STRENGTH training is the basis of any good strength and conditioning program and will enable you to turn that strength into ANY other quality of fitness.

Strength is the foundation of all other aspects of your fitness.

Get stronger and you can run faster, for longer.

Get stronger and you can do more reps on curls, dumbbell bench and other bodybuilding movements.

Get stronger FIRST - then do the rest.

In summary: Training to get stronger makes you a BADASS!

Here are my top 5 reasons to be strong:

1) Greater Endurance: If you run (or want to run) or do any other endurance exercise you gotta be strong!

Gains in strength in the RELEVANT muscles for the activity will improve movement efficiency and therefore expend less energy. For example, lets say you have 80 units of strength in your body, and to go for a run this requires 40 units or 50% of your strength levels, imagine how much faster you would be if you increased strength to 100 units….now the 40 units required to go on a run would represent 60% of your strength. You’ll go faster, for longer…..but you still need to do endurance training too - just in case you started dreaming ;)

2) Increased Lean Muscle: There is a direct relation between a strong muscle and a big muscle. The stronger you are, the bigger your muscles will be. Useful for the over 35 year olds because you lose muscle faster as you age. So train for strength and the muscle gains will come too.

3) Increased Fat Loss: When you are stronger you can also work harder during fat loss circuits/complexes/sprints because you can move/life/carry/push MORE WEIGHT! Increasing the density of a workout (more work in the same or less time) is a key to fat loss and aerobic power.

4) Greater Confidence: If you can lift twice as much as your friends, and you flip tyres, throw heavy sandbags about and drag sleds here, there and everywhere, AND you know that you’re stronger than 100% of people on the plane every time you go on holiday, or everyone else in your company meetings…YOU are going to have more self-belief. Achieving your goals and improving your confidence is a big, BIG advantage when at work.

5) Injury Prevention: EVERY human needs to stay healthy throughout their life, you can’t enjoy earning more money or having a nice holiday if you’re injured and in pain! Getting stronger means that the usual wear and tear of life takes less of a toll on your body, and YOU will be better conditioned for any unexpected fall or ‘event’ e.g. sprinting to catch a train. Throw in some stretching too and your strong and flexible muscles will be indestructible!

There you go, still think you can skip the weights?! Well you can’t! Winners get strong.

Rise Above

Ant 

Anthony Shaw

Head Coach
Raw Strength Gym, Warrington

PS - if you want help, you can start a 6 week trial on our RISE program.

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