Fat-burning, Age-fighting, and Mood-boosting Benefits of Resistance Training

Resistance training can be a very important factor in improving and maintaining positive mental health.

Published by Damian Rodriguez, DHSc, MS

According to a recent survey conducted by the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), of the over 15 million women in the United States who belong to commercial health clubs, approximately half used weight machines and less than 1/3 regularly used free weights.

With the growing popularity of fitness trends such as cross fit, these numbers are progressively increasing, but considering the fat-burning, age-fighting, and mood-boosting benefits of resistance training, it is a wonder why it isn’t a major component of the exercise routines of all women.

Women naturally produce a mere fraction of the testosterone of men, on average 5–7 percent of the average adult male, meaning they simply do not have the genetic potential to put on the big bulky muscle that they fear will result from lifting heavy things. Contrarily, a few sessions a week with a heavy barbell may be the most effective means to trimming down.

Countless longitudinal studies have concluded that weight training may be the single most effective method for body composition changes. A two-year strength training intervention showed that previously sedentary women experienced a greater improvement in body composition, determined by body fat and waist circumference measurements, when taking part in an exercise program focused on strength training rather than traditional aerobic activity (1).

Strength training has also shown to positively influence several biomarkers of aging. Regardless of your overall health, everybody suffers from age-related sarcopenia, a condition by which you begin to progressively lose lean muscle tissue mass and function at some point beginning in your 30s. Studies have shown that strength training is the most effective method to reduce sarcopenia and maintain motor function (2).

Additionally, a study involving 26 participants with a mean age of 68 found that as little as three sessions of strength training per week could not only slow down, but begin to reverse the expression of 179 genes associated with age (3). Strength training may also have a slowing effect on the attrition of telomeres—buffers at the end of DNA chromosomes that protect them from damage and are a common index for measuring biological age.

Researchers found that women who participated in regular strength training had longer telomeres than sedentary individuals who were 10 years younger (4).

The benefits of lifting heavy things aren’t just skin deep. Contemporary research has also shown that resistance training can be a very important factor in improving and maintaining positive mental health.

A review of recent studies concluded that resistance training is a meaningful intervention for those suffering from anxiety and is also effective for reducing symptoms of depression (5). Regular weight training has been shown to improve metrics of brain cognition, particularly memory-related tasks and executive functioning (6). Neuroscience research has found that resistance training may be more effective than drug or cognitive-behavioral interventions in inducing multi-factorial adaptations including new nerve cell generation in the brain and an increase in neurotransmitters that support mental health and cognitive function (7).

The brain is like a muscle in that it grows stronger with repeated action, and new research is providing evidence that few things may be more effective for brain development than squats and deadlifts.

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1. Schmitz K, et al. Strength training and adiposity in premenopausal women: Strong, Healthy, and Empowered study. American Society for Clinical Nutrition. 2007; 86(3): 566-572.

2. Mayer F, et al. The intensity and effects of strength training in the elderly. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2011; 108(21): 359-364.

3. Melov S, Tarnopolsky MA, Beckman K, Felkey K, and Hubbard A. Resistance Exercise Reverses Aging in Human Skeletal Muscle. PLoS One. 2007; 2(5): e465.

4. Kadi F. The effects of regular strength training on telomere length in human skeletal muscle. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2008; 40(1): 82-7.

5. O’Connor P, Herring M, and Carvalho A. Mental health benefits of strength training in adults. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. 2010; 4(5): 377-396.

6. Anderson-Hanley C, Nimon J, and Westen S. Cognitive health benefits of strengthening exercise for community-dwelling older adults. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. 2010; 32(9): 996-1001.

7.van Prag H. Exercise and the brain; something to chew on. Trends in Neuroscience. 2009; 32(5): 283-290.