The Importance (and Joys!) of Being Strong
Being strong has important implications for health & performance. But don't forget, being strong can bring joy, too.
Over the coming weeks, I’m going to share science-backed tips (and a few stories) to help you become your strongest self. But before we discuss how to get stronger, I think it’s important to discuss why we should get stronger. Focusing on why we should get stronger will hopefully motivate us all to become lifelong exercisers. And, during those weeks where you don’t feel like strength training, I think it’s important to acknowledge an often-overlooked benefit of being strong — joy — which we’ll discuss at the end of the article.
First, being strong is critically important for your long-term health & performance — and not just for your muscles, but for your bones, joints, heart, and even your brain.
Specifically, the benefits of being strong include:
Improved physical health. Scientists have uncovered a growing body of evidence that strength training reduces the risk of death and disease, which results in enhanced longevity. Commonly, when people think of using exercise to enhance longevity, they think of performing endurance exercise (like running or cycling). While endurance training definitely helps with longevity, strength training helps with longevity, too — and sometimes in ways that are completely different than endurance training. For example, strength training protects against the loss of muscle mass mass that occurs with aging. Moreover, if someone sadly had cancer, then strength training can reduce the muscle-wasting that commonly occurs. Besides the benefits for your muscles, strength training also helps with maintaining health of the heart, bones (like preventing osteoporosis), joints (like helping manage osteoarthritis), and overall metabolism (like preventing diabetes).
Improved emotional health. Strength training improves way you feel. In addition to giving you a temporary boost in endorphins which benefits your mood, long-term strength training can alleviate depression and anxiety. As someone who has struggled with emotional health, I routinely look forward to the boost I feel after completing a challenging strength workout.
Improved cognitive health. You read that bullet point correctly: strength straining improves your ability to think, which could be especially beneficial for preventing cognitive decline as you age.
Improved physical performance. When it comes to strength training, one of the first images that pops into our mind is enhanced performance for sports like football and rugby. However, strength training also enhances performance for endurance sports like running. More importantly, though, for the rest of us who aren’t athletes, strength training improves our ability to perform daily tasks like climbing stairs and lifting heavy objects like boxes or luggage. Because of these performance benefits, strength training can help you maintain your independence — as well as your recreational activities — for as long as possible while you age.
That said, simply knowing that strength training is good for our health & performance sometimes isn’t enough to motivate us to go to the gym. With that in mind, I’d like to take a moment to share a story about an often-overlooked benefit of being strong — joy.
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We called the game “Tick Tock”. My nieces, nephews, and I invented it. The game involved me grabbing them by the ankles, holding them upside down, and then swinging them like a pendulum to the cadence of “tick, tock, tick, tock”. Then, on the final “tock”, I would swing them high into the air and catch them by their torso. They’d always laugh with delight and beg me to do it one more time. How could I say no? I’d play until my arms could no longer say yes.
One of the beauties of Tick Tock was that I had a monopoly on the game. No one else they knew had the strength to play the game. For me, this was fantastic news. Every time they saw me joining a family function, my nieces and nephews would sprint toward me while joyfully shouting “Uncle Booba, let’s play Tick Tock!” This made me “the fun uncle” for several years. My nieces and nephews are too big to play Tick Tock now, but I’ll never forget those times and the emotions they brought.
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Of course, not everyone will eventually develop enough strength to play Tick Tock. But, envision the joy you’ll experience having the strength to play with your kids on the playground. Or the joy you’ll experience having the strength to pick-up your grandkids for the first time. Or the joy you’ll experience by maintaining your independence for as long as possible throughout your lifespan — and being able to play hard along the way! If you focus on the joy that strength training brings, then this will hopefully motivate you get to the weight room at least once (and preferably 2-3 times) per week for the rest of your life.
So there you have it: scientific findings show us that strength training benefits your muscles, bones, joints, heart, and even your brain — and on those weeks when you don’t feel like strength training, then please don’t forget about the joy that strength training brings as well :).