There are many factors that go into to creating the best version of yourself. The seven dimensions of wellness that must be mastered in order to achieve this feat; Social Wellness, Spiritual Wellness, Intellectual Wellness, Emotional Wellness, Physical Wellness, Environmental Wellness, and Occupational Wellness. I will be focusing on Physical Wellness and how lifting weights can greatly improve this factor.
There are many reasons why one should lift weights. Some of the reasons you should consider starting to lift weights are that weightlifting can improve cardiovascular health, decrease body fat, increase bone density, and reduce stress.
You should lift weights because it increases bone density. As you reach an older age, osteoporosis is a major factor in your quality of life. One way to minimize the early comings of osteoporosis is to increase your bone density. The majority of muscle around your body inserts and attaches throughout your skeleton, through tendons. These are known as skeletal muscles. Strengthening these muscles causes hypertrophy. This will not only increase the size of your muscle, but also increase your bone density. Not only will this increase minimize your risk of osteoporosis, but it will also make your bones less likely to fracture or break.
Lifting weights will also greatly improve your cardiovascular health. When you lift weights, your heart pumps more blood to the muscles being used. In this specified region, your veins also vasodilate, meaning they open up to allow for greater blood flow to the area. While this occurs, your muscles send that blood back to the heart, which in turn increases the amount of blood being pumped by your heart with each beat. Along with all of this, your body is rapidly burning glucose. This is one of the body's many sources of energy during aerobic activity. Your body learns to produce and use this more effectively through weight training. Therefore, weightlifting can improve your fitness in other areas besides your strength levels.
Pumping iron greatly improves your physique. Increasing lean muscle mass slightly boosts your metabolism with each pound gained. An increase in metabolism means it will be easier to burn fat and will also make it less likely that you will store it, leading to an improved and lean look over a period of time. Weight lifting burns much higher amounts of calories than cardiovascular activity due to a number of muscles being used at a time as well as the stress being applied to those muscles.
Weightlifting decreases stress. Lifting heavy weights puts a strain on muscle receptors, which in turn release endorphins in a much quicker time frame than cardiovascular exercise. Endorphins make you feel good about yourself, which therefore reduces stress. Not to mention, you get an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, adrenaline, and excitement whenever you set a new PR (Personal Record) on a lift. Through this sense of accomplishment, you can solidify your sense of self worth and apply it to knowing that you can always improve in any aspect of life. "I lifted 10 pounds more this week compared to last week. I can become better. This is evidence of that."
Women should also not shy away from lifting weights. Many women believe that if they lift heavy weights they will become "big" and "bulky" or will look more "masculine. This is simply not true. Women lack a high amount of something specific to men. Testosterone. Testosterone is what makes muscles appear bulky and large. When women lift weights, the muscles do grow, but they become sleek and "toned" (I hate this word because muscle definition comes from a reduced body fat percentage. Not from lifting low weight high reps). Getting stronger increases muscle density and will leave you with an extreme sense of accomplishment.
As we can see the benefits of weight lifting are numerous, there are many more of these benefits that can be added to this list. My hope is that with this article, it will give at least one person the confidence to give weight lifting a try and see just how much of a positive effect it will have on their life.
