Strength training: the internet seems to think it’s the bees knees. I love it too — the image I used at the end of my first post was of the first time I deadlifted 120kg (264.5lbs).
It’s slightly less common now to hear the misguided advice that cardiovascular training is the best/only method for fat loss or good health, but let’s talk a little more about why strength training is such a good idea, and who might benefit from it.
For the purposes of this article, I’m going to be dealing with strength training for general health and in relation to fat loss. If you’re looking to gain muscle or increase performance in a sport, I’m gonna go ahead and assume you don’t need me to explain why you should be lifting.
Let’s get something out of the way: there is no best exercise for weight loss. Changes in mass are determined by an energy imbalance (for weight loss, you’d need an energy deficit) as covered in the first issue of this newsletter. If you’re new here, and you haven’t read it, give that a read. (And also parts two and three of my macro manifesto.) An energy deficit can be achieved via diet, exercise, or a combination of the two. Ergo, any activity that you participate in regularly and that helps to increase your average TDEE is a good idea. If it’s something you enjoy and can sustainably do within the constraints of your present fitness levels and schedule, it’s a keeper.
When someone says they want to “lose weight”, “slim down” or “get toned”, what they usually mean is that they want to lose fat — few people actively seek to reduce the amount of lean mass on their body. In seeking fat loss, a really useful parallel goal is aiming for the preservation of existing lean mass, and gaining strength. And yes, you can in fact build some muscle and you almost certainly will gain strength while losing fat, particularly as a beginner, but focusing your attention on your priority is usually a good idea.
There are two main ways through which we can stimulate muscle protein synthesis (MPS), namely via resistance training and nutritional provision. An adequate protein intake and avoiding an extreme deficit will keep you sorted on the food front.
So we know that increasing overall movement will indeed increase your TDEE (yay!), and we also know that aerobic exercise and strength training can both stimulate MPS, but why doesn’t running make us jacked? The bulk of MPS stimulated in endurance training occurs in the mitochondria, which does wonders for your stamina and endurance, but won’t actually have much of an effect in your visible muscle mass or tone. Strength training, on the other hand, stimulates MPS in the actual muscle fibres, and this post-training effect has been shown to last at least 24 hours (which is when you want to eat all dat protein).
Having performance goals (whether strength-related or otherwise) will also help to keep you motivated and engaged in the process of improving your fitness, since fluctuations in scale weight and the non-linear nature of a fat-loss journey can often be a bit of a grind.
But what happens if you’re not trying to lose weight or get swole? Is there still a benefit to strength training?
This study found that a combination of resistance and aerobic training was found to be more effective at not just improving body composition, but also strength and cardiovascular fitness. It also has a positive impact on cognitive function (both attention and processing speed) on healthy older adults, which means that not only will we be more likely to fight the effects of sarcopenia, grow old stronger and be less prone to injury and illness, we’ll also have all our wits about us to make snarky comebacks at young punks trying to ask us if we even lift, bro.
It’s also been proven highly to result in elevated feelings of badassery, smugness and self worth when you know you don’t need to rely on anyone else to lift (overstuffed) cabin luggage overhead, open jars, Tetris your borderline-unreasonable collection of professional kitchen equipment in and around your apartment all on your own, or just get up to strength-related nonsense and funtimes (Balota, R., 2018).
Now, as much as I love and personally programme around ‘The Big 3' compound lifts, strength training is not defined by your powerlifting total. Bodyweight exercises, calisthenics, certain types of yoga, pilates, weight training machines (gasp!) and free weights are all different types of resistance training. Free weights tend to be a good idea because they efficiently incorporate lots of stabilisation and core strength (compared to machines) even when you aren’t training those muscles directly, and it’s often a lot easier to gradually and progressively increase the work done (compared to bodyweight exercises or calisthenics, i.e. by adding 0.5kg to a bar, vs progressing from an inverted bodyweight row to a pull-up, or having to perform 20-30 bodyweight squats per set).
However, they do require access to the appropriate equipment, and beginners can often feel intimidated when entering the free weights section of a gym for the first time.
#protip: this probably happens to basically everyone, and no one’s really judging you for not knowing what you’re doing, they’re too busy keeping an eye out for when the morning light comes through the windows and hits their perfect gym swolfie spot just so. Also, the big, buff bros are usually the biggest sweethearts and most helpful ones around.
There is also no need to feel that if you can’t jump straight into a 2h-long sessions 6x/week bodybuilding ‘bro-split’ (actually not usually preferable to full body routines, btw), then why even bother? This study showed that even single-set resistance training programmes showed improvements in performance across the board in elderly women after just 24 training sessions, which is to say, even if you can ‘only’ manage one 30-45 minute session once a week, that’s better than none at all. The specific types of exercise you do also really don’t matter that much, from a general strength and health perspective either.
Just in case there was any doubt, this advice isn’t just for men, or young adults. Women over sixty showed significant increases in muscular strength, body composition with the addition of resistance training too! And no, ladies, this isn’t going to happen to you:
You may roll your eyes and laugh now, but suffice it to say that I quickly lost count of the people who expressed concern at about how lifting would make me “not look like a woman anymore” (which…what does that even mean?!). And, for reference, those biceps in my newsletter’s headers? They took almost a year of dedicated effort (and So. Many. Bicep. Curls.) in order for me to grow by about an inch in circumference. ONE MEASLY INCH.