Strength training for better health

A recent study is showing that women who lift weights or practice strength-building yoga exercises weekly reduce their risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes. The study tracked almost 100,000 women and the findings used data from a Nurses Health Study at the Harvard School of Public Health. The study tracked these women over a set period of time, and it was determined that 60 minutes a week of strength-building reduced their risk of Type 2 diabetes. Other studies have been done regarding men and had similar findings.

So let's take another look at weight training and building lean muscle for your body. Building lean strong muscle is key to so many wanted aspects of your health like increased metabolism, reduction of body fat and better mobility, to name a few. Nothing about building and conditioning muscle is simple, and it tends to lead to contradictions when tied to weight loss or endurance training.

The stand-out benefits of strength training for your body is its ability to improve your overall physical appearance, performance, metabolic efficiency and reduces risk of injury when being active.

The term for building muscle mass is called hypertrophy which should not be confused with muscle conditioning. There are two specific approaches to the type of muscle you can develop.

The first type is building muscular endurance, which gives your muscles the ability to work for extended periods of time. This type of training requires lifting lighter weights or using weaker resistance equipment coupled with a high number of repetitions with fewer sets and short rest periods between your regimen. This approach is important for triathletes, long-distance runners, and people seeking fat loss and improved Cardio-respiratory health.

The second type of strength training is where the term muscle hypertrophy comes into play. This approach is important for a person who participates in contact sports, sprinters, bodybuilders and body sculpting. With this type of training, you lift moderate to heavy loads doing low repetitions with a bit more recovery time between sets.

To get started with strength training or perhaps just needing to change up your current workout regimen to increase your muscle mass, here are a few options:

Start with compound exercises, which is where your weight training includes more than one joint and muscle group together. This gives you a much better balanced workout using exercises that include several muscle groups at the same time.

Some good examples are squats and chin-ups. When doing squats, for example, you engage the joints of the knee, hip and ankle. At the same time, it fires the muscles of the upper and lower legs and gluteal muscles.

Many fitness professionals recommend that you work on building a good base with whole body workouts before you start focusing on specific muscle groups or body parts. For example, you definitely do not want to only do your upper body then end up with sticks for legs.

Recovery is a very important aspect of strength and muscle building. Fitness professions and elite athletes work out five to six times per week, but keep in mind it took them a long time to get their bodies to the point where they are working out for maintenance purposes. When you are starting out or changing up to build muscle, your body needs plenty of rest. Overtraining will slow your muscles' growth, expose you to injury and quickly become counter-productive, both mentally and physically. If you're new, start slow and keep it a quick 45 minutes to an hour and only do three full body workouts per week, staying focused on the intensity of your workouts.

Your calorie and protein requirements for building muscle is dependent on a number of factors including the intensity, duration, recovery time and where you are with your current fitness levels.

Be sure to drink water... lots of water. Avoiding dehydration will help your muscles' recovery. The rule of thumb I like to follow is calculate your weight in pounds divided by two, which is the number of ounces of water to drink each day.

If you do not get enough daily calories and proper nutrition, your training will become stalled and you will impact your overall health. Eat whole foods, worry less about diet foods and focus on whole organic proteins, vegetables, fruits and nuts. This approach will reduce your overall body fat, build muscles quickly and it will show your definition better. It is OK to add a solid regimen of vitamins and minerals to your daily must-dos.

Finally, get plenty of protein in your daily diet. Remember you very much need one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day to build and maintain muscle. Therefore, eating whole proteins with each meal is very important.

There are so many solid reasons to build muscle for better health. I would recommend everyone regardless of your condition do some form of strength training even if it's just a small amount of time every week.

Judd Jones is a director for the Hagadone Corporation.