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Weight-Lifting Myths
Strength training's benefits reach way beyond a toned body. It can help you avoid injury and can fight many effects of aging, such as bone loss and memory loss.
Sep 13, 2017
Aug 14, 2023
Your WellnessSheryl Kraft, a freelance writer and breast cancer survivor, was born in Long Beach, New York. She currently lives in Connecticut with her husband Alan and dog Chloe, where her nest is empty of her two sons Jonathan. Sheryl writes articles and essays on breast cancer and contributes to a variety of publications and websites where she writes on general health and wellness issues. She earned her MFA in writing from Sarah Lawrence College in 2005.
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Want to get—and stay—healthy?
A healthy lifestyle is more than just eating right, getting aerobic activity and logging plenty of restorative sleep.
It should also include strength training.
Strength training's benefits reach way beyond aesthetics: Sure, it can rev up your metabolism, reduce body fat and, in turn, increase your body's lean mass.
But strength training can also fight many effects of aging—among them, bone loss. Strength training can help prevent osteoporosis. That becomes more important with each passing year, when your bones lose calcium and other minerals and you lose more bone than you form, especially after menopause.
Another advantage of lifting weights? You're helping your body maintain its strength and reducing your risk of injury. Plus, you increase your flexibility, muscle mass and joint mobility.
Lifting weights can even make you mentally sharper. Researchers have found that it boosts cognitive functioning in older adults.
Yet, although many studies have pointed to strength training's importance as being equal to aerobic activity, so many people—especially women—are hesitant to pick up the weights.
Call it misinformation, or misplaced knowledge, but these weight-lifting myths persist:
Convinced that it's time to pick up the weights? Government guidelines call for two or more days a week of muscle-strengthening activities added to your regular aerobic activity. Work all your major muscle groups, which include the legs, hips, back, chest, abdomen, shoulders and arms.