By Tamara Quintana

Do barbells and weight machines make you think of Mr. Universe? Don’t let these visions scare you from the great benefits of weight training, or strength training.

While aerobic exercise is important to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, develop endurance and burn calories, your physical fitness routine just isn’t complete if you don’t balance aerobics with a good weight training program.

Benefits
Visit a health club, and you’ll see men and women of all ages using both weight training equipment and free weights. Strength training offers a number of benefits: 

• It makes you stronger and increases muscular endurance. That means you can do everyday activities like lifting a suitcase or carrying a heavy bag of groceries more easily.
• Weight training not only strengthens muscles, but it can also strengthen your bones.
• Because muscle burns more calories than fat, lifting weights helps raise your metabolism so that you burn more calories even when you’re at rest.
• Stronger muscles can help avoid injury and improve your balance and coordination.

Basic principles
Some important principles to understand when starting a strength training program are:

• Overload. To build stronger muscles, you have to use more resistance than your body is used to. A good rule to remember is to use enough weight so that you can complete only your desired number of repetitions while still maintaining good form.
• Progression. In order to continue gaining strength and muscle tone, you must increase the intensity, frequency and/or duration of your activity over time.
• Specificity. Choose the right exercises to get the results you want. To build muscle mass, use heavier weights and do fewer repetitions. For endurance and strength, choose lighter weights but complete more repetitions in each set.
• Rest and recovery. When you strength train, your muscles literally tear. During the day or two afterward, your body repairs these tiny tears by creating more muscle tissue. The result is increased muscle mass, strength and endurance.

Getting started
If you’ve never worked out with weights or machines before, it’s important to get guidance from a trained instructor. You won’t get the best results if you’re performing the exercises incorrectly, and you might even hurt yourself.

Your body responds to physical stress by getting stronger. Weight training can help you build a strong, toned, healthy body. No other type of exercise can make as much of a change in your body’s appearance.

Tamara Quintana is a graduate of All Saints Episcopal Hospital School of Vocational Nursing and the director of the employee wellness program for GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention welcomes the opportunity to share this general information. However, this article is not intended to be relied upon as medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.