What is strength training?

Interested in developing greater strength? Why do you need to work on your strength anyway? We spend a lot of time talking to our clients about strength training, so we thought we’d share an overview with all of you!

Why do you need strength?

Strength is the amount of force that a muscle can exert against resistance. The stronger your muscles are, the less likely they are to give way under stress, to be torn, pulled or otherwise sustain injury.

Building up your strength also helps to increase flexibility and improve your ability to o day-to-day activities, as well as boosting your metabolism and helping you to burn calories.

How do chiropractors help with strength?

For many of our clients, building up the strength in their muscles helps them to recover from injury, improve function and/or increase mobility. So, our treatment often involves strength training exercises to help them do just that.

As well as treating existing injuries and issues, we also work with clients to help them avoid injury, and strength training is a big part of that.

Studies have shown that, whilst strength training alone increases strength, combining strength training with chiropractic treatment increases strength, flexibility, balance, coordination and endurance.

What does strength training involve?

Strength training, also known as resistance training, involves repetitive exercises designed to apply resistance to your muscles. They commonly use weights, but not always.

What are the benefits of strength training?

Think that strength training is just for athletes and bodybuilders? Think again. There are a wide range of benefits for everyone, and strength training might even become more important as you get older and/or less active.

Bone strength

You naturally start to lose bone density from the age of 35, putting you at risk of osteoporosis. Strength training helps to reduce that loss and could even increase bone density.

Stability

Muscle strength keeps our bodies stable, which is important for activities like sport, but also vital for preventing falls as we get older.

Improved cognition

Strength training has even been found to help improve memory, reasoning and the ability to learn new things. There is also evidence that it can help prevent dementia.

What do you need to know about strength training?

Strength training needs to be done carefully. Ideally you should talk to a healthcare professional or personal trainer to put together a sensible plan that will meet your needs and allow you to build up your strength slowly without causing injury.

Here are a few top tips to consider:

• Make sure you’re using the correct technique - if you’re not sure, get help from an expert, otherwise you’re likely to do yourself more harm than good.

• Start small - it’s tempting to jump right in with big weights, but if you go too big too soon then you’ll just tear your muscles and be unable to do any exercise for a while. Start with a weight you can comfortably lift 12 to 15 times. Over the course of several sessions, once that starts to become too easy, you can gradually increase the weight.

• Breathe - many people instinctively hold their breath when they’re trying to lift a heavy weight, but it’s important to breathe out as you lift and breathe in as you lower the weight.

• Rest - it’s best not to work the same set of muscles two days in a row. The time for the muscles to rest and recover is as important part of the process as the exercise itself.

• Warm-up properly - cold muscles are more prone to injury than warm ones, so start with 10 minute of aerobic activity before you move onto strength training.

• Take it slow - when you see people at the gym doing fast reps with the weights, they might look impressive, but in fact it’s more the momentum of the movement that’s lifting the weight than their actual muscles. To get the full benefit, raise and lowe the weight slowly.

• Don’t ignore pain - forget the saying “no pain, no gain”, if it hurts, stop. If the pain persists, see a chiropractor to check whether you have any injury or there is an issue with your technique.

As always - this advice and information is general. Please speak to your health care provider for info specific to you!

If you want to know more about how strength training can help you, or to put a plan in place, call us on 0439 481 686 or email hello@bespokechiropracticmanning.com and we’ll help get you moving.