Strength = Freedom: Why You Want to Prioritize Building Muscle
Oct 21, 2022
The definition of freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.
So how does this apply to muscles? Well, imagine getting to a time in your life where you have to make the decision to watch instead of participating, or that you have stayed back because there are too many stairs where your family is going for dinner or you can’t play on the floor with your grandchild because you are unsure you can get back up. These are restrictions that if they are placed on you will definitely affect your freedom.
If you are like me, you want to be able to hike to the top of the mountain on your family trip, to play on the floor when you are blessed with grandkids, and play basketball with your kids for many years to come.
So what choices do we all have to make now that will ensure we can do these things later?
Well one thing that I am confident will make a difference in the freedom we enjoy now AND later is strengthening our muscles!
Not interested in lifting weights at the gym? No problem.
Strength training can include weight training, but that is not the only way to improve your muscle health. Remember we want you to start from where you are for everything you do on your health journey. So if you are someone who has not focused on improving your muscle health in the past, you will benefit right now from body-weight exercises. These are exercises that use the weight of your own body to increase your muscle strength.
Once you have mastered body-weight exercises, then you can move on to resistance band exercises. These bands allow you to increase strength by using the same exercises that you did before, but with the added resistance from the bands. When you get to this level of training, it is important to schedule in days of rest for your muscles to recover. The number of rest days will depend on the amount of resistance you are getting from your bands but typically would be 48 hours for the SAME muscle group.
Some of you will continue to benefit from these first two types of strength training for a very long time. If you are someone who is looking for something a little more challenging to incorporate into your health routine, then I suggest weight training. You can do this by either joining a fitness gym or if you live in the Bedford/Halifax area, you may prefer to work one-on-one with a physiotherapist at Catalyst Physio or a personal trainer at OneUp Fitness. If you choose to join a fitness gym, I strongly encourage you to set up personal training with a qualified trainer for your first couple of sessions to ensure you know how to use the equipment safely.
How much time will this take out of my day?
Twenty to 30 minutes each session is all you need to spend on your strength training. And remember, when you level up to resistance bands and weight training, it is important that you incorporate rest days which means you don’t need to find time EVERY day. Why do you need rest days? It is the recovery from the stress that you put on your muscles when you introduce resistance that improves its overall health and ultimately slows down the aging process.
Making time for a new routine…
Remember to anchor or attach your new routine with something that you already do. If you are a morning person, you may want to put your coffee on and do your body-weight exercises while it brews. Maybe you have a gym membership and find it works best when you set a time to meet your friend immediately following school drop-off. Or maybe you have evening energy that you need to burn off before bed and you have a better chance of keeping your commitments when you schedule appointments with your trainer after dinner.
It does not matter when or how or what, it just matters that you start. The momentum that will be created from taking that first step will be the driving force to taking the next step, and the next step. Being able to achieve our goals is based on our mindset. When we are proud of our choices, we tend to make more choices that we are proud of.
Allow your future self to be proud of the choices you are making today. If we can help you in any way, please reach out to us at [email protected]