Posted: August 15 2005

Sportsmedicine: Why Everyone Needs to Strength Train

Why?

When inactive people grow older five things happen: their oxygen capacity declines, their body fat increases, their muscles shrivel and become weaker, and their bone mass dwindles. These changes nibble away at their quality of life, making it harder to haul out trash, shovel snow, unscrew the lid off vacuum-sealed jars, and so on, and increase their risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and other diseases. But these changes need not happen, because "Strength training can reverse, or prevent, the five fundamental changes," says Michael Pollock, Ph.D., at the University of Florida in Gainsville. You cannot slow the calendar, but you can slow to a very large extent the undesirable changes in your body.

The five fundamentals can be more sneaky than you think. For example, a typical American gains a few pounds between Thanksgiving and the New Year. Repeat this for a few years, and you can understand why so many of the middle aged folks you see every day are maybe 30 pounds heavier than when they were in college. But that's not the whole story. "Someone who gains 30 pounds bodyweight may have really lost 15 pounds of muscle and gained 45 pounds of fat," says Jack Wilmore, Ph.D., at the University of Texas at Austin. So it is really important to preserve your muscle mass by training, or it will be replaced by fat.

Do you need more proof that age is not the real problem? Try this, "If you correct muscle strength losses for lost mass, there is no loss of strength per unit of remaining muscle. This means loss of muscle mass is the problem, not age," says William Evans, Ph.D., at Penn State University in University Park.

How?

By this time you're convinced that strength training is important to you, and can improve your lifestyle and slow the effects usually blamed on aging, but are really due to disuse. How should you begin to fight back?

The 1990 American College of Sports Medicine exercise guidelines include eight to 10 different exercises for the major muscle groups: legs, trunk, shoulders, and arms, performed at least twice a week, one set of eight to 12 repetitions of each exercise, using enough resistance to bring you close to muscle fatigue.

Experiments show you can achieve about 80% of the results from twice weekly workouts that you can achieve by working out three times a week. Current experience suggests that although results vary with the individual and the exercises used, a well balanced program works on your lumbar spine once a week, on your trunk, arms, neck, and shoulders two or three times a week, and on your chest and legs three times a week.

How many sets is best? "Studies on bench presses show that you may not find two sets better than one, three are a little more effective. But the extra is something like 27% increase in strength, compared to 23%," says Pollock. Similar data have been seen for knee extensions.

Pollock concludes two sets haven't been found better than one, and three may bring extra rewards, but for the average person they are not worth the extra time. So, if you perform one set of each exercise, using heavy weights or high resistance on machines, you will achieve good results, and save exercise time.

Which exercises should you choose? Different routines will suit different people, and for variety it is a good idea to change every so often. This will work your muscles a little differently from time to time, which is valuable because if you do the same thing over and over again your muscles will adapt to the workload and plateau, or even decrease the benefit. Also this will prevent you from growing bored with an identical routine for months and months. A reasonable starting program might be: toe raises for calves; leg extensions for quads; hamstring curls; bent leg situps for abs; deadlift for thighs, glutes, and lower back; bench press for chest; bench pullover for upper back and chest; upright row for upper back, neck, and shoulders; military press for shoulders; behind the head triceps curl; concentration curl for biceps; finally, wrist curls for forearms. This is more than ACSMs eight to 10 exercises, but not by much. For variety you can consider lunges and parallel squats for your legs, bent over rows for back and shoulders, and side bends for the sides of your abs.

This leaves the final question: how much weight? "To begin, try about one-quarter of your bodyweight for leg exercises, one-sixth for upper trunk, and one-eighth for your arms," suggests Editorial Board Member Phillip Zinni, D.O., A.T.C. But there is no rule that specifies what works best. Evans begins strength programs by measuring the maximal load a person can handle for a single repetition of an exercise. He then trains them at 80% of that load for eight to 12 repetitions. Evans does not suggest this is necessarily the best way to start, but it gives good results.

Or you can follow Pollock's advice "Begin light, exercise slowly with good posture, full range of motion, and regular breathing. As you progress, add weight, but not more than 5% extra each week." To develop your strength and muscle mass potential you have to work strenuously. You should have some difficulty completing the last two or three reps of each exercise. Your muscles should burn, maybe tremble a little, and you might even wonder whether you will make the final rep.

Effective strength training is hard, but doesn't take too long when you do only one set of each exercise, and it really pays dividends in so many ways. "Strength training increases range of joint movement, increases muscle mass, strengthens bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments, improves your practical ability to achieve every-day chores and activities, improves fitness and health, and helps prevent accidents, injuries, and sickness, and speeds rehabilitation when you do get hurt," says Pollock.

Effects of Resistance Training

If you are basically a runner, cyclist, or triathlete who concentrates mainly on endurance exercise, and likes to keep your body trim and lean, maybe the thought of lifting heavy weights leading to more muscle bulk, and maybe gaining weight, doesn't sound like what you want. You need not worry too much because the amount of strength and muscle mass you can develop is quite variable, and depends on body type. At one end of the scale some people are ectomorphs, they are slightly built and always lean. At the other end of the scale there are endomorphs, heavily built people with big bones and muscles, and a tendency to gain weight. Many people are mesomorphs, and are somewhere in between. Where you fit on the scale is decided by genetics.

If your family are mostly slim and slightly built people, you will gain some strength and muscle mass from resistance training, but to a modest degree. If you are basically an endurance animal, with slender muscle fibers and not much body fat, you will not change your body type no matter what kind of training you plan.

If your family are big and heavily built folks, then you may achieve considerable strength and muscle mass by training. You may even be body building material. If you have this kind of body type, resistance training will make it look even better.

If your body type is in between, then the strength and muscle mass you can achieve will be in between. Strength training will not put large, ripped muscles on basically lean people. What it will do is give you the best body that your genes will allow.

Also, maybe you're concerned that gaining muscle mass will put a crimp in your aerobic activities. Relax, the evidence is beginning to come in to show it may actually help. For example, a group of runners who took a 10 week weight training program mixed in with their regular running, improved their running. They gained nearly 25% in upper body strength, and nearly 35% n lower body strength, but their body composition didn't change and they ran more efficiently, that is they ran the same pace using less oxygen after the weight training.

Resistance training is good for everyone. It will help you keep up your oxygen capacity, help you keep away surplus fat in your muscles, keep your muscles looking good and strong, and help you keep your bones strong.

(Part of this article is adapted from contributions to a symposium "Resistance Training for Fitness and Health," at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, Minneapolis, MN, May 31 - June 3, 1995)

Copyright, The American Running Association.

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