Why I Strength Train

Morning everyone!!!!! Not much happened this weekend, so I'm gonna talk a little bit about why I do strength training. First of all though, how was your weekend? There was an activity for the women of the community on Saturday, then a youth service, and yesterday, I did absolutely nothing.

So anyway, for the longest time, I avoided any sort of strength training because I was so scared of seeing the number on the scale go up, so I just did lots and lots of cardio. Well, when I joined the gym that I currently go to, my trainer sat down with me and planned out a strength routine consisting of several circuits that I could do together or separately, as long as I had at least 3 20 minute sessions of strength per week. And while yes, my weight might have gone up due to increase of lean muscle mass, I feel so much better than I ever did before strength training. I've noticed that not only am I stronger (duh...hahaha), but strength training has helped me do better in my cardio workouts as well!!!  Here's some more info that I found online about strength training:

The benefits of strength training for distance runners: An overview (source)

1. Injury Prevention:
   • Injury rates among runners are extremely high (at the high school level, cross-country runners experience more injuries than athletes in any other sport, including football and gymnastics).
   • One of the most effective means for minimizing tissue trauma associated with distance running is to develop stronger muscles, tendons, fascia, ligaments and bones. This is the primary reason that every runner should perform regular strength exercise.
   • Contributes to prevention of shin splits, stress fractures, lower back discomfort, knee problems and hip injuries common to distance runners.
2. Performance enhancement:
   • Allows athlete to adhere to marathon training schedule and thereby maximize performance.
   • Improved muscle strength/endurance.
   • Improved joint flexibility.
   • Increased force/power production.
   • Improved running economy - research indicates 4 percent less oxygen used at sub-maximum running speeds.
   • Increased basal metabolic rate contributing to improved body composition.

Also, check this article out for info on why strength training is important for women.

Now, I just want to vent really quickly about a celebrity trainer with whom I strongly disagree, Tracy Anderson. According to her, women cannot lift anything heavier than 3 lb or do any repetitive exercise, which includes running. She says that this will build up too much muscle mass and make you bulky. In the article that I linked to above, it says the following about that:
"Many women are afraid of strength training because they believe that it will create large muscles that are unattractive. "I’ll weight train once I get this fat off.  I don’t want to turn it into muscle". This is a prevalent misconception. The vast majority of women cannot build large muscles because they are genetically incapable of doing so. It is impossible to turn fat into muscle, or muscle into fat, as each cell is unique from the other"
Another thing that I read about Tracy is that someone tried her diet and nearly passed out because she was working out several hours a day, and only eating about 700 calories. She lost weight, of course, but ended up feeling terrible. Basically, this method is enforcing anorexia and over-exercising in order to get results. As someone who has gone through both of those things, I can't understand why someone who is looked upon to help people become healthier endorses something like that. Anyway, if you want to read that article, click here. 


Well, that's it for me! 


Do you strength train? Why or why not?