Happy almost spring!
With the longer, warmer days I’ll bet you’re motivated to walk, jog, run, hike, and play outdoors. This means that it’s even more important that you include strength training in your program for performance and injury prevention.
But did you know that weight lifting is also good for your skin and for your brain?
Your skin will look better with strength training. New research shows it may enhance your skin’s appearance. Lifting Weights Might Be the Newest Anti-Aging Skincare Hack. A study showed that resistance training may enhance skin health even more so than aerobic exercise. The researchers used cycling and weightlifting, and “found one key difference between the two groups: Women who pumped iron thickened their dermal layer, while those who cycled did not.”
Here’s the science from Nature.com: Resistance Training Rejuvenates Aging Skin. New research shows that both aerobic and resistance training help counteract skin aging, and resistance training even more so. “..a 16-week intervention with Aeerobic Training (AT) and Resistance Training (RT) showed that both training interventions counteract skin aging by improving skin elasticity and upper dermal structure. In addition, RT increases dermal thickness.”
Lifting weights benefits brain power. Check out this article in PsychologyToday.com: The Surprising Brain-Health Benefits of Weightlifting. “In the conversation about how to protect and improve brain health, exercise is always at the top of the list. This is because consistent research shows that people who move their bodies are at lower risk for brain issues like depression and Alzheimer’s disease. By and large, the focus of this conversation is on walking, jogging, and potentially lower-impact movements like tai chi and yoga. In fact, aerobic exercises like these are more widely prescribed by clinicians. But research shows us we need to consider weightlifting more strongly for our brain health.”
Include strength training in your program twice, to 3 times a week. Lift weights. Barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells, and body weight training make you strong. Strength is everything.
Strength training is known to lead to longevity, but the quality of your years is even more important. No matter whether you’re a runner, cyclist, swimmer, rower, gardener, of if you want to play with kids or grandkids – you need to train strength to do it.
Skin and brain health are a terrific bonus!
Information overload? There’s so much out there about how to do every type of exercise. In the NYTimes a few days ago on how to walk (gift article): How Many Steps Do You Really Need? That’s the Wrong Question.
Bottom line is the most transformative thing you can do for your brain is exercise.
Move for the joy of it. Do cardio. Lift weights.
It’s not just the years of your life, but the life in your years.
x
Polli
