NEW RESEARCH: ONE HOUR OR TWO STRENGTH TRAINING WORKOUTS PER WEEK LINKED TO DECREASE IN HEART DISEASE
Authors of a new research studying examining the effects of strength training on metabolic syndrome (a clustering of risk factors that pre-dispose to heart disease including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, abdominal fat, and elevated blood sugar) published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings concluded that strength training, independent of aerobic exercise, reduced risk of metabolic disease risk by 29%. Perhaps even more interesting, the research indicated that a relatively small amount of strength training produced the best outcomes.
THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF STRENGTH TRAINING: An Unintentional Branding Issue
The year 1970 shaped how virtually all of us think about exercise today.
GROWING MUSCLES AT 60 AND BEYOND
The average adult in the US loses about six pounds of muscle per decade after the age of 30. Which means, on our 60th birthday, we’ve lost 18 pounds of muscle relative to our 30-year-old self. We generally don’t recognize this, and rarely does anyone talk about it, because the muscle loss doesn’t show up on the scale; it is masked by the fat gain that frequently accompanies aging.
Stress and Recovery
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For over 11 years, we at Discover Strength have gone against the conventional wisdom that "more is better" when it comes to strength training. For years, we've taught the foundational tenet: You don't get stronger and reap the benefits of strength training WHILE we strength train; instead, we reap the benefits while we are RECOVERING from strength training. Research now supports the notion that two workouts per week can optimize the myriad of benefits from strength training.
However, until recently, very little research existed examining how the various stressors in our lives impact our finite recovery ability.
Authors of a brand new research study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research provides a breakthrough in our understanding of how chronic mental stress impacts the recovery of our muscles. The researchers concluded that "life event stress" significantly impacted one's ability to recovery from strength training. The authors state, "In all analyses, higher stress was associated with worse recovery." "Stress, whether assessed as life event stress or perceived stress, moderated the recovery trajectories of muscular function and somatic sensations in a 96-hour period after strenuous resistance exercise."
The take-home messages:
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