When many people think about starting an exercise routine, their mind often goes to cardio activities like running, jogging, biking, and dancing. It’s commonly thought that cardio, or aerobic exercise, provides all you need for a good workout.
However, as a Penn Medicine physical therapist and certified strength and conditioning specialist at Chester County Hospital explains, cardio alone overlooks an important part of your body and your health—your muscles. Strength training offers many benefits that cardio cannot provide, according to Andrew Brough, PT, DPT, CSCS.
“You may have heard it called strength training, weight training, muscle-strengthening, or even resistance training,” said Brough. “All of these are referring to the same kind of physical activities that focus on improving your muscle mass, which can lead to increased strength, mobility, and healthy years of life.”
What cardio is… and why it isn’t enough
Cardio exercise is a great way to get your heart rate up, and it comes with a lot of positive health benefits.
“Over time you can improve your overall heart health,” Brough noted. This includes positives like lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol, and improving your heart’s efficiency.
“Many people are familiar with the health benefits of regular walking or engaging in any type of aerobic activity,” said Penn Medicine’s Benjamin Snell, MD, a family medicine physician with Lancaster General Health Physicians Family Medicine Twin Rose. “Conversations about the number of steps people log each day have become so common that the importance of cardio exercise has filtered into our collective subconscious. Interestingly, the same doesn’t seem to hold true for strength training… and should.”
As Brough explained, weight training offers increased strength, combatting muscle loss, and other health benefits that cardio alone cannot provide.
“With strength training, you’re not just giving a boost to your muscles, but your bones too,” Brough pointed out. “You can improve your bone density and build more flexibility in your joints, and enhance your mood.”
Strength training to stave off depression
“There is strong evidence that exercise, including weight training, can help prevent and treat depression,” said Snell.
He pointed to a meta-analysis published in JAMA Psychiatry, where researchers looked at 33 studies on depression in the context of weight training. All were randomized controlled trials. In other words, some people did strengthening activities and others did not. Two thousand men and women of various ages were tested for depression before and after the trials.
Across all studies, weight training benefitted mood. People who were depressed before the study showed improvement. Those not depressed were less likely to become depressed than people who did not do weight training. The number of work-outs or repetitions, or whether people gained muscle strength made no difference. Simply completing the workout helped combat depression.
Strength training options
When you hear the phrase strength or weight training, you might picture bodybuilders bench-pressing hundreds of pounds.
