Strength and Health

If you’re familiar with our work, you’ll be aware that helping people get stronger and healthier is our #1 priority, but what do we really mean by that? This article will cover the important details… Read on.

“Strength” is force production - More specifically, we define strength as our capacity to generate force against an external resistance in a given context. This is a pretty commonly agreed upon definition.

“Health”, however, has been defined in many different ways over the years. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) current definition of health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.

While this definition may seem adequate, we prefer the following: “The ability to adapt and self manage in the face of social, physical and emotional challenges” (Hubal et al, 2011). We believe this is an important distinction, and the reasons why should become clear if you continue to follow our content in the coming weeks, months and years.

Now we’ve defined our terms, the next question we aim to answer here is; why is strength training (and more generally “strength and conditioning” training) important to health…? This could easily be an entire book in itself, but we’ll try to stick to the key points here.

As you can see, 5 of the top 10 causes of mortality could be preventable with appropriately dosed strength training and cardiovascular conditioning, in conjunction with the guidance / counselling on nutrition and lifestyle modification that a knowledgeable coach should be able to provide. Unfortunately, finding a knowledgeable coach can be difficult, but there’ll be more on that topic later.

The evidence for increasing physical activity and improved nutrition reducing the risks of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes is well established, with growing evidence supporting its utility for mitigating dementia risk, and counselling on lifestyle modification (smoking cessation) reducing risk of COPD (lung disease).

Furthermore, strength training and lifestyle modification can have the following positive impacts on other measures of health and wellbeing (Source: Better Health Victoria)…

Improved muscle size and strength - Reducing musculoskeletal injury risk and sarcopenia risk.

Improved flexibility and balance - Helping you remain independent as you age.

Bodyweight management and improved body composition - Reduced obesity risk.

Physical and social activity - Reducing the risk of general cognitive decline as you age.

Greater stamina - As you grow stronger, you won’t get tired as easily.

Prevention or control of chronic conditions such as those mentioned already, in addition to arthritis, back pain and depression.

Chronic pain management - This is certainly an article for another day.

Reduced risk of pain and injury in the event of a physically traumatic accident.

Increased bone mass and density - Reduced risk of osteoporosis.

Improved sense of wellbeing and self esteem - Strength training may boost your self confidence and improve your body image / general mood.

Improved sleep quality and quantity.

Enhanced performance in day to day tasks.

So now that we’ve covered why you should be strength training and seeking appropriate guidance with nutrition and lifestyle modification where appropriate, the final question that remains is; how?

Start by slowly ramping up to meeting the minimum standards of the WHO’s Physical Activity Guidelines for your age appropriate demographic. These vary slightly for younger and older adults, but at present the following recommendations apply for those aged 18-64:

Do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week or do at least 75 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week or an equivalent combination of both.

Weight training (particularly in higher rep ranges) can contribute towards this as vigorous intensity activity to an extent, but we would not recommend avoiding traditional “cardio” altogether.

Aerobic activity should be performed in bouts of at least 10 minute durations.

Muscle strengthening activities should be done involving major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week.

Under ideal circumstances, everyone would be suitably equipped with the knowledge and motivation to reach these minimum guidelines independently, but unfortunately that’s not the case…

The most recent data here in Australia suggests that only 15% of the population are meeting minimum physical activity guidelines for muscle strengthening and aerobic activity. Alarmingly, only 1.9% of Australian 15-17 year olds are meeting their physical activity guidelines - Clearly this is a problem that’s not going away anytime soon!

With that being the case, our next recommendation would be to find a knowledgeable coach who is aware of the above and is suitably equipped with the skills to help you. While we intend to at some point write a full article outlining how to find a good coach, for now we’ll give 3 simple recommendations:

Assess their knowledge / credentials - Trust your instincts with this. Do they sound like they know what they’re talking about (able to support their claims with evidence and able to demonstrate their education), or does it sound like they’re making stuff up as they go along? Unfortunately, in the “fitness industry” we see the latter all too often.

Have they been through the process themselves? Have they learned how to train, write good programming, manage their nutrition / bodyweight, and ultimately made physical activity an integral part of their lives? Again, you’d be amazed how many PTs don’t even train properly (or at all) themselves.

Finally, have they guided others like you through the process too? Its all very well being an elite bodybuilder or strength athlete, but that doesn’t necessarily make someone a good coach - Understanding the psychosocial variables that influence people, how to communicate well, and how to help you get results all requires a level of expertise that cannot solely be gleaned from personal gym experience.

Having a track record of successfully helping clients achieve their goals with regard to bodyweight, body composition, training, strength and any other objective metrics is imperative for a coach to be any good.

Once you’ve established the above, its time to take action and start changing your life for the better!