Five Reasons We Should Be Lifting Heavy Things 👍

The theme for this week …

My passion related to being active and well-being includes the role of muscles and strength. (You can follow my own strength training journey on Instagram.)

I want you to be clear about why strength training is one of the MOST important things you can do for your health.

Here is a quick reminder of why strong muscles are so vital, and the best ways to work your most important muscle groups. Read on …

Insight of the week from Cara

You likely have a rainy day account or an emergency fund to cover life’s surprises or unexpected expenses. The body has an emergency fund of sorts too.

Building strength is the body’s way of saving for the unexpected, as well as staying in good working order for your day-to-day needs.

Five reasons for building muscle strength

Here are my top five reasons building muscle and strength is so important, with a link to recent related articles in case you missed them:

1. Staying active Read more here
2. Bone density maintenance Read more here
3. Balance control/Fall prevention Read more here
4. Glucose/Insulin metabolic regulation Read more here
5. Brain neuron regeneration Read more here.

Three best exercises to build muscle mass

A well-rounded set of exercises for supporting muscle strength and maximally affecting the above should include these three:

• Squats: There are so many ways to do these without killing your knees and hips!
• Lunges: Again, many variations can be used to accommodate knee and hip pain.
• Dead Lifts: Picking up heavy things builds and sustains vital back muscles.

To reap the benefits of strength training, you should aim for two to three sessions weekly. Strength training does not require going to a gym. Options for the challenge needed to build your muscles can include:

• Body weight
• Free weights (anything heavy that you can hold onto)
• Weighted vest or belt (sold online for exercise, or wear a backpack with weight in it)
• Weighted objects used while home remodeling or gardening (dirt, drywall, bricks)
• Dogs, and grandchildren, with permission 😉

How Bridging® can help

The multi-dimensional demands of movement involve the many parts of the body shifting synchronously, much like a well-tuned orchestra. Activity, inactivity, or age can leave muscles out of tune.

While there are exercises you can do to improve your muscle function, glitchy transitions can be fine-tuned faster via Bridging®. Uniquely, Bridging® is able to pinpoint problematic muscles and muscle transitions. Once identified, Bridging® resets these muscles so you can work out with ease and confidence to build your muscles.