What’s The Most Important Thing You Can Do For Your Health?

The health and wellness industry is chock full of ‘ways’ to get healthier and fitter. Biohack here, diet there. The options are labyrinthian.

But here’s one thing that few health professionals argue about and that’s Strength Training. The bang for buck beats everything else, hands down. And it’s been proven, it’s not conjecture.

So why, oh why, are we all still not in the gym regularly? Why do we think that going for a walk is good enough, that yoga is acceptable or that Zumba is more fun?

It’s mainly because it takes skill and knowledge. There are many influencers on tiktok or YouTube whose workout you can follow, but that doesn’t always translate into real life, especially if you are an average person, with aches and creaks, limitations and mobility issues.

Two things are required if you want to strength train effectively:

-Knowing how to perform exercises correctly, so that you get the most from them and so you don’t injure yourself

-Knowing which exercises to do in any given session or over a number of weeks, including how to make them easier or harder, depending on your capability and strength and skillset

If you are starting out, I highly recommend working with a Personal Trainer. They will teach you how to perform the exercise optimally for you and so that you get the most out of each and you don’t injure yourself. This is best done in person.

Secondly, they will programme the right combination of exercises for you, so that each workout is balanced and helps you to achieve your goals.

You don’t need to work with them forever, if you don’t want to, but this investment will help you learn the skill of strength training, which will see you throughout the rest of your life.

Build Muscle First

Typically, clients come to me wanting to lose fat. Often women have been underfeeding themselves for a long time, to get into a calorie deficit, for the goals of losing fat, but this often destroys metabolism and depletes muscle. Building muscle first is often the most sensible way to go. Here’s how it should look

**Build muscle

**Fix metabolic health (which has often been trashed by years of dieting)

**Feed the body with good nutrition, so that it can build muscle.

Then, we can adjust food intake to lose fat, but only once a decent ‘engine’ (in the form of muscle) has been built. This is the correct way.

Of course, addressing sleep and stress is important along the way as well, but let’s not overcomplicate things for now.

But…I’m active, I Walk, I Do Yoga/Pilates/Zumba!

Sorry, it’s just not enough. If you are not actively chasing muscle. If you are not maintaining or building muscle, you are losing it. We drop muscle naturally from the age of 30.

A lack of muscle will make you frail.

And frailty kills. Frailty produces instability, muscle and bone weakness. 50% of those who fall and break their hip, never recover.

This is important stuff and you just can’t get strong doing Zumba or down dogs. Sorry. Go to Zumba and Yoga, but Strength Train as well. We all need more muscle no matter how old you are.

Frailty is not your friend.

Brucie Bonus

Going beyond the physical benefits are the mental and lifestyle benefits.

One client of mine remarked that it was so nice because in the hour she came to me she had to make no decisions (and her life was full of her having to make them).

Strength training also gives people confidence. “I lifted how much?” clients say as they puff out their chest. You just know that that confidence will spill over into everyday life. I had a client that told me she couldn’t jump. I got her jumping. Being able to go back to their families with their cup filled up, is worth its weight in gold.

Doing hard stuff and surviving in the gym, enables people to do other hard stuff in their life. It builds resilience.

Being strong enables you to do other things in life; play with your grandchildren on the floor, put your bag in the overhead locker, get the suitcase off the carousel without putting your back out, climb a tree, hike a mountain. The list is endless. A fulfilling life requires us to do physical things.

Just Do It

Learning this skill is almost impossible to do yourself. Find a friend who can help, or hire a coach; it will be the best money you’ve ever spent.

Ally van de Pol is a NASM_CPT Personal Trainer with the additional qualifications: PPSC Pain-Free Performance Coach, PPSC Pain-Free Knees Coach, PPSC Lifelong Performance Programming Specialist, Senior Exercise Specialist, Health & Wellness Coach. She is also a Certified Naturopath & Herbalist.