How is weight lifting healthy?

Builds strength, muscle and bone density.

In context, it also gives me a routine which helps me focus on other to-dos. Like a checklist I guess…It’s the way I function. If I have nothing planned for the day, I will most certainly do nothing.

What can you tell me about how it benefits the heart? or veins/arteries?

@pleiades Excellent questions.

Lifting free-weights or working out on machines that simulate that is not all that much help for cardiovascular health unless you plan your routine carefully so that you move immediately from set to set and when your sets are complete, from one exercise to the next. Doing that will build muscle mass, which burns calories whereas fat stores them, it will exercise the cardiovascular system, and it will build bone density. It will also leave you a huffing and a puffing just like running a 10K full tilt will do. If fact, it will take serious effort to get to where you can even do it. And if it ever starts getting easy, just add more weight.

Lifting weights causes micro-tears in muscle fibers. As an adaptive mechanism, your body rebuilds those muscle fibers slightly larger so they can lift the weight without tearing. If you increase the weight you are lifting periodically, your body is forced to adapt again and rebuild the muscle fibers even larger. This is called progressive resistance weight training.

Having more muscle mass on your body increases your metabolic rate because muscles are constantly burning calories, even when you’re resting (as opposed to fat cells, which just sit there). Increased muscle mass also causes your body to increase your bone density to support the extra muscle. Together, more muscle mass and higher bone density make you less prone to injury. Men start losing 10% of their muscle mass every decade starting in their 30’s, so it’s important for all men to do some weight training once they reach a certain age just to maintain their natural muscle mass.

Depending on the kind of weight training you do, you can direct your muscle-building toward specific goals, such as building strength, increasing endurance, targeting specific muscles, etc. Nearly all professional athletes engage in weight training in order to improve their performance in their particular sport.

That comes under the heading of “Whatever doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.”

Weight-lifting, like running, walking and exercising in general, is one of those things.

I like weight lifting! It helps you become much stronger (and no it doesn’t make you bulky!). It also helps you burn more calories at rest when not working out. More muscle you have the more calories you burn! Win/WIN!

Also, unlike cardio it helps you shape your body to becoming tight and sexy. Cardio is good for your heart and all and burns calories, but without weight lifting you’re not shaping your muscles into a sexy figure ;)

Obviously, you need to stick to a certain system in order not to hurt yourself or bring harm to your body. You shouldn’t take a lot of weight at once, start with like 15–20 lbs if you never lifted before. As soon as you feel you don’t need to push through and you are pretty confident – add several lbs.

Most of the benefits of weight lifting gain muscle and increase weight. And for this, you should go to gym regularly and eat protein, carbohydrates and nutrients. It will help you to increase your weight and make your muscles.