What is Resistance Training?

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans details that adults should regularly perform “muscle-strengthening” activities. This specifically refers to movements that are aimed at increasing the physical function of your muscles and improving your musculoskeletal fitness and is typically done anytime you exert force against an external load. You can reap the benefits of muscle strengthening activities two ways:

1. Through regular activities that challenge your muscles like chores, house work, and manual labor.

2. Through dedicated resistance training in an exercise setting. 

   
   

When you pick up a bag of groceries, you are exerting force against gravity to lift it. If you regularly lifted bags of groceries that were relatively heavy, you could expect many of the health benefits associated with strength training. However, it’s unlikely the groceries you’re lifting are heavy enough to pose a challenge nor are you lifting them often enough to see any significant benefits.

Not to mention, just lifting groceries might use many of your muscles, but fails to train all of the fundamental movement patterns that appropriately target all your major muscle groups (unless for some reason you’re pressing those groceries over your head). While everyday activities such as carrying groceries, manual labor, and cleaning are normal and useful things most people can and should do, they are often not considered exercise because they’re too unstructured and difficult to measure. A better way to benefit from muscle-strengthening activities is to perform them in a controlled environment where the intention is to work your muscles rather than accomplish a task. This better ensures you’re working all of your muscles sufficiently, the work you’re doing is balanced (so one arm or leg isn’t doing more than the other), and safety is a higher priority. This is commonly referred to as resistance training.  

The term resistance training is synonymous with weight training or physical training and refers to exerting force in a controlled, repetitive manner, typically on an external load and with the express intent of increasing your muscle’s strength, hypertrophy (size), and/or endurance (stamina). Lifting weights, plyometrics, calisthenics, Pilates, and running or swimming laps can all be forms of resistance training—depending on how they are performed.

The Outcomes of Resistance Training

Regular resistance training offers a number of benefits. It is the single most effective way to build muscle and increase bone density, while also lowering your risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes, reducing the discomfort from arthritis and fibromyalgia, and reducing or reversing sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss).

While disease prevention and a lower mortality risk should be enough of a reason to train, another huge driving factor for why someone may start exercising is the improvements in how they look and feel. Regular strength and hypertrophy training, combined with a healthy diet and cardio routine, can dramatically change your body composition, decreasing body fat and increasing muscle mass.

In the United States, the majority of the population is overweight, and this means that many of them are likely seeking weight loss options. Resistance training is a fantastic solution for increasing metabolism and mitigating any unnecessary muscle loss during a fat loss phase.

Practical Application

One of the main themes of resistance training is the concept of progressive overload, which implies using gradually increasing resistance to drive muscular strength, hypertrophy, and/or endurance. Progressive overload can mean increasing the amount of resistance (using heavier weights), increasing the duration or number of times you apply force to a resistance (lifting heavier weights for longer or for more repetitions), or can simply mean increasing the speed at which force is applied (swimming or running a similar distance in less time).

Early 18th Century Depiction of the Death of Milo of Croton by Pierre Puget

The first reference to the term progressive overload is credited to Milo of Croton around 500 BC, who was an Olympic Athlete in Ancient Greece. Legend has it, he would carry around a small calf daily and as the calf grew so did his strength, giving him the ability to lift it even once it was a full-grown bull. Though physical training has been around for centuries in various cultures, the modern style of resistance training and progressive overload appears to have been first hypothesized in the 1940’s by Dr. Thomas L. DeLorme in his rehabilitation work with WWII soldiers. 

Many of the most effective resistance training movements are based on fundamental movement patterns. These patterns include squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, and rotating (among others), and refer to ways in which you would perform an everyday task. If you regularly train your body’s ability to squat or hinge, it can make performing a task like picking up and carrying a bag of groceries much easier. If an individual is unable to perform an everyday task because they lack the required strength, stamina, or skill to do so, resistance training is one of the most effective ways to restore and maintain that skill.

The general recommendation from ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) is to target every major muscle group at least twice weekly and focusing on fundamental movement patterns is a simple way to ensure you’re meeting this recommendation. The major muscle groups include:

• Shoulders

• Chest

• Back

• Arms (triceps, biceps, and forearms)

• Core (abdominals (abs), pelvic floor, and obliques)

• Glutes 

• Legs (quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves)

A sample workout that targets every major muscle group:

• Squat exercise: Goblet Squat (core, glutes, legs)

• Hinge exercise: Deadlift (core, glutes, legs)

• Press exercise: Push-Up (chest, shoulders, arms)

• Pull exercise: Pull-Up (back, shoulders, arms)

• Rotation exercise: Russian Twist (abs, obliques)

Swapping any of those exercises out for regression, progression, or alternative movements is perfectly acceptable and most exercises can be scaled based on personal skill level. A general guideline for beginners is to perform anywhere from 5-15 repetitions per exercise, rest for 30-90 seconds, and then repeat for as many as 1-3 sets. Further research is needed to determine “optimal” set and rep schemes, but making slow, incremental increases in training intensity over time is the most important factor. 

Resistance training can yield some benefits as soon as you complete the first workout but it's important to remember that like anything, consistency is far more important than immediate outcome. You cannot lift weights one time and look just like your favorite actor/professional bodybuilder or instantly cure the chronic knee pain you may be dealing with. But the benefits, such as disease prevention and long-term quality of life, compound over time and will absolutely be worth the effort.  

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with your doctor before starting any new exercise program, especially if you have pre-existing conditions.