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So, you want to know what the benefits of bodybuilding are? Well, you have come to the right place. In this article, we will discuss what all of the advantages are to adopting the sport of bodybuilding.
Table of Contents
The Benefits of Bodybuilding
Bodybuilding comes along with a multitude of great advantages, whether that be benefits to your physical health all the way to pros for your mental health. But what exactly makes bodybuilding such a great thing? Make sure to read on, as this comprehensive yet simple list explains all of the perks of bodybuilding.
Increased Muscle Mass & Strength
Muscle size increases when you continually challenge your muscles to deal with higher levels of resistance or weight. This is typically known as muscle hypertrophy. Muscular hypertrophy occurs when you damage or injure your muscle fibres. After these fibres are damaged, the body repairs them by fusing them, therefore increasing the size and mass of your muscles.
Muscle cells subjected to regular bouts of exercise followed by periods of rest with sufficient dietary protein undergo hypertrophy as a response to the muscle stress of training. Enhanced muscle protein synthesis and incorporation of these proteins into cells cause hypertrophy. Because there are more potential power strokes associated with increased actin and myosin concentrations, muscle strength is increased. Put simply, the bigger your muscles are, the stronger they become.
How to Improve Muscle Strength:
Maximise your workout time with compound exercises
Do high-intensity workouts
Eat enough
Get plenty of rest
Experiment with supplements
Train each muscle 2-3 times a week.
Improved Metabolism
Research has shown that every pound of muscle burns roughly 6 calories per day at rest - that's about 3 times as many calories burned per pound of fat, which burns roughly 2 calories per day. For example, if an individual adds 10 pounds of muscle and loses 10 pounds of fat, they would burn 40 additional calories each day while resting. While this may not sound very significant, for those looking to lose weight, it is.
What's more, by utilising bodybuilding, you would be helping yourself burn many more calories during your workout sessions. Also, you would be putting on more muscle mass, which, as explained in the previous paragraph, would increase the amount of calories you burn at rest. This increase in calories burned at rest would boost your metabolism.
Other Benefits of An Improved Metabolism:
Clears the body of toxins
Improves blood circulation
Elevates mood
Helps you appear younger
Boosts immune system
More energy.
Enhanced Bone Density
Studies show that strenuous activities that put stress on bones (such as strength training) can nudge bone-forming cells into action. That stress comes from the muscles tugging on the bone during weight lifting. The result of this is stronger and denser bones.
Bodybuilding training in particular also targets the bones of the hips, spine and wrists, which are the bones most likely to fracture. Furthermore, resistance workouts - especially those that contain moves that emphasise power and balance - enhance strength and stability. This can also boost confidence, encouraging you to stay active and healthy.
Exercises to Enhance Bone Density:
Strength training
Resistance exercises
Balance and core exercises
Flexibility
Cardio.
Better Joint Health
Many believe that weightlifting is bad for the joints. However, science has proven that weightlifting is actually good for your joints. By using the proper technique and preparation, lifting weights will strengthen the muscles around your joints, making injury and strain much less likely. What's more, it will also decrease pain and swelling in your joints.
However, it is important to note that weightlifting must be done properly if you want your joints to benefit from it. I would recommend finding guidance from a personal trainer so you know the correct way to do certain exercises in order to avoid injury or joint damage.
Other Benefits of Weightlifting for The Joints:
Lubricates your joints
Promotes circulation of nutrients to the joints
Strengthens the muscles around the joints
Reduces inflammation
Increases blood flow to the joints
Maintains joint flexibility
Improves balance and coordination.
Mental Health Benefits
Bodybuilding and strength training aren't only great for improving your physical health, but also mental health. But how? Firstly, it improves your mood as you are committed to a goal and like your body more. Secondly, bodybuilding strengthens the mind-muscle connection, which basically means you have better communication with your own body. Thirdly, it lowers stress and anxiety by bringing down cortisol (the stress hormone) levels. Next, it boosts brain health since you're more mentally engaged and are more focused. Lastly, bodybuilding improves your relationship with your body as it can be seen as a form of compensation for unhealthy eating habits.
Discipline & Confidence
The bodybuilding life demands the person to become emotionally, physically and mentally strong in order to succeed. The lifestyle they have chosen has no room for quick indulges or lazy days, they are required to stick to their strict workout plan and keep to their set diets. If a bodybuilder is not disciplined, they are guaranteed to fail.
But, how does bodybuilding make you a more confident individual? Bodybuilding increases your strength, endurance and flexibility. With increasing physical strength and endurance your self-esteem increases too. Bodybuilding extends your youthfulness and slows down the process of ageing. Feeling young and looking younger than those around the same age will make you feel great about yourself.
Mental control
Forget the past
Your inner dialogue must be specific
Visualize
Try to avoid negative events & people
Learn to master problem-solving
Focus on discipline often
Work hard.
Summary
In this article, we have discussed what all of the pros of bodybuilding are. The main points we covered were:
I hope you have found the information in this article useful and I hope any questions you had have been answered. Thank you for reading, please come back soon.
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