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How Lifting Weights Improves Your Mental Well-Being
You already know that lifting weights provides you with important physical benefits. Improved
strength, increased muscle mass, and a faster metabolism are just some of the results of a regular weightlifting routine. According to a recent study, you can add an improved psychological state to the list of benefits from picking up a set of dumbbells. People who regularly engage in strength training report fewer instances of depression as well as several other mental boosts. These include:
- Increasing the amount you can lift gives you the confidence to tackle other challenges in
life. There’s a strong tie between the feeling of becoming physically stronger to feeling
emotionally stronger as well. - Strength training can improve your cognitive abilities and can even help to keep dementia
at bay as you age. Researchers aren’t sure why yet, but it’s impressive that engaging in an
activity for primarily physical reasons can improve mood as well as brain power. - Lifting weights helps your body and mind become more in tune with one another. You
might feel sore after a workout, but your mind absorbs the message that you’re doing
something to improve yourself and that the soreness will pass. Whereas you might have
dreaded the feeling of fatigue before you started strength training, repeating it often
enough sends the message to your brain that fatigue means you have engaged in
something worthwhile. - When you’re trying to lose weight, becoming obsessed with the number on the scale can
be a huge hinderance to your progress. A better idea is to hide the scale for several weeks
if necessary and focus on gaining strength instead. With strength training, your mindset
shifts from dwelling on a number that you can’t always control to making your body
stronger. The sense of happiness and improved self-esteem that you feel as a result comes
from knowing that you have taken charge of your own well-being. - Weightlifting teaches you intense focus that makes it easier to forget about life’s
problems. When you’re inactive or have too much time on your hands, it’s all too easy to
dwell on everything from minor annoyances to major life decisions you need to make.
During strength training, you learn to live in the immediate moment. That means you can
learn to let things go easier in your daily life.
These are just five psychological benefits you can obtain from weightlifting. After you have been
doing it for a while, you may realize that it provides even more mind boosts that you would have thought possible.
Get Started With Strength Training
If you have always wanted to try strength training but have held back for a variety of reasons, we hope this gave you the push you needed to start. Cape Carteret Aquatic and Wellness offers
several strength training courses where you’re sure to find the activity that’s perfect for you.