Episode 4: Lift For Life
/Strength is the ability to produce force against an external resistance in the environment. Force is produced whenever you touch anything with you hands or feet. Strength is the basis of human movement, no matter what age. Training with a barbell is the most ergonomic way to increase strength because of the natural way it utilizes the normal functions of all the joints and muscles in the body. In this post I will outline the importance of this training throughout ones entire life.
One of my first memories of a weight room is when I had to spot my father as he performed the bench press. My sixth grade mind thought if my dad couldn’t lift the weight, I would have to pick the whole thing up. Since my dad was the strongest person in the world to me, I definitely had some apprehension. He calmly explained that I would only have to lift the difference of what he couldn’t.
The benefits of strength training can start at this preadolescent age that I was at. There is a misconception of the safety involved with barbell training, especially in young athletes. While at Pacific Lutheran University, I specifically studied the effects of training on youth. It has been proven that lifting weights does not impact the growth plates and can actually enhance the maturation process. As long as a knowledgeable supervisor is present, barbell training should be utilized because young athletes can improve their abilities safely.
Nothing else comes close to the effectiveness of barbell pressing, knee dominant, and hip dominant movements for developing strength. Barbells are so valuable because they allow heavy weights to be held and moved vertically over the midpoint of the foot. The biological response of all exercise involves the stress on the body, the recovery, and the eventual specific adaptation to that stress. Recovering from the previous stress is the body’s way of getting itself ready for exposure to that same stress in the future. The adaptations we see are specific to the imposed demands, while a lack of exercise decreases strength, endurance, muscle mass, bone density, and more. Lifting a barbell through the body’s normal range of motion while not falling over means you are producing force and balancing at the same time.
People over eighteen and not yet seniors can go through miraculous body changes with barbell training. The goals can be adjusted to any desired change the exerciser wishes to see. Athletic performance in the form of power development can occur. Aesthetic changes will happen no matter the concentration but can be focused on even more with hypertrophy training. Whatever the reason for training, results will be enhanced by incorporating barbell training.
A great thing is that more people than ever are performing regular exercise. The issue is the majority of those people are doing it ineffectively. Machine training has been proven to not increase strength in anything except the performance on that one machine. Muscles work together as a system, not in isolation, which is why barbell training should be implemented for ANY POPULATION. Since the system working together can move heavier loads, a barbell can apply much more stress to to the whole body compared to an isolated muscle group. Who wants to spend twice the time in the gym for half the results? Yes, these isolation machines posses the ability to make it feel like you are working hard. Since the ability to produce force is limited to the mass of the working muscle, so is its capacity to increase strength when in isolation.
Barbell training needs to be implemented as part of any program, especially for older adults. The main benefits come from increased bone density as bodies become more brittle, and improved balance as fall risk becomes a problem. Grip strength is commonly used as an assessment of overall body strength. In a recent study, researchers suggest that grip strength is a better predictor of mortality than blood pressure. The author went on to say “low grip strength is associated with increased susceptibility to cardiovascular death.” If you are not training with a barbell, what are you really doing?