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      Why exercise?

      My guess is that you first started exercising because you just wanted to transform your body composition. And I don’t blame you for that, I did as well. Who doesn’t want to look sexy and attract certain people into their lives. So basically, if you were not told by your doctor, you most certainly started working out by being a bodybuilder. But building a leaner, more muscular body is not the only reason people seek to throw some weights around. As experience grows, demands grow. Some people want to tap further into their strength potential, others wish to be more athletic and agile on the playing field. Others only want to get rid of that goddamn back pain that had been troubling them for years and years. For quite a few people working out is an excellent way to meet new people or have fun with family and friends. You get the idea! There are many good reasons to invest time in your physical health and before we kick it off I’d like to share with you some of the benefits of moving weight regularly.

      By working out you can massively increase your strength in any desired body part. Studies have shown that it is possible to at least double your strength levels within the first one to two years of training. Think about it: babies and toddlers only become stronger by applying forces against gravity by crawling, rolling, squatting and playing all day. So, imitating your kid’s movements (if getting in those positions is still possible) is one of the most basic and easiest workouts you can do to improve strength and mobility. Imagine the potential for strength when your body is dealing with progressive overload induced by (free) weights or more challenging lifting techniques!

      With increases in strength you will usually also see an increase in muscle volume (hypertrophy). Hypertrophy kicks in, when the existing muscle volume fails to meet its demands. Progressively increasing the weights being moved, forces the body to innervate more and more muscle fibres. If the quality and quantity of the working muscles becomes insufficient to handle the load, the body is forced to adapt in a way that makes bearing such a load possible in the future. One of these adaptions is the physical growth of muscle tissue, also called hypertrophy. But the potential for growth is strongly correlated to your ratio of fast twitch muscle fibres compared to slow twitch muscle fibres. So lean, slow twitch, ectomorph people – usually with a tendency to favour endurance sports – must train and eat totally different compared to folks with a fast twitch surplus. But hypertrophy is possible for both body types and at all ages.

      The single best thing to do to keep your bones healthy is to move against resistance or to lift heavy weights. Of course, walking and running also have their benefits, but lifting high loads at least twice a week improves bone density dramatically and serves as the best protection against osteoporosis. Bone mass peaks between age 30 – 40 before it starts its steady decline. You could either raise your bone mass to a higher density before that to draw from such a density advantage later in life, or at least slow down its decay after age forty by working out. Some studies have shown that it is even possible to increase bone density in later years, if people start working out and stick to a well-rounded routine.

      Did you know what holds your joints together? No, it is not bones. Rarely do bones have physical contact to each other in the big joints of the limbs and torso. Joints are held in place by muscles, ligaments and joint capsules. All those structures experience positive effects if you exercise with enough weight, in the right movement form and if you give them the recovery time they need. That said, joint stability improves due to proper regular workouts, which can be crucial in any sport or physical activity. The older you get, the more will muscular force, joint stability and mobility determine the quality of your life.

      There are still too many people out there thinking that adding muscle mass inhibits their mobility. Nothing could be further from the truth! Look at power lifters or olympic lifters, watch world class gymnasts or sprinters! What do they all have in common? They are pretty mobile, and they are pretty

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