Exercise is important for people of all ages, from the oldest to the youngest. This is something that most of us know, but struggle to make happen in our day to day lives. After all, recently collected data has discovered that a scant 5% of all adults here in the United States are actually exercising for even just a mere half of an hour on a daily basis, with up to two thirds (or more) not getting the weekly recommended amount of exercise in addition to this. For many people, exercise is hard to fit into an already busy day – and even harder to find the motivation to do.

But exercise is important. It helps to keep our bodies strong. It helps to keep us at a healthy weight (as obesity comes with a vast array of often life threatening medical complications). Regular exercise can even help to improve overall mood and mental outlook, though it certainly cannot be viewed as any type of cure to mental illness. For those who are looking for all of the above in a fast and efficient way (at least in a more efficient way than your standard types of exercise, as you might think of them), weight lifting and strength training should most certainly be considered.

Strength training is a slow motion exercise, meaning that most everybody will be able to participate in some form of strength training. In fact, weight training for seniors is becoming more and more commonplace here in the United States. Of course, seniors and most other people should only perform strength training and weight lifting under the guidance of a skilled personal trainer, as personal trainers will help to prevent you from getting injured. And strength training actually only needs to be done a couple of times a week and in 20 to 30 minute chunks of time when this strength training is performed properly – ideally under the guidance of a personal trainer.

The payoff of strength training is likely to be immense for all different kinds of people. For those who are looking to lose some weight, strength training and weight lifting can have a huge impact. In fact, many people who take up strength training in order to shed some pounds find that they will lose as much as 10% of their weight – and typically no less than 5% of their total body weight. This in and of itself is likely to lead to many positive health effects.

For instance, such a reduction of weight will lower one’s chance of developing heart disease quite considerably. In addition to this, this same amount of weight loss has also been found to decrease blood pressure by as much as 5 mmHg for the average person. It’s also important to note that good cholesterol – also know, more scientifically, as HDL cholesterol – will be raised by as much as five points. Even such a small increase in this healthy form of cholesterol has been known to, again, lower the chances of ever contracting heart disease by quite a considerable amount.

Strength training can also help one to improve their body image, even if weight loss is not needed for this specific person. After all, strength training will promote the toning of your muscles, especially if this strength training is kept up for a considerable period of time. For the people who are looking to achieve this look, this can certainly be more than an ideal way to go about it here in the United States.

Getting started with strength training or really with any form of exercise at all might seem to be difficult. After all, this can seem daunting and impossible, even, for a person who has never really invested time and effort in exercise before. However, taking the first step is always the hardest and making the effort is likely to more than pay off at the end of the day. For a great deal of people, beginning to exercise in any way will change their lives for the better, including through strength training and often bettered through the aid of a skilled and experienced personal trainer.