Our ‘Strength + conditioning program’ is a specialised exercise and lifestyle program run by our Accredited Exercise Physiology team, with the goal of delivering optimal, cost-effective, quality care to individuals who are looking to improve their health and fitness or their performance in sport or life. Strength and conditioning exercise programs have been shown to be effective for:
- Weight loss
- Athletic performance
- Diabetes management
- Injury rehabilitation
- Anxiety and depression
- Cancer recovery
- Cardiac rehabilitation
- Arthritis management
- Neurological conditions [e.g. Parkinson’s disease]
- Orthopaedic rehabilitation [e.g. joint replacement surgery]
Strength training & lean muscle mass:
Building lean muscle is a key aim of strength or resistance training. However, stronger muscle doesn’t necessarily get bigger or bulkier. The effect of strength training is to improve efficiency of movement and the efficiency of neural connections. Stronger lean muscle allows joints to have more support, more lifting and carrying capacity and better endurance. As a result, movement becomes easier as our muscles can better support us and our joints. This decreases joint degeneration, pain with movement and the time it takes to get moving.
Lean muscle mass….. the key to your metabolism!:
The amount of energy your body consumes at rest (i.e. your metabolic rate) is heavily influenced by the amount of lean muscle tissue in your body. As a result, if you increase the amount and quality of muscle mass you have in your body (even slightly), you can cause a pretty substantial increase in your body’s metabolism. So, a poorly understood, but key benefit of strength or resistance training is an increase in our metabolic rate or how much energy we burn. Muscle is great at burning fuel, even during rest! In short, more lean muscle means you will burn more energy every single day, irrespective of any exercise that you may be doing. That’s why the more muscle we have, the easier it is to lose weight. Resistance training allows us to take advantage of all aspects of fitness – strength, cardiovascular, balance, neurological, power, functional fitness, and it makes you feel good. It is suggested that strength training be performed 2-3 times per week to take advantage of these benefits.
For more information about our Strength and Conditioning Program click here
