Often used interchangeably with strength training, although not the same. Resistance training involves performing physical exercises that can help to improve your endurance and strength. 

Resistance training includes exercises where your muscles contract through lifting or pulling against something with resistance. There are many different ways to strengthen your muscles, both in the gym and at home. Some of these types of resistance training include free weights, resistance bands, machinery, dumbbells, or bodyweight exercises.

The main results of resistance training are improved strength, health, endurance and fitness. With all these benefits, it’s an essential type of training that we should all include in our fitness programmes with all these benefits.

Difference between resistance training and strength training:

Strength training is one type of resistance training that focuses on improving muscular strength. Strength training focuses on heavy weights with lower reps, and resistance training focuses on lowering the weight with higher reps. Resistance training can help build strength; however, this is not the primary objective. 

Benefits of resistance training:

There are many benefits to resistance training. It is worth including elements of them in your weekly fitness routine. Here are just some examples and reasons why resistance training is practical:

• You’ll be stronger: Pushing your muscles will inevitably make you stronger, and resistance training is an easy way to become stronger.
• Better bone density: The same way resistance training increases muscle density, volume and strength, it also improves bone strength.
• Toned muscles: Resistance training is an excellent way to make any part of your body stronger, leaner or toned. It is perfect for targeting specific portions of your body and can help fix muscular imbalances.
• Decrease risk of heart disease: Like with all other types of fitness activities, resistance training can aid in lowering blood pressure, body fat and help improve cholesterol.
• A slow rate of muscle atrophy: The older we get, the more chance we will see a muscular decline due to age. Keeping your muscles strong and active regularly improving them can aid in reducing the risk of muscle issues as you age.
• Mental boost: Exercising is fantastic for improving your mental and physical health. Setting and achieving goals like how much weight you can move or how many more minutes you can run for gives you an incredible rush of dopamine and a sense of outstanding achievement.

Resistance Training Examples:

Here are a few examples of resistance workouts you should incorporate into your training regime:

• Bodyweight Exercises: Perfect for working out any and everywhere. Whether at the park, at home or the gym, you can use your body weight to create resistance to push against. This exercise form includes push-ups, chin-ups, sit-ups, and squats. 
• Resistance Bands: Bands are an excellent way to add an extra challenge to bodyweight exercises while putting less pressure on your joints compared to weights. Physios and trainers often recommend them to help target specific muscles, which may be hard to reach otherwise. You can change the bands or add them together and integrate them into exercises like hip thrusts or squats to increase resistance. You could try hip thrusters with the band looped around your thighs, just above your knees or hold them just behind your shoulders while squatting. These are just two excellent resistance band workouts.
• Suspension Training Equipment: Similar to resistance bands, suspension equipment makes your typical bodyweight exercises more difficult and a great strength workout. There are exercises for the whole body. You typically see these in gyms dangling from cable the pull-up bars of cable machines. You can purchase them for your home, making them a fantastic portable option.
• Weights: Weights include dumbbells, barbells, medicine balls, kettlebells, weighted bars etc. Anything with a bit of heft to it that can make your muscles work a bit would fall under the weights category. Some gyms will have tyers, sandbags, and rubber cylinder bars. When training at home, you don’t need to purchase expensive equipment. You can use big bottles of water, cans of beans, or even sacks of potatoes!
• Resistance/Weight Machines: Resistance machines are generally found in every gym. They typically utilise weights or hydraulics to provide resistance for your muscles. 

Tips and advice for resistance training:

• Form is vital when performing any exercise. It’s even more critical when you have added pressure when using weights. Using incorrect form puts you at risk for serious injury. A great way to improve your form is by investing some money into hiring a personal trainer for a few sessions. They can help you see where your form needs correcting and teach you how to utilise different pieces of equipment in the gym.
• Machines can be a great way, when starting, to perfect your technique. If you don’t have access to a gym, it would be best to start with your body weight, then include resistance bands and suspension equipment, working your way towards including some weight, whether that be dumbbells or a sack of potatoes you have at home.
• Warming up should be incorporated into the beginning of your workout. Investing 5-10 minutes in some cardio to warm your muscles up will help reduce the risk of injury while training.
• Cooling down is another fundamental part of your workout and should be completed at the end of your session, which entails stretching. This can aid in your recovery and limit muscle aches.
• Breathing correctly can help with your overall performance, so focus throughout your workout. Exhale when you’re exerting yourself and inhale as you release. It is tempting to hold your breath as you move the weight or do an exercise, but this could lead to a feeling of lightheadedness or dizziness.
• Steady pace is essential, so don’t rush your movements. It is best to do slow and controlled movements with pauses between and utilising low weights. This can help with a better mind-muscle connection.
• Increase weight slowly. Don’t strain yourself and risk injury, so it is best to start with lower weights and work your way up. If your cardiovascular system is what you’d like to improve, consider maintaining the same weight but gradually increasing the repetitions.
• Rest & recovery days are essential. Try to not focus on the same muscle group more than one day in a row. It would help if you had time between sessions for those muscles to recover and rebuild. 

There are many forms of resistance training, although we have only outlined 5. Finding one that fits you and your training style can help you receive the outlined benefits. 

Finally, our tips and advice should be your go-to list to help you avoid injury, especially when first starting. To begin with, start slow and be consistent. As time goes on, slowly begin to increase the time you spend training and the number of reps you integrate. 

However, it wouldn’t be a good blog if we didn’t remind you to use your 25% Nike discount code to get the perfect gear for your new resistance training routine.

On a final note – please always consult a doctor before starting any new training program to be sure it is suitable and safe for you.