"The Benefits of Resistance Training Beyond Hypertrophy & Big Weights" with Dr. James McKendry

On this week's episode of the Discover Strength Podcast, we are joined by Dr. James McKendry from McMaster University in Canada. Dr. McKendry is a researcher and Ph.D. fellow at McMaster University and part of former guest Dr. Stuart Phillip's world-renowned lab on protein metabolism. Dr. McKendry joined me this week to discuss a recent paper he was a part of from that lab looking at the benefits of resistance training beyond hypertrophy and strength. The paper is a review that investigates the current literature to give recommendations for resistance training for things other than strength and hypertrophy benefits. We constantly talk about the "other" benefits of resistance training and this paper does a fantastic job of breaking down, in detail many of those other benefits and why they might be important to people.

While strength, muscle growth, and the physiological changes that accompany them are important. There is an abundance of physiological and psychological benefits to resistance training beyond hypertrophy that have almost nothing to do with the physical weights being moved.

The biggest areas of interest in the paper breakdown, in detail, with fantastic graphical displays some of the other major things to keep in mind when it comes to starting and maintaining a resistance training program. Things like mobility and function, cognition, cancer (recovery and possibly mitigation), metabolic health, and overall mortality improvements (meaning helping you live a longer and fuller life).

We recommend a lot of papers on this podcast and in general to our listeners. This is one paper I would suggest everyone reads in its entirety. It is extremely easy to understand and digest and is filled with wonderful visual representations on the importance and impact of resistance training. This is a great paper to share with friends or family who are also on the fence about strength training. Maybe they don't think they "need big muscles" or don't want to get "bulky". Aside from being highly unlikely to attain for the average person this paper examines some of the reasons why EVERYONE should participate in resistance training in at least some capacity. It also gives some recommendations on how to do so, recommendations very similar to what our listeners will be familiar with.

Link to paper  HERE.

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