Studies show that strength training can benefit your heart, improve balance, strengthen your bones and muscles and help you lose or maintain weight. According to the American Heart Association - Strength training — also known as weight or resistance training — is physical activity designed to improve muscular strength and fitness by exercising a specific muscle or muscle group against external resistance, including free-weights, weight machines, or your own body weight.

Strength training is not just for body builders lifting weights in a gym. Regular strength or resistance training is for people of all ages and fitness levels.

According to Healthline these are the main types of strength training:

• Muscular hypertrophy. Also known as muscle building, this type of strength training uses moderate-to-heavy weights to stimulate muscle growth.
• Muscular endurance. This refers to your muscles’ ability to sustain exercise for a period of time. Training to increase muscular endurance usually involves high reps using light weights or body weight.
• Circuit training. During this form of full-body conditioning, you cycle through various exercises with little to no rest between them.
• Maximum muscular strength. This type of exercise involves low reps (usually 2–6) and heavy weights to improve your overall strength. It’s best reserved for experienced exercisers who have mastered their form.
• Explosive power. This training combines power and speed to improve your power output. It’s usually employed among trained athletes to improve their ability to perform explosive movements in their sport.

Here are 6 reasons you should start strength training:

1. Pointing out the obvious - it makes you stronger

Getting stronger helps you not only with your fitness and training but also with daily tasks like carrying heavy groceries or running around for work or with your kids. By preserving lean muscle mass - it also supports endurance athletes.

2. Lowers your risk of injury

Probably one of the bets side effects of strength training. Strength training helps improve the strength, range of motion, and mobility of your muscles, ligaments, and tendons. This can reinforce strength around major joints like your knees, hips, and ankles to provide additional protection against injury.

3. Promotes greater mobility and flexibility

Strength training can make you more flexible contrary to popular belief. Strength training increases joint range of motion (ROM), allowing for greater mobility and flexibility.

4. Boosts your mood

We are definitely here for this one. Regular doing strength training can help boost your mood and improve your overall mental health. We all know that exercise releases endorphins and can definitely help boost a positive mood.

5. Your progress is more noticeable 

When you first start out the weights can feel impossible, with regular strength training you'll see how quickly you can move up with the weights and crush those goals. 

6. You can do it in under 30 minutes

As a runner - the majority of my training in a week is running - it's very manageable to include two 30 minute strength sessions into my running plan. According to Runner's Times - less can definitely be more for strength training with 30-60 minutes being plenty.