In Short
1) Hypertrophy – Increase your muscle size
2) Increase Connective Tissue strength – Stabilise your joints
3) Increase Bone Density – Protect against breaks and cracks
4) Improve your posture – Look and perform better
5) Increase your resting metabolic rate – Burn more energy at rest

In Detail
1)      Hypertrophy – Increase your muscle size.
The most noticeable change and possibly the main motivator for lots of people to do RT is muscle hypertrophy. This just means an increasing muscle size. Hypertrophy is important for many people. Are you looking to getting that lean sexy toned look or are you looking to get muscles that would make the terminator go running to mummy? No matter where you sit on the spectrum obtaining some level of hypertrophy is going to be on the list of things to do. Hypertrophy is also important to anyone looking to increase there fitness in almost any kind of way, be it strength, power, speed or endurance. What ever your fitness goal, if utilised in the right way then hypertrophy is your friend. It’s also worth knowing that after the age of thirty the average human will lose around 5lbs of muscle per decade. If you don’t want to grow up to be a frail old individual then it’s up to you to do something about it.

2) Increase Connective Tissue strength – Stabilise your joints.
As you start to increase the load your body will strengthen up your connective tissues to accommodate for this. Both your tendons and ligaments with become stronger. This will increase your joint stability and can go a long way in protecting you against injury. Just so you know, tendons are the connect tissues that attach your muscles to your bones. They play a big role in transmitting the force generated by the muscles. Ligaments strap like connective tissues that attach bone to bone in all joints to provide stability. A healthy joint is a strong joint.

3) Increase Bone Density – Protect against breaks and cracks.
This is important for both men and women, but ladies, you need to pay especially close attention. Our bones are as alive as any other part of our body. They are in a constant state of regeneration. Old bone is broken down and new bone is built to replace it. In order for us to have healthy bones this needs to be in a fine balance. The fine balance is mainly controlled by our hormone levels. If there is an imbalance in the amount of bone that is being broken down and the formation of new bone then this can lead to a condition called Osteoporosis. Osteoporosis can occur when the body fails to lay down enough new bone tissue. The main cause of this is a lack of oestrogen in women and androgen in men. Women, especially those older then 50 are frequently diagnosed with Osteoporosis. This condition can result in very weak and brittle bones which are incredibly dangerous and can leave you very vulnerable to breaks and cracks.
Good news! Yes you’ve guessed it. RT can help protect against the development of Osteoporosis. How? RT stimulates Osteoblast (bone building cells) activity which results in the formation of new bone tissue. This will go a long way to ensuring you have a healthy bone density resulting in strong bones. Remember, the body is the master adapter. If you show it the right road your journey will be long and far.

4) Improve your posture – Look and perform better.
Over the years your body can develop weakness in certain areas which more often then not will have some negative impact on your posture. What’s worse is that the change is so gradual you probably won’t even realise it. Having a less then perfect posture can cause some serious problems, not just in your sporting performance but in your everyday life.
The two most common postural abnormalities are Kyphosis and Lordosis. An individual with Kyphosis will have an exaggerated curve in the thoracic vertebrae (upper back). A kyphotic person will appear to have a “hunchback” and look at though they are leaning forward in fashion more commonly associated with old women. Someone with Lordosis will have an exaggerated curve in the lumber vertebrae (lower back). The result will be a belly and a butt that sticks out even if there person has a low level of body fat. Not only are these conditions a little hard on the eye and disrupt a persons centre of balance but if left untreated they can cause some pretty nasty medical conditions. Symptoms include compression of the spinal cord which can lead to weakness of certain muscles, loss of muscle control or even in rare cases a loss in bowel control.
These conditions can often be fixed with the correct type of resistance training. Typically the cause of postural abnormalities will be a weakness of the muscles on one side of the body and a tightness of muscles on the other. In Kyphosis weak upper back muscles and tight chest muscles. In Lordosis weak abs and tight lower back muscles. We know that RT can cause an increase in muscle strength so knowing this the solutions is obvious. Strengthen the weak muscles and increase the flexibility of the tight ones!

5) Increase your resting metabolic rate – Burn more energy at rest.
Your resting metabolic rate is the amount of energy your body burns at rest. At rest the body will need a certain about of energy just to function and maintain itself. Not only will resistance training burn lots energy whilst you workout, it will also burn extra calories while you rest many hours after the workout has finished, this is called the after burn effect. You will also need to repair your fatigued muscles and do to this even more energy is needed.
The extra muscle mass that you’ll build as a result of a good RT routine will also have to be maintained. This means that those of us with a higher amount of muscle mass will have to fuel the body with more energy on a daily basis. This is fantastic news as it increases your chances of using the body’s fat stores as an energy source, especially if you regulate your diet in a way to do so. Also fantastic news for those of us who enjoy eating as you get to eat more at the same time as having a positive impact on your appearance! Good times!