What Are The Benefits Of Strength And Endurance Training, And Do I Have To Exercise This Way?

Gerald Endress answers the question: 'Benefits of Strength Training?'

ByABC News
December 22, 2008, 3:55 PM

February 1, 2009 -- Question: What are the benefits of strength and endurance training, and do I have to exercise this way?

Answer: The benefits of strength and endurance training are that you increase your strength and for older individuals, you actually improve your functional ability. So while you're doing strength training you're also maintaining your muscle mass and that is important, particularly as we get older and we naturally start to lose some of that.

So doing strength training at least once or twice a week is very important and that can involve any type of resistance training, which could be using free weights, using machines or even resistance tubing. You want to try to have six to eight exercises and you want to focus on doing those at least once or twice a week.