The general perception of many people about weight training is that it will cause them to build huge muscles.

It is not just women who think this, but even men are afraid of going near the weights area of their gyms. I am here to tell you that you can lift really heavy weights and not worry about looking like a bodybuilder.

Having said that, there are still millions of people around the world who swear by weight training to look good and feel good.

Now, let’s look at some fabulous benefits that accrue for someone who lift weights.

1) Improvement Inside The Body Rather Than Outside

The main benefit of weight training is improvement inside the body rather than outside the body. You can neither be strong nor healthy unless you have a powerful functioning set of internal machinery, your organs.

Your organs are your lifelong partners, and you have to provide them with adequate stimulation and nourishment. They need exercise too. Light exercises like aerobic training on cardio equipment provide little benefit for outer muscles, let alone our organs.

Greater demand must be made on the muscles to improve them, and consequently, greater effort is required of the internal works, with increasing benefit to them as well. Through progressive training, the muscles must gradually push harder in order to lift more weight.

This gradual improvement comes about because the organs are improving too. It’s safe to say that the strength of your muscles is directly proportional to the strength of your internal organs.

The strengthening of organs brings greater potential for longevity, greatly reducing the possibility of contracting a disease that may shorten life or end it suddenly and prematurely.

2) Weight Training Is Practical

Lifting weights can be practiced in a small room with very little basic equipment, unlike other sports/activities, which require more space. Also, it can be performed at any time, night or day.

3) Weight Training Saves Time

You can build an almost perfectly developed physique that not only looks good but also is superiorly healthy in only three to six hours a week, maximum. That’s not even five percent of your week, which brings me to the next point.

4) Weight Training Is Sustainable

With this kind of effort-to-results ratio, sustainability is not a problem. However, many people start off with the wrong mindset and principles, which either injures them or gets no results.

With weight training, I can promise you one thing: If you try it with the right mindset and principles for a few weeks, you will be a weightlifter for the rest of your life. Your workouts will make you feel alive, and you’ll find the hours that you spend weight training to be the most valuable hours you have lived.

You can begin by reading my ultimate guide to strength training for beginners. Even if you have a few years of lifting experience, this beginner’s program can benefit you by helping you learn proper exercise techniques while improving your recovery process.

5) Weight Training Is Not Expensive

From fancy gyms charging you huge amounts of money to supplement companies trying to rip you off with their inferior, bogus supplements and personal trainers promising you quick results while charging hefty fees, weight training could easily go beyond an average man’s budget.

It doesn’t have to be that way. One of my core reasons for creating old.fabulousbody.com is to educate and empower you with the right knowledge and to filter out the bro science and other nonsense. The truth is simple, laughably simple. But being simple doesn’t make it easy.

Supplements don’t build a physique; whole foods do. Memberships in fancy gyms are just a social status symbol. Well-sculpted bodies can be built with only a few simple compound exercises using free weights and barbells.

Personal training could be helpful, but good trainers are a rarity. Learning and educating yourself with basic key ideas, concepts, and principles can clear up all your confusion and help you start with the right mindset and attitude, which pays great returns in the long run.

6) Weight Training Builds Muscles

Building muscles has a lot of benefits. Click here to learn more about these benefits.

7) Weight Training Helps You Lose Fat

We know that muscles are catabolically more active than fat, meaning they need more energy to survive. If you gain 10 pounds of muscle, you will burn approximately 50 to 70 extra calories per day without moving. Isn’t that awesome?

Besides this, weight training has an EPOC effect and can boost your metabolism for up to 16 hours (sometimes even more, depending upon the intensity of your workouts). This added advantage of elevated metabolism results in more calorie burn without doing anything! ¹http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11882927

8) Weight Training Makes You Look Good, Really Good

Yes, muscles make you sexy. Not the bodybuilder kind, but lean, proportionate and symmetrical muscles (as long as your body fat is within the range of 9 to 14 percent). You’ll have that perfect V-shape, and the fat will melt away from your face, making it look more angular. Your clothes will fit better, and you’ll look good overall, which will improve your self-esteem and confidence.

8) Weight Training Is Progressive

Weight training is for the weak and for the strong. Any person between 14 and 80 years old can start weight train from the level they feel comfortable and progress slowly. Eventually, using heavier weights brings results faster with a small expenditure of time and effort.

9) Weight Training Fights Depression

Depression has been ranked as the leading cause of disability in the United States, with over $40 billion spent each year on lost work productivity and medical treatment related to this illness. ²http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2146410

The efficacy of exercise in decreasing symptoms of depression has been well established. It’s a fact that patients with depression are typically sedentary and lack the motivation to begin an exercise program.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends focusing on the frequency of exercise (low to moderate intensity for 30 minutes, five days a week) until the behavior is well established. Beginning with a moderate to high-intensity exercise program is associated with roughly one-half the dropout rate. ³http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC474733/

10) Weight Training Helps Prevent Osteoporosis

A muscle gets stronger and bigger the more you use it. Similarly, a bone becomes stronger and denser when you regularly place demands upon it. Osteoporosis can lead to fractures, especially hip fractures.

This problem becomes more common as one age. Weight training improves strength and balance with increased muscle mass, which decreases the likelihood of falls (the main cause of fractures in the elderly). ⁴http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9927006

11) Weight Training Improves Your Game

An article in ‘Business Insider’ about Tiger Woods exemplifies how he prioritizes strength training to improve his game. ⁵http://www.businessinsider.com/tiger-woods-working-out-2014-9?IR=T

Manchester United star Wayne Rooney lifts weights and has a custom plan developed by his team trainer. The editor-in-chief of Sports and Fitness magazine stresses that weight training develops strength that makes you fast. Soccer players have discovered bench presses, lunges, and squats as means to better strength and performance on the field. ⁶http://www.livestrong.com/article/427768-is-lifting-good-for-soccer-players/

And not just soccer; a study published in Pub Med states that there is enough evidence to suggest that a strength training program should be an integral part of an athlete’s regimen in any team sport. ⁷http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22461461

12) Weight Training Helps Prevent Diabetes

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends that people with type 2 diabetes start a strength training program to help with blood sugar control by increasing insulin sensitivity. ⁸http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15735205, ⁹http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16084803

A joint statement by ACSM and the American Diabetes Association stated that a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise training may be more effective in improving diabetes than either alone. ¹⁰http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2992225/

13) Weight Training Is One Of The Safest Activities You Can Do

In one study, the overall injury rate per 100 participant hours was 0.8000 for rugby and 0.0035 and 0.0017 for resistance training and weightlifting, respectively. ¹¹http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/1994/02000/Relative_Safety_of_Weightlifting_and_Weight.8.aspx

In support of these findings, Pierce and colleagues followed 70 competitive weightlifters between 7 and 16 years of age over a one-year period (1224 lifts were performed in competition). They reported no injuries that limited training or required medical attention. ¹²http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3483033/

14) Weight Training Provides The Shortest Way To Optimal Health

Besides reducing the chances of chronic diseases, lifting weights is a shortcut to optimal health. If done the Fabulous way, you can optimize your fasting insulin levels and total cholesterol/HDL ratio, which are the best overall indicators of optimal health.

Since I started weight training, I have not experienced any aches, pains, or illnesses. I don’t know what it feels like to have a headache. (I am serious!). My bowel movements are systematic, and I do not suffer from indigestion in any form. Most importantly, I feel good most of the time. What else can a man want with respect to his health?

Weight training is the best kind of health insurance one can have. Devote yourself to lifting weights with moderate to high intensity, and you only have to do it two or three times per week.

Related Article: 6 Awesome Benefits Of Working Out 3 Times A Week Using Fabulous Body (FBX) Workout Routines

Weight training is the bedrock of FBX (the training system of Fabulous Body). I believe in a multifaceted approach to building fitness and health. The FBX training system incorporates various guidelines suggested by ACSM.

Further, FBX is modeled after the lifestyle of hunters/gatherers, who were fit and never obese. My book, The Fabulous Body, provides more than 15 comprehensive workouts for intermediate and advanced recreational weight lifters to help build a fabulous body in the fastest possible time.

Related: The Fabulous Body Book

You can enroll in my free course, The FBX Training to experience the science working with you in sculpting your body.

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What do you think about weight training? Have any questions? Let me know in the comments below.