Strength training is an important part of my everyday life. By strength training, I do not mean just lifting weights, I would also include walking, jogging, and running. All four come together to make a well rounded, overall healthy person. While many people know some of the benefits of strength training, they neglect to use them to their own advantage. Strength training can affect almost everything you do from walking in an everyday manner to using the restroom. There are so many ways that strength training can improve your quality of life. It is so amazing that not everyone is running out to their local gym.
Our age has been considered the "age of push buttons" (Hooks 2). Because of our reliance on machines, Americans have been gradually degenerating. We need vigorous exercise in order to grow and develop. The muscles must be overloaded in order to be strengthened. Since ours is a generation of inactivity, our muscles are weakening and degenerating. "The physical fitness of American youths was compared with that of youths from England, Scotland, Wales, and Cyprus. Our young people were found to be as much as 14 percent below those of the other countries for all tests and at all ages between 10 and 17 years" (Hooks 2). This is a reflection on our way of life. We have robbed our youth of the opportunity to develop normally.
Although strength training can be for anyone, the area it should be applied to most is athletics. As Gene Hooks says "Strength is the key to success in modern athletics" (1). He goes on with "Strength in athletics must be studied just as one would study technique, speed and desire. All four elements are valuable and need special attention. Strength, however is the key element because it is more easily improved than others. It is, in fact, the one element that can be improved with one hundred percent success" (2). Coach Richard Unterseher of Shelton High School says that weight training is "absolutely essential" for athletics.