Why Making Time For Weightlifting Pays Back In Dividends For Parents

I get it. We all do. You’re a parent. You didn’t get much sleep last night. Your job is really adding to the stress this week. After you drop off one of your kids for soccer practice you have to go and pick the other one up from their friend's house. By the time you get home from that, practice is over and you're back on the road.

You're tired. You're stressed. You already skipped the gym once this week, so would it hurt to skip it one more time? I mean, all you want is to kick your feet up for a little bit and relax for once this week. Is that so bad?

Well, although I don’t blame you, you may want to do your best to endure and hit the gym anyway.

Why, you ask?

First of all, if you are willing to cut the gym out of your schedule today, it becomes easier and easier to do so in future situations. And we all know how hard it can be to get back into a fitness regimen once you have fallen off the wagon.

But here is why it is so important.

The time you save by skimping on squats today you are losing in the long run.

You see, weightlifting does a lot more than just increase how “swole you are”. It provides an immense amount of health benefits. So much so that one study found that doing some light training for 20 minutes a day actually reduces the risk of early death by as much as 32%.

It doesn’t stop there. For those 65 years of age and older, hitting the weights has shown to be incredibly important. In fact, those in this age group who strength trained twice a week actually had a 46% lower odds of all-cause mortality.

Getting to the gym will save you time by earning you time. All by helping you live longer, which I am pretty sure everyone would enjoy.

On top of this, the quality of that time as we live is much better. By this I mean the quality of life is improved. Firstly, by reducing overall levels general aches and pains as well as pain associated with certain disorders. On top of this, lifting helps you to maintain and improve your functional capability and therefore functional independence.

While you are still physically able to move about and enjoy yourself, your cognitive and mental health also continues to be maintained and improved through weightlifting.

Combine this all together and you are getting more time. You are also getting more time in the sense that you will lead a more engaged, active, and fulfilled life in your later years because of the benefits of weightlifting.

I know it is hard with the hectic, crazy world that is parenthood and adulthood but remember this one thing. Just 20 minutes is enough to make a massive difference grand scheme of things. And your worth that time!