Strength is the force that muscles use. People used to think only boys could be strong, but that is not true. All people who want to be active and healthy must be strong. Strength training keeps your bones strong. People who are strong can do activities more easily and may learn sport skills more quickly.

Being strong does not always mean that you have big muscles . Muscle size is often determined by your genes-very few people will look like bodybuilders when they get stronger. Age also helps find out muscle size. Children of elementary school age will become stronger by doing exercises, but their muscles probably will not grow much bigger . Boys may get bigger muscles if they do strength training because their hormones may rise . Girls can also become stronger, but they won’t get bigger muscles because their balance of hormones is different from that of males.



Making Muscles Stronger

To strengthen your muscles , you must make them work harder than usual. Lifting weights in a gym is not the only way to increase strength. You can build strength just by helping to do things at home like lifting or bringing grocery bags from the car to the kitchen.

To increase strength , try moving a heavier object than normal. This could be a heavier weight or a heavier grocery bag . After a while, it will be easy to move this heavier object. Any time an object becomes easy for you to move, you must increase the weight again if you want to continue to get stronger. Remember, it takes time to become strong. But you should increase weights slowly, otherwise your muscles may get hurt.

Exercises like push-ups and sit-ups will also build strength . When you do these exercises, you move the weight of your own body. Although you cannot increase your own weight, you can continue to build strength by always doing more sit-ups or push-ups .

You must also do the right exercises. Lifting weights with your arms will not make your leg muscles stronger. If you want stronger legs, you must do leg exercises. For the best fitness, it is a good idea to work on strengthening all your muscles by doing many different exercises.


weightlifting

Image: Tham Nguyen at the 2023 World Weightlifting Championships 
by Mark Gough, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons 



Doing sit-ups
Image: Tyler Read, CC BY 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons



Words

  • activity = something that you do because you enjoy or like it
  • balance of hormones = the substances that help your body grow; you should not have too many or too few of them
  • determined by = influenced by
  • elementary school = the first few years at school
  • force = power
  • grocery bag = a paper bag that you put food from a supermarket in
  • gym = a special building or room that has machines to exercise with
  • hormone = a chemical substance produced by your body that influences its growth, development, and condition
  • increase = to go up or make larger
  • increase the weight = here: lift something heavier
  • lift weights = raise heavy objects with your hands
  • males = boys and men
  • muscle = one of the parts inside your body that you use so that you can move; it also holds your bones together
  • otherwise = or else
  • push-up = an exercise where you lie with your face on the floor and push your body up with your arms
  • sit-up = an exercise to make your stomach muscles stronger; you lie on the floor and try to sit up without moving your legs
  • size = how big something is
  • skill = the ability to do something well because you have learned it
  • strength training = exercises that make you stronger
  • strengthen = to make stronger