5 Overlooked Benefits Of Strength Training As A Vegan Adult

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Many of us know that being vegan has many health-related benefits. On top of that, we know that strength training makes us stronger. Today I want to dive beyond these basics and look at five other, sometimes overlooked, areas where veganism and strength training join and strengthen each other.

I’ve done my best to find information that combines veganism and strength training in adults, but that wasn’t always easy. In some cases, I’ve used two separate sources to prove my point. Nevertheless, I’m sure it’s interesting (it was for me!).

Makes Your Bones Stronger

In an earlier article we wrote called “This Study Says Vegans That Lift Have Stronger Bones” we discovered that vegans that lift have much stronger bones than vegans that don’t lift. What’s more, vegans who do strength training have bones that are as strong as those of non-vegan people who also do resistance training.

This is interesting because, without strength training, the vegans in the study did have slightly weaker bones than non-vegans. This suggests that strength training completely makes up for the loss in bone density and is an essential part of the vegan lifestyle.

Improves Joint Health

In another study, not specifically related to vegans, researchers were on a mission to find out if strength training improved arthritis. Specifically, osteoarthritis, which is the most common form of arthritis and causes a lot of joint pain.

The researchers concluded the following:

This review found that strength training is beneficial to older people with osteoarthritis. Older adults in the strength training group had significant improvements in strength and function, and reductions in pain in the older adults. 

Source

But what happens if you add being vegan to the mix? Turns out, a low-fat vegan diet also reduces joint health in people with rheumatoid arthritis (source). Mixed studies on the topic aren’t available, but to see that strength training and veganism both improve joint health is a good sign overall!

Boosts Fat Loss

I’m pretty sure we all know that eating a vegan diet means it’s a lot easier to stay at a healthy weight. Researchers in a study from 2020 found that non-vegans who switched to a vegan diet lost 13 pounds (5.9kg) in 16 weeks without changing their exercise routine (source).

However, many don’t know that strength training is the most effective way to lose fat. In a 2017 study researchers found that strength training in combination with reducing calories resulted in an 18.7 pounds (8.5 kg) loss in fat mass for adults in their 60s after 6 months (source).

This was surprising because reducing calories without strength training resulted in less fat loss (13.7 pounds / 6.2 kg). However, the shocker of the research was that reducing calories and doing aerobic exercise (such as running, cycling, etc.) still resulted in less fat loss (17.4 pounds / 7.9 kg) than weight training did.

The table below shows the results. WL = weight loss, AT = aerobic training, and RT = resistance training.

So, being vegan and doing strength training as an older adult maximizes your chances of having the lowest body fat percentage possible. This is of course great news for your overall health and mobility.

Improves Sleep Quality

50 – 70 million adults have ongoing or chronic sleeping problems (source). That’s a lot of people who can’t fall asleep at night! Luckily, both strength training and plant-based eating have been shown to increase sleep quality.

First, strength training is your best option for improving the duration and quality of your sleep. Researchers found that, after 12 months of strength training three times a week, participants increased their sleep duration by 40(!) minutes on average. The participants that did cardio only increased by 23 minutes (source).

On top of this, numerous scientific studies link plant-based diets to improved sleep quality and longer sleep duration in general (source). Research on the topic is still not done, but researchers suggest this has to do with a combination of factors such as improved body composition, lower fat intake, higher tryptophane intake (a chemical needed for sleeping), and so on.

Supports Heart Health

Poor heart health is the leading cause of death in the United States. I’m pretty sure many of us are aware of this. Improved cardiovascular health in vegans may be why you switched to veganism (source).

But it will come as no surprise that strength training also has positive effects on overall cardiovascular health.

Take for example this study which had more than 12,000 participants with an average age of 47. The researchers found that doing strength training 1, 2, or three times per week was associated with a 40 – 70% decreased risk of cardiovascular disease death (which means dying of a bad heart) (source).

Stefan K.

Stefan has been vegan since 2019 and has been regularly working on his strength since the beginning of 2023. He’s on a mission to help other vegans get stronger and have all of them achieve the quality of life they deserve.