Let me tell you a story...

Chalk this up to anecdotal evidence about the benefits of weight lifting.

First- my time line is a little screwed up in my head, so I might have some specifics wrong, but it's a story and not scientific evidence, so it's all good.

Now here we go.

Once upon a time, like three months ago, I decided to start lifting. I kinda dabbled with it and didn't get serious until January. Sometime mid January, I went to the doctor because I'd been having these scary dizzy spells. We did tests and the only thing that came up was that I had borderline high blood pressure. I was very sad about that. It wasn't so high that I was in mortal danger and it wasn't high enough that I needed meds... but it wasn't where I wanted it to be.

Sooooo... doctor said "start tracking it" and being a good girl, I did.

Now... after a month and a half of being serious about weight lifting, my blood pressure is now around 115/72 (as opposed to 138/92). And interestingly enough, my resting pulse has changed from 88 to 66. Just in a month.

Now... I imagine a LOT of this has to do with weight lifting being a fabulous form of stress relief for me. Probably that's the hugest factor (yes, hugest factor is a scientific term). And it's a pretty decent "anti-depressant" for me too.

But I'm still happy and surprised. I naively thought only cardio dropped your resting pulse and helped blood pressure.

Oh.... and I should add... my weight hasn't changed. Not really. I lose 2 lbs. I gain it back. I'm stuck forever at 188. So it's not the weight loss.

I'm working on the "she lived happily ever after" part. So I'll just say "the end" for now.