Strength training does not only build muscles and strength. It also helps lose fat by increasing the body's resting metabolic rate (RMR). Many people don't understand this. Aerobic or cardio training is still the main activity for increasing the metabolism and losing fat. However, the standard 30 minute of continuous cardio activity will only burn calories during the exercise period itself. Once you stop, the metabolism gets back to normal and you no longer burn calories. Of course, there is an exception for high intensity training, which allows the body to continue burning calories as you sleep.
When you train your whole body with weights intensely using multi-joint exercises for both upper and lower body such as bench press, squats, deadlifts and pull ups, you have pretty much stressed every major muscle in your body. What this does is create a metabolic environment where your body has a full time job of trying to recover from the massive stress it has been put through.
The repair work is not a 9 to 5 activity. It is a continuous one as muscle fibres have to rebuild themselves with amino acids that is in reserve in the body, which is why consuming adequate proteins within an hour after working out is crucial. This activity will continue up to 48 hours after you have finished training. What this means is that your metabolism is elevated for many hours, burning calories as your little muscle "construction workers" build up the fibres to make them structurally stronger. Muscles are metabolically active. They require calories to be burned in order to maintain themselves. This is good news if you have developed muscle mass. You are burning calories at rest, even fat 24/7!
How do you train for optimum results to burn fat and elevate your metabolism 7 days a week for 24 hours? A good suggestion would be to train the whole body in one session 3-4 times a week with one day rest. For instance, you may train this way: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and/or Sunday.
You may want to experiment with supersets for 4-6 weeks (this is how long the body adapts to a particular routine before it stops being effective). There are two types of supersets. One is the Single Bodypart Superset and the other is the Antagonistic Superset. For the person who doesn't have much time to spend training, we will focus on the Antagonistic Superset. This type of exercise focuses on working opposite muscle groups back to back without rest. This is an example of opposite body part combination. Each combination makes 1 set:
Legs: quadriceps (leg extension) + hamstring (leg curls) Body: back (pull ups) + chest (bench press) Arms: biceps (barbell curls) + triceps (tricep extension) Shoulders: Front (dumbell front raises) + side (dumbell lateral raises)
You can make your own combination to keep the workout interesting and work slightly different angles of the muscle group to cover all areas. Keep to 3 sets of 10-12 reps per set with 1 minute of rest between each set.
Go easy on the cardio training, especially the steady state type, where you stay at the same intensity and speed for 30-60 minutes. It has been shown in research that you can actually lose lean muscle mass, which means a reduction in RMR. This, in turn, will make it easier to store bodyfat even though you have lost weight. You have not only lost fat, you have lost muscle as well, resulting in the 'skinny fat" look, which is far from attractive or healthy.
It is more beneficial to practice high intensity training, which is a combination of a burst of speed and steady pace training. For instance, you may walk briskly for 2 minutes followed by 1 minute of sprint and back to brisk walking for another 2 minutes. Alternate this process for 20 minutes followed by 3 minutes of cool down and you will experience residual RMR for many hours after you have laid your head on your pillow. Another advantage of this type of training is that it is not the boring typical "hamster on a wheel" type of training. You can even change machines during the 20 minutes to make it even more challenging.
Try supersets and high intensity training for 4-6 weeks and watch your body take shape as it loses fat. You'll be amazed to see how effective this type of training is and how quickly you can see results in a short period of time. Don't forget to incorporate 5-6 mini meals a day which combines lean proteins and fiber rich carbohydrates in each meal for more effective results. You won't regret it!
As a woman, I have never hesitated to walk into a free weight room, pick up a set of 25lbs dumbbell, stand there right in the middle of the badly lit floor and just start lifting. Never mind the stares I get all around me (95% are usually men). My focus is to get my muscles pumped, walk out of the room with a tight body and take pride in the discipline that I have developed over the years. It's a solitary sport and not many can take the repetitive motion of this chosen path but for those few who have, it is an extremely rewarding path to take. Extremely rewarding.
What exactly is strength training? According to Wikipedia, it is "the use of resistance to muscular contraction to build the strength, anaerobic endurance and size of skeletal muscles". Basically, it means that when you lift weight, your muscles will get stronger and grow in size. How much they grow depends on a number of factors such as: how heavy you lift, how often you lift in a week, how well you plan your diet and most importantly, how much rest you get.
How does a muscle grow bigger? When you lift a weight that the body is not accustomed to and create muscular contractions, you cause microscopic tears (microtrauma) to the muscle fibres. When this happens, the body repairs itself within a period of 1-3 days by adding more fibres in anticipation of another 'traumatic' session of weight training. The result is known as hypertrophy. During the repair phase, it is crucial that you consume sufficient nutrients like complete proteins and carbohydrates (simple and complex) to speed up the healing and growth process. Training without good nutrition will not get you the results you want.
The beauty of strength training is its ability to shape your body according you your goals and desires within your genetic limitation, of course. Why would you get into weight training?
These are some of the common reasons:
1. To build strength in general 2. To firm flabby body parts (for most women: the "batwings" and thighs) 3. To assist an athlete's perfomance in his or her chosen sport 4. To assist in fat loss 5. To build confidence 6. To add sufficient muscle tone without looking like a bodybuilder 7. To be a bodybuilder 8. For medical reasons (physiotherapy)
There are many other reasons but the 8 mentioned above are pretty much the general reasons for picking up a dumbell. It is usually easier to convince a man to start training with weights than it is a woman. Why? Because many women have been fed the notion that lifting dumbells will cause them to hypertrophy beyond recognition. The most common answer you will even hear is "Oh, I don't want to lift weights because I don't want to grow big muscles."
This is a myth that has been circulating for many years and has been passed down from generation to generation. The truth is, women do NOT have enough of the growth hormone (testosterone) that is required to build the muscle size that a man is capable of. Women's ovaries and adrenal glands produce only about one-seventh of the amount of testosterone that men do. Biologically and chemically, it is virtually impossible for women to attain even a third of the strength and muscle development that men possess. So why do women bodybuilders have large muscle development?
Many of these women have exceptional genetic ability to develop their bodies they way they have. Even then, with strict dieting and heavy training, they can never equal the level of their male counterpart. For many female bodybuilders who look like men, the have resorted to ingesting steroids, which are basically testosterone, to enhance their muscle development in an unnatural way. These women will eventually develop facial hair, enlarged voice boxes and aggression.
For the rest of us, strength training will give us the curves and sexy shape that make us look like the women we see in fitness magazines. For the men, having a set of visible six pack abs will not only protect you from the many cardiovascular diseases that are associated with excess belly fat, as a bonus, you will also look aesthetically pleasing. Ladies love sexy abs on their men!
Nina Redza has sinced written about articles on various topics from Family, Strength Training and Health. Nina Redza is a health professional who practices good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle with regular exercise More information about strength training for shaping muscles can be found at. Nina Redza's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.