When it comes to weight loss, health and quality of life a little weight training
can go a long way
The simple answer is no. Working your muscles
as well as your heart and lungs can improve your health and help
you drop a clothes size faster.
While cardiovascular exercise is
a great way of burning the fat, adding a little strength training
to your workouts will earn you extra calories every day. You'll
even be burning extra calories while you're sleeping or sitting
on the couch watching Desperate Housewives.
Aerobic
exercise may burn a few hundred extra calories for dinner,
but for every additional pound of muscle you gain, your body
burns around 50 extra calories every day of the week.
Research has shown that regular resistance training can increase your Basal Metabolic
Rate by up to 15%. So for someone burning 2000 calories per day, that's a potential
300 extra calories, more than a Mars bar, burned every single day.
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Do not be disheartened if initially you seem
to be staying at the same weight or gaining slightly.
Muscle weighs more per square inch than fat, so whilst your weight
might not be dropping very quickly, your clothes are feeling
baggier and you are seeing a healthier, slimmer and better toned
you in the mirror. That's far more important than anything those
nasty scales have to say, any time.
Weight training is just as suitable for women as it is for men.
Many women are wary of taking it up for fear that increased muscle
means increased masculinity, this is not the case.
Testosterone is a very important
factor in the development of muscle shape, so as women have
very low levels of this hormone their muscles develop differently,
meaning a little resistance training will not lead to a bulky,
butch physique.
Building a little extra muscle can actually reduce the risk of injury.
Strong muscles, tendons and ligaments are much more capable of withstanding
stress, and the improved flexibility gained by strength training also reduces
the likelihood of pulled muscles and back pain.
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