BY AYOUB OUBARKA
Strength Training is any exercise that causes you to build lean muscle mass. This can be accomplished
best with moderate weight lifting. If you are looking to lose weight, feel healthy, and look better, you
absolutely need to incorporate strength training into your weekly exercise routine.
If you're currently obese (I was when I started) then heavy cardio exercise can be very demanding and
painful to your body. Many obese people make the mistake of buying a treadmill or hitting the streets
and trying to jog an hour right off the bat. This will only get you injured and sore and cause you to stop
exercising.
If you care about the way you look, then you should care about strength training. If you lose weight but
don't build muscle, you will look thin and scrawny. To look good, you want firm, lean muscles. Ladies,
don't worry about "bulking up." You can't. Most women don't have enough testosterone in their systems to
build bulky muscles. Men - you can bulk up if you want to, but keep in mind you're looking at many hours
a week in the gym lifting weights. I'm not talking about bulking up here. I'm talking about moderate weight
lifting to strengthen and build healthy, lean musle mass. You will look good. Trust me.
The real benefit of strength training is this: lean muscle mass burns more calories than fat body mass
does. If you take two people who both weigh 200 pounds, however one person is made up of mostly muscle
and the other is obese, the muscular person is burning far more calories while resting than the obese person
is. Muscle tissue is very calorie-hungry, and this is a good thing.
Now, if you don't incorporate strength training into your exercise routine, and you decide to try to lose
weight, here's what happens: your body will eat your muscle tissue first. Since muscle tissue is a great
source of protein, your body will consume muscle tissue first if you're not doing any strength training. So
you will be losing weight, but it will be the wrong kind of weight! You'll lose muscle, not fat.
A lot of people who are overweight start off a "diet plan" wrong by starving themselves and then kill
themselves with hours of aerobics. What happens is all bad: your body is starving so it hangs on to stored
body fat while at the same time consuming muscle tissue for fuel (since you're not strength training). So
now you've lost weight, but you've lost muscle tissue. You hurt yourself with all the aerobics you're doing,
or you get bored, so you stop working out. Now, you put back on the weight you lost because you're not
killing yourself with aerobics any more, but since you have less muscle mass now your metabolism is now
lower than it was before (which means you're burning fewer calories at rest). The result: you gain back
more fat weight than you had before you started!
The key to fixing this problem: strength training plus a moderate amount of cardio all with a good diet
of healthy foods. All you need are a couple of light dumbells (or even just a phone book) and you can
get started with strength training today! Strength training doesn’t mean spending hours a day in the gym
pumping iron. All you need is 15 to 20 minutes of activity lifting something. You can even strength train
without weights – using your own body weight with exercises like abdominal crunches.
Strength Training is any exercise that causes you to build lean muscle mass. This can be accomplished
best with moderate weight lifting. If you are looking to lose weight, feel healthy, and look better, you
absolutely need to incorporate strength training into your weekly exercise routine.
If you're currently obese (I was when I started) then heavy cardio exercise can be very demanding and
painful to your body. Many obese people make the mistake of buying a treadmill or hitting the streets
and trying to jog an hour right off the bat. This will only get you injured and sore and cause you to stop
exercising.
If you care about the way you look, then you should care about strength training. If you lose weight but
don't build muscle, you will look thin and scrawny. To look good, you want firm, lean muscles. Ladies,
don't worry about "bulking up." You can't. Most women don't have enough testosterone in their systems to
build bulky muscles. Men - you can bulk up if you want to, but keep in mind you're looking at many hours
a week in the gym lifting weights. I'm not talking about bulking up here. I'm talking about moderate weight
lifting to strengthen and build healthy, lean musle mass. You will look good. Trust me.
The real benefit of strength training is this: lean muscle mass burns more calories than fat body mass
does. If you take two people who both weigh 200 pounds, however one person is made up of mostly muscle
and the other is obese, the muscular person is burning far more calories while resting than the obese person
is. Muscle tissue is very calorie-hungry, and this is a good thing.
Now, if you don't incorporate strength training into your exercise routine, and you decide to try to lose
weight, here's what happens: your body will eat your muscle tissue first. Since muscle tissue is a great
source of protein, your body will consume muscle tissue first if you're not doing any strength training. So
you will be losing weight, but it will be the wrong kind of weight! You'll lose muscle, not fat.
A lot of people who are overweight start off a "diet plan" wrong by starving themselves and then kill
themselves with hours of aerobics. What happens is all bad: your body is starving so it hangs on to stored
body fat while at the same time consuming muscle tissue for fuel (since you're not strength training). So
now you've lost weight, but you've lost muscle tissue. You hurt yourself with all the aerobics you're doing,
or you get bored, so you stop working out. Now, you put back on the weight you lost because you're not
killing yourself with aerobics any more, but since you have less muscle mass now your metabolism is now
lower than it was before (which means you're burning fewer calories at rest). The result: you gain back
more fat weight than you had before you started!
The key to fixing this problem: strength training plus a moderate amount of cardio all with a good diet
of healthy foods. All you need are a couple of light dumbells (or even just a phone book) and you can
get started with strength training today! Strength training doesn’t mean spending hours a day in the gym
pumping iron. All you need is 15 to 20 minutes of activity lifting something. You can even strength train
without weights – using your own body weight with exercises like abdominal crunches.
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