Weight Lifting is an effective way to lose weight. You must be wondering how and why because adding bulk to the body will only cause your body to look fatter. Well this is what most of us think. What we don’t know is that when one builds muscle mass, the muscles actually gobble up calories from the food in order to maintain them. This leaves fewer excess calories lying around, turning it into fat. No doubt diet and cardio are important, but when it comes to your body and looks, weight training wins hands down.
Benefits of Weight Training to Lose Weight
Weight training has the following benefits, which can help you get that desired body shape:
- Helps raise body metabolism
- Muscle burns more calories than fat, so the more muscle; the more calories will be burnt
- Strengthens bones, this is important especially for women
- Makes you stronger and increases muscular endurance
- Helps you avoid injuries
- Increases confidence and self-esteem
Why Women Back Off when it comes to Weight Training?
Women fear that they will become masculine if they lift weights. But, the truth is that they don’t become masculine-looking when they build muscle mass. If anything, they develop a more symmetrical, feminine shape.
Women don’t have the hormonal make-up that men have and therefore aren’t able to build as much muscle mass. Only with steroids and fanatically intense training can a woman develop a manly body.
What Kind of Weight Lifting Program should you go for?
Take a look at these principles which will teach you how to make sure you’re using enough weight, determine your sets and reps and insure you’re always progressing in your workouts. This will help you choose the right strength training program which otherwise can be a mind-boggling procedure.
Overload: To build muscle, you need to use more resistance than your muscles are used to.
Progression: To avoid plateaus (or adaptation), you need to increase your intensity regularly. You can make these changes on a weekly or monthly basis.
Specificity: This principle means you should train for your goal. To lose weight, choose a variety of rep ranges to target different muscle fibers.
Rest and Recovery: Rest days are just as important as workout days. Make sure you’re not working the same muscle groups 2 days in a row.
Before you get started on setting up your routine, keep a few key points in mind:
- Always warm up
- Lift and lower your weights slowly
- Stand up straight
