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Lift Weights to Lose Weight
By Mark Robson
08/01/2008
I see it every day, I hear it every day and I shake my head at it every day. People in the gym spending hour after hour and day after day pounding away on cardio pieces and cardio pieces alone. Why? "Because I am trying to lose weight!" So the thought is that if I go to the gym and run on the tread for 45 minutes, followed by the elliptical for 30, and then another 45 minutes on the stairmaster, I absolutely have to be shedding the pounds right? WRONG! What if I told you I could save you an hour and make your life a whole lot easier?
Cardiovascular training primarily benefits the heart and lungs and will increase your energy while helping prevent cardiovascular disease. While you do need to perform cardiovascular exercise to help you burn some excess calories and fat, the results are very minimal. The key to losing weight is actually STRENGTH TRAINING.
You need to perform strength training exercises such as weight lifting or resistance training to help maintain and increase your lean muscle mass. The more lean muscle on the body, the more fat you will burn at sub maximal levels, including rest. How would you feel if I told you that by weight training regularly you will burn more fat/calories during regular day to day activities, than you ever could have before? Pretty cool, right? The best analogy I can give to you would be comparing your body to that of a camp fire. Basically, kindling is to the fire what lean muscle is to your body. The more you put on the faster and hotter the fire will burn. With additional muscle gains your body will become a fuel blazing, calorie burning machine! Fat won’t stand a chance!
However with excess amounts of cardiovascular exercise combined with little to no strength training, what will happen to your body? Will you burn heaps and heaps of fat? The answer is, NO! Massive amounts of cardio without weight training or muscle building activities can and will strip your muscles thus lowering your metabolism. Your metabolism lowering is like slowly putting your camp fire out. As the fire dies down, there’s little to nothing left that will help burn the fat and excess calories.
Not to mention there are tons of other benefits of strength training that you can’t find so much with cardio exercise. Muscle strength and muscle endurance will also help strengthen your bones, which helps with injury prevention and aging. With no muscle what the heck is going to hold your bones together and how on earth will you perform your daily activities? Not to mention, the stronger you are, think of your increased performance levels when doing cardiovascular activities. You will be able to participate longer, run faster, pedal harder, climb higher and jump farther, all while burning way more fat than ever before! Why settle for mediocrity when you can live like a champion?
While cardiovascular exercise at aerobic levels will help you to lose fat, it can’t do it alone. Weight training, stretching, and healthy/balanced eating habits are all important factors that combined with cardio exercise, will help get you to your ideal weight and body figure!
Hope that helps everyone! Get to the gym and start lifting those weights!
