Lose Weight and Tone Your Body With Resistance Training

If you’ve looked yourself over in the mirror and decided that you look a little too fluffy around the edges, you can accept that image or use resistance training to produce a leaner and more muscle-toned body. In this article we’ll explore the meaning and importance of resistance training; look into some exercises that use this mode of workout, explain the weight loss connection to strength training, as well as the best equipment and method for resistance training and additional benefits you gain from this exercise.

Resistance Training for Weight Loss that Lasts

First, what is resistance training? The answer is easy. It’s not some mysterious concept. In the old days of high school, the guys in that old school gymnasium who were raising dumb bells into the air were actually performing resistance training. They called it weight training. They were using weights to create a resistance to their arm muscles. That’s a form of resistance training.

What do you think of when someone says weight training? Probably an image of sweaty men comes to mind. If you’re a woman who’s interested in improving your body and maybe losing some weight, an image of a sweaty man isn’t what you want to have in mind. “Resistance training” sounds more appealing than “weight training.” But both phrases explain exercise that accomplishes the same goal. Resistance is used to increase muscle mass and gain strength.

Most forms of resistance training rely on the breaking down of the muscle fibers, causing microtrauma in order to stimulate muscle growth.  The body first has to repair that muscle fiber (which causes a slight inflammatory response) and then it can lay down additional muscle fibers.  Essentially rest and recovery help repair muscles and build them into a stronger component of your body. That’s why resting your body is so important after putting it through resistance training. As muscles build, their toned shape dominates your body’s appearance. Muscle mass in fact dictates your metabolism and therefore replaces fat.  Fun fact:  A pound of muscle can use an average of 20-30 calories per day to maintain it, where a pound of fat only needs a mere 2 calories per day to maintain.  Muscle requires protein synthesis, it holds and controls your H2o, it needs constant temperature regulation, and it also moves and uses essential vitamins and minerals, all of which make up caloric burn; in other words, your metabolism.  So gain more muscle mass, burn more calories at rest. It is that easy.

Most studies show that on average with proper strength training (which we will define below)  you can increase your muscle mass by a minimum of 15%.  For the average female that could be anywhere from 200-400 extra caloric burn per day and that’s without exercise!  For men it could be almost double or more, with a 400-1000 count on extra caloric burn in a day without additional exercise.  If you add in 30 minutes of strength training sessions two times a week, you can add an additional 10 calories per minute, so anywhere from 600-1000 caloric burn per week.  If you add all of that together, you will come up with a total that is far greater (if not double) than that of traditional steady state activity done 6 times per week for an hour each day (example would be an eliptical or treadmill).

How Aerobics Makes You Fat

I know what you’re thinking… How can something that burns calories make you fat? Well, I don’t mean instantly. This is a process. Any process requires time. So those hours upon hours of aerobics so many people are obsessed with doing are, in the long run, going to work against them.

There appears to be two reasons why people do aerobics. First, they think it will burn significant calories for the purpose of weight loss. Second, there is a very popular misconception that aerobics will improve cardiovascular condition to a greater extent than weight training alone. Somehow aerobics is perceived as a necessary component to “complete” an exercise program that is geared not only towards keeping the heart healthy but also towards adding muscle mass.

Our bodies are efficient machines and they are so much smarter than we really give them credit for. We think that we can trick our bodies, but the second you get into the habit of something like running every day your body will adjust so that it can maintain homeostasis.  Ever hear a person complain about how they run every single day and never see results, or even worse, they get fatter?  Most women like to blame hormones or thyroid disorders when in fact their own bodies just got smarter than them.  Let me explain.   When you take up aerobic activity your body does in fact have to burn more calories in the time period of the activity. However, after about 30 minutes a stress hormone called Cortisol is released into the body and causes fat storage. It’s a simple reaction to perceived stress on the body or the fight or flight response in which we need to hold onto fat in case of an emergency.  Muscle is a very expensive tissue and takes a lot of calories to maintain, so the body will essentially at this point become muscle depleting.  If you do this everyday over time you are in fact decreasing your metabolism, which means the second you have to stop the activity due to boredom, lack of results, or increasing (likely) injuries from the activity, you will in fact gain even more weight than you started with.  This is a very depressing but more than frequent cycle.  The lesson here is that you don’t want to do anything that rids your body of your muscle mass.  You need to, in fact, do the opposite….stimulate muscle growth not deplete muscle growth.

Select the Right Types of Resistance Training

Examples of resistant training run the gambit from lifting free weights in programs like Cross Fit or P90x/Insanity workouts, to weight machine workouts done at different speeds and weight selections, to slower, deeper exercising like that of TruFIT.

So how do you know what the type of resistance training would be right for you? For most individuals a slow movement exercising is preferred, since a full range of muscle groups are stressed and therefore, developed.  Safety is key when thinking about choosing a resistance program.  You don’t want to heave or jerk weights.  This is not only extremely hard on the joints, but the potential for causing injuries sky rockets.  Programs that offer High Intensity Training or Full Intensity Training, like that of TruFIT Health in Denver, CO, are extremely effective and safe because of the lack of force and momentum behind the weight.

Picking Quality Resistance Training Equipment is Important

Opting for the best equipment is just as important in resistance training as choosing perfect exercises for sculpting your body. A multiplicity of resistance training exercises is possible on variable resistance machines, such as those constructed by Nautilus. With adjustable pin-loaded weight stacks and adjustable seats and handles, these devices ensure that varying degrees of constant resistance are applied to targeted muscle groups.

Intensity is increased with added weight amounts on these machines to bring about muscle building properties. Form is prescribed as slow with a full extension of the muscle to gain maximum benefit. High intensity exercising is achieved on these machines, resulting in brief workouts. The key is not how many exercises you perform, but that the exercises are done slowly and intensively so that your muscles get the maximum benefit. Also, age, lifestyle factors, genetics, nutritional intake and rest all contribute to the correct amount of exercise that’s appropriate for you. No two people should be exactly the same in what develops muscles on a resistance training machine. Overtraining is detrimental to developing muscle mass and fewer fat molecules. Plus, a proper amount of downtime is necessary for ultimate muscle development.

Persistence Gains the Most Resistance Training Benefits

Medical studies show that the “pumped” sensation you feel after a single workout is a short term effect of fluid accumulation. In order to gain increased muscle size and strength, you need long-term resistance training. Each individual is different, but generally one of the benefits of resistance training is a 20 percent to 45 percent increase of muscle fibers. Studies prove that more than 16 sessions of resistant training is required before an individual starts to see noteworthy changes. Since it’s best to give your body a rest period, increased muscles and decreased fat might not be visible until two to four months after starting a resistance training agenda.

Muscle build-up isn’t the only benefit. Resistance training places a load on bones, which in turn, produces protein molecules between bone cells. The bone matrix fills in with more calcium phosphate. As a direct result of resistance training, your bones are more rigid. You gain a healthier structure.

Energy spent performing resistance training helps decrease body fat. Maintaining resistance training over time helps you keep a fat-free body. Your heart rate goes up with the first encounter of resistance training. A continued practice of resistance training equals a reduction of the heart rate during exercise by as much as 11 percent. So, your heart pumps more efficiently. Medical studies prove that people who practice long-term resistance training have thicker heart muscle walls that produce better blood flow.

Resistance training combined with aerobic exercises has a favorable impact on shifting glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. In other words, it can help prevent forms of diabetes. The reduction of other health-related diseases, such as osteoporosis and coronary heart disease, is also possible through resistance training.

A key to success with resistance training is adhering to a regimen that fits you and your body. Another step to a leaner body is to continue with a program in order to see progress. By utilizing a training schedule consisting of a maximum of 30 minutes each week, such goals are easier to obtain. Stay with resistance training and that person looking back at you in the mirror will be stronger, leaner and possess a trimmer body profile.