Strong Muscles are Better!

Strong Muscles are Better…

Strong muscles are better but sometimes are mistaken for making you bigger.  When it comes to shedding pounds, weight training and building muscle mass becomes a very big aid in fat loss. Today I want to de-myth concerns of getting “bulky” or too “big” from traditional weight training and help you understand the benefits.

Q: What are some benefits of lifting weights

• Strong muscles help you lose weight. Not only are you burning lots of calories from lifting weights, but muscle tissue burns as much as 15 times more calories per day than does fat tissue -- even when at rest!
•  Strong muscles are healthy for your heart. By extension, strong muscles are good for your blood pressure
• Strong muscles protect your joints and your back. More muscle power means you put less strain on joints and connective tissue when lifting or exerting. And that's important both for treating and preventing arthritis.

  

Q: How do you build stronger muscles?

Those pretty pink weights at the gym won’t do the trick. Trust me when I say its time to pick up the real weights and work your way up to lifting the big dogs! You know those scary looking, big ole pieces of iron. Those dumbbells, that for so long been designated to only the bodybuilders of the gym; well those are really what we all need to be using!

Now there are steps to take before you just start throwing around 50lb dumbbells. You have to build your strength slowly by starting small and continuing to progress in pounds lifted.  Working with a certified personal trainer to help you determine your starting weight would be a great way to know you will make progress and avoid injury. If working with a trainer is not fesable for you then start with basic exercises and light weight and make progressions depending on how you feel after each workout.

Q: What should we feel during a weight training workout?

The biggest question of all! I have been surprised over and over again by how few people know what a muscle burn should feel like! There is a huge difference between muscle aches and muscle fatigue or “burn”. During a weight training session there are reps  and sets preformed by various exercises. At the end of each set of 10-15 reps, the last 3-5 reps should be challenging and you should start to feel muscle fatigue or burn. These last few reps should be challenging, but still preformed with correct form. This holds true for newbies too! If you have never lifted weights and the pretty pinks are the only ones that don’t intimidate you then you should still rethink whether or not they are actually providing you the necessary resistance to make your muscles stronger!