|
Follow the Path of MOST
Resistance!
Why Weight Training Is The Fast Track To Sculpting Your Body
by: Nick Nilsson
Resistance is NOT futile! When it comes to changing your body for the
better quickly and permanently, nothing comes close to good old-fashioned
weight training.
The shape of your body is determined by three things: muscle, bone and
fat. While there’s really nothing you can do about changing your bone
structure, there is a whole lot you can do about muscle and fat. This ratio
of muscle to fat is commonly known as your body composition.
And what is the fastest way to change your body composition? Weight
training. Why is it so effective? Because it builds muscle.
Muscle is the key to changing your body. While fat certainly gives your
body shape, muscle is what gives you the shape you actually WANT!
One of the greatest things about muscle is that it burns calories all day
long, even when you’re lying on the couch. What this means is that the more
muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn during the day and the more
you’ll be able to eat without gaining weight. Sound interesting? There’s
more.
Weight training stimulates your metabolism more than aerobic training such
as cycling or walking. This means that you’ll continue to burn calories
long AFTER you’ve completed your weight training session. The
calorie-burning effect of aerobic training generally declines rapidly once
you stop the exercise.
Beginning trainers, who are just starting with exercise, are often under
the impression that they should stay away from weight training because they
might gain weight before they start losing it.
I like to use a car as an analogy. Imagine your body is a car, your
muscles are the cylinders in the engine, and your bodyfat is the gas.
With a four-cylinder car, you only burn a minimum amount of gas/fat.
Weight training and building more muscle is the equivalent of putting more
cylinders into your engine. As you can imagine, you’ll burn a whole lot
more gas even while idling! And, just like a car with more cylinders,
you’ll be a lot more powerful too!
The bottom line to you is this...with more muscle, you’ll get greater
fat loss with less effort.
While it certainly is a possibility that you could gain weight before
losing it, if you gauge your success solely by numbers on a scale then
you’re not getting an accurate picture of yourself. Measure your progress
by how you feel, how you look and how well your clothes are fitting, not by
which direction the needle on a measuring device is moving.
At the end of the day, I’m not suggesting for a moment that you should
eliminate cardiovascular training from your exercise routine, but, if you are
struggling to lose fat and keep it off, weight training may be just the thing
you need to lose that fat and keep it off for good!
For more information on resistance exercises you can do at home, go to:
http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Begin/exercises.htm
For more information on weight training exercises you can do at the gym,
including optimized exercise technique, tricks for improving the exercise and
common errors, go to:
http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Exercises/Exercises.htm
If you are interested in having a personal trainer set up a personalized
weight training program for you based on your goals and designed around your
life, go to: http://www.fitstep.com/Personal-training/Training/Training.htm
About The Author
Nick Nilsson is Vice President of BetterU, Inc., an online exercise, fitness,
and personal training company. Check out his latest eBook "The Best
Exercises You've Never Heard Of" at http://www.thebestexercises.com
or visit http://www.fitstep.com.
You can contact him at betteru@fitstep.com
or subscribe to BetterU News, his fitness newsletter at betterunews@fitstep.com.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
