If you're not lifting weights, then you should be. And no matter your gender, it needs to be done at a certain level of intensity. You can't just half-ass it the way so many people do. If you decide to do it, get yourself a certified trainer and learn how to do it well.
Earlier this week, I wrote a post that busted the myth about how muscle mass burns extra calories, but it was not meant to discourage you from lifting. While gaining muscle is no magic bullet for fat loss, it has so many other benefits that I believe it should be one of the first exercises of choice for anyone who plans to get in shape, or for those looking to take their fitness to a new level.
Here are just some of the benefits of weightlifting:
Look Better!
Male or female, weightlifting makes you prettier from the neck down. Of course, this can be taken to extreme, but those bulging freakazoids you see on the cover of magazines with the word "muscle" in the title are almost always taking anabolic steroids. As long as you stay clean, you have little to worry about getting too big.
I've trained hard with weights for the last 16 years, yet at six feet tall and 175 pounds, I'm still well within the "normal" range for BMI. I certainly don't look like one of those oily, fake-tanned, body-waxed, Speedo-wearing, over-inflated aliens who participate in bodybuilding competitions. Even with all the effort at building muscle my wife asserts that I'm not too muscular, and she's not known for keeping her opinions to herself.
When it comes to pumping iron, many women are concerned about losing their femininity, but the reality is that it is far more challenging for women to build muscular bulk than it is for men. Even with intense (drug-free) lifting, the typical woman will not gain significant muscle mass, and the amount she does gain is going to look good. Trust me on this. But even though most female lifters won't experience dramatic muscle size increases, they will achieve many of the same health and performance benefits that men do.
I should note that to gain these benefits, you don't have to do weightlifting, as there are other forms of resistance training such as body weight exercises and even martial arts that will garner similar results. However, training with weights is the most common form and allows for a wide range of exercises with greater control over the degree of resistance.
Improved Health and Performance
This is A-Z performance, because training with weights can make you perform better at almost every activity (even sex – oh, yeah!). Here is an example of what intense weight training will do for you:
* Increased muscular strength – this is the "slow speed" strength of lifting things up and putting them back down. Whether it's lifting kids, laundry baskets, the living room couch or sheets of drywall.
* Increased power production – this is "high speed" strength of jumping, vaulting, punching, kicking etc.
* Improved local muscular endurance – training in higher repetition ranges can improve your endurance at other sports such as running, cycling, paddling, or swimming.
* Improved flexibility – the concept of becoming muscle bound is a myth. The act of lifting weights often leads to an increased range of motion.
* Improved motor performance – lifting weights enhances the way your nervous system activates muscles, leading to better running efficiency, increased vertical jump, faster sprint speed, higher swinging and throwing velocity etc.
* For untrained individuals, it can increase aerobic capacity.
* Intense lifting leads to growth in connective tissues such as ligaments and tendons, and it also helps maintain cartilage and leads to increased bone density. All of these things help prevent injury from everyday activities, sports, and age-related injuries such as preventing falls or making you more resilient to them.
The last point is very important. None of us are getting any younger, but training with weights is about as close to a fountain of youth activity as you can get. Instead of being some old geezer (or geezette) putting around on a scooter and filling your Depend undergarments, being a regular weightlifter through to old age can keep you spry and chasing after the hot staff at the retirement home.
Psychological Benefits
First off, weightlifting is a fun activity and is less of a challenge for many people to adopt than some aerobic activities. With a good personal trainer you can learn how to do it at a pace you can handle. As a guy who started out as a non-athlete, I can tell you that it was a lot easier to get into weights than it was to become a runner. Beginning with aerobic activity is sweaty and painful on the lungs and you feel ready to barf after ten minutes if you're out of shape. Starting off as a weightlifter not only will make you better at taking on aerobic activities later on, but it helps prevent injuries from said activities.
Besides being an enjoyable activity, there is a lot of positive reinforcement from lifting weights because you can see improvements in strength in a short period of time. If you keep it up, you get to see positive changes in body composition as wel
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