Why You Need to Train With Weights or Resistance

For a long time now, fitness enthusiasts have grappled with whether to exclusively recommend weight training or cardio for individuals looking to keep fit. While some people strongly support cardio, others say that weight training is the best when it comes to losing weight. 

Not that cardio exercises are not beneficial. If anything, they lower the risk of heart disease, support cardiovascular function, and improve conditioning overall. Strength training, on the other hand, helps you burn calories even when resting.Strength training is beneficial in the following ways:

 Building Lean Muscle

It is easier to lose weight while doing strength training compared to cardio workouts. If anything, the latter helps you lose weight by burning fat and reducing muscle mass. Due to reduced muscles, your body’s metabolism rate is slowed down. That is opposed to strength training which builds muscles and increases the metabolism levels thus helping you burn calories even when resting.

With the improvement in your muscle mass and loss of weight, you should be able to build a good, shapely, strong, and aesthetic body. The ugly fat around your belly and other conspicuous areas of your body will no longer mark you out as a weak and shapeless person. Cardio alone simply cannot sculpt and define the v shaped or hourglass body that so many desire.

Higher Base Metabolic Rate (BMR)

As it has already been observed, you will burn more calories when you have more muscles. This is due to an increase in your BMR which refers to the number of calories burned by your body while at rest. This can help you quickly meet your weight loss goals. After all, the more the calories you burn, the more the weight you lose. Weight training, therefore, tends to be better for weight loss as compared to cardio exercises.

 How to Succeed In Your Weight Training Goals

Now you know the benefits of weight training as compared to cardio. But just what do you do to ensure you achieve all your weight training goals:

 

• Setting reasonable goals and prospects. To attain the goals you so desire, you must take it one step at a time. You are not going to lose weight and get a six pack after only a day. Break your plan into small steps.

 

• Watching what you eat. Take as little fat and saturated fat as possible. Instead of junk food, eat more non-fat proteins, vegetables, and fruits. That will help reduce the amount of refined sugar and saturated fat you are taking in your diet.

 

• Increasing workout intensity. To lose more weight and build your muscles, you must enhance the intensity of your workouts. The more intense your workouts are, the more the weight you should be using.

 

• Rest and sleep. It’s generally good to rest the same muscle groups two to three days between workouts, and after a round of 4 to 6 weeks, you should take a week when you only do half of the normal training or at half the intensity. You should always have enough sleep to recover, ideally eight to ten hours, because this in when your body does most of its growth, repairs and improvements.

 

 Cardio is great but the benefits of weight and resistance training, cannot be overemphasized. The only thing is that you should do it in the right way. With time, you will have reached all your weight loss and fitness goals.

 

Be sure to consult with a qualified healthcare professional before implementing any diet or exercise program or taking any dietary supplement

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