Hey everyone!
I hope you all found my feature in The Avenue section this week helpful with getting in shape for spring break. In case you haven't seen it, check out the spring break training video on The Alligator's multimedia page.
Why bother weight training?
Studies are beginning to show that weight training in conjunction with cardio and a balanced diet are the best ways to lose weight with weight training perhaps the biggest factor next to a balanced diet. According to about.com, there are 10 reasons how lifting weights are beneficial to your health. Here's five (in no particular order or preference):
1.) You lose fat. Lots of fat
At rest, muscle burns more calories than fat. The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn at rest. This is why weight training is just as important as cardiovascular exercise.
2.) It relieves tension and improves self esteem
Some studies have found that both men and women feel better about themselves when they lift weights because they enjoy benefits such as being able to lift more weight and do more exercises, it improves body image, and also builds confidence. Building confidence can help improve self esteem and can manage symptoms of anxiety and depression. This is why lifting weights can be a healthy stress reliever.
3.) Reduces risk of injury
Lifting weights doesn't only build muscle, it also helps build the ligaments and tendons that support your muscles so that you won't be injured as easily whether playing sports or doing daily activities like moving boxes. Your bones also become stronger, which can help reduce or manage osteoporosis.
4.) Adds spice to your exercise program
There is really no limit to how many different workouts, programs and exercises you can do with weight training, especially when you use free weights like kettlebells and dumbbells. It breaks the monotony of running on a treadmill or climbing the stair master.
5.) Increases balance, stability and flexibility
When you lift weights, your joints are worked through their full range of motion and this keeps them strong and flexible so that you won't lose balance and can stay on your feet easier.
Go to about.com's Top 10 Reasons to Lift Weights for more reasons on how lifting weights can be beneficial to your health.
So what exactly happens when you lift weights?
It's amazing how many people do not know what exactly happens to your muscles when you weight train. Unfortunately this lack of understanding on what the body does and how it responds to what you do to it can lead to people overtraining, such as doing the same muscle groups for days at a time, and can sometimes cause injury.
When you workout, you stretch your muscles and tear down the small fibers in the muscles called filaments, which act as calorie burning factories. After you have a productive workout, the body produces thousands of filaments in your muscles to help repair them.
Believe it or not, muscle is not built when you are lifting, it is built during the days you rest and recover. It's ironic, but you're actually making your muscles weaker when you tear them down by lifting weights in the gym. It makes sense when you think about it: After you do an intense chest and triceps workout, you are so exhausted that you can barely do a push up.
During the days that you spend recovering from the workout, the body recognizes that the muscle filaments must be repaired and uses nutrients from your diet to help repair them; i.e. the amino acids in protein. During recovery, the body does two things. First, it builds slightly more muscle tissue than you had before; this is the "toning" effect where your muscles start to develop. Second, the body will adapt to the demands put on the muscles by gaining strength so that way the weight you lift won't be as heavy. This is how you get stronger.
What a truly amazing machine the human body is!
Apples cannot be made into oranges
A common question people have when they start getting in shape is whether it is possible for someone to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time. Unless you are a beginning exerciser or someone who is regaining a ton of lost muscle like an athlete who sustained a serious injury, no.
But for most people, it is not possible to gain muscle and lose weight at the same time because the body cannot turn an apple into an orange, so to speak.
According to MC newsletters.com, "In order to lose fat, your body must perform lipolysis – the breakdown of fat into its constituent parts – fatty acids and triglycerides – for utilization as an energy source by the cells of the body. In order to gain muscle, your body must synthesize new muscle tissue from its constituent parts – amino acids. You can’t build muscle tissue from fatty acids, ergo, you can’t gain muscle and lose weight at the same time."
When you watch television shows like "The Biggest Loser," which is very inspiring and entertaining to say the least, the people who are contestants are people who have not exercised in years and their bodies are not used to burning calories at such a high rate so in a way, they will dramatically start losing weight and start building muscle simply because their bodies are not used to it. Once the body gets used to burning tons of calories, the person's training will determine whether they will continue to lose weight or will start to build serious muscle.
Don't worry ladies, you won't look like Arnold
It's understandable that many women are hesitant to work out with weight training because they don't want to look like a body builder. To get fit, they often spend more time on the treadmill or elliptical machine trying to burn calories, which is fine, but lifting weights is beneficial for women too. As I said before, muscle burns more calories than fat at rest, and recent studies found that the average woman who lifts weights two to three times a week for two months gained about 2 pounds of muscle and lost 3.5 pounds of fat.
According to the study, for every pound of muscle gained, you burn upto 35 to 50 more calories a day, which adds up over time.
So will you look like Arnold? Thankfully, no. Compared with men, women have 10 to 30 times less hormones that cause muscle hypertrophy because they do not have two testicles. Women instead will develop muscle tone and definition, not the crazy bulk that most body builders have.
Next week, I will finally get into post-workout nutrition and what to put into your body after you workout. I hope that you all are finding this blog helpful and are using this information to make smart and informed choices about your body. After all, you only get one.
Stay healthy, Gators!
