6 Reasons to include Weight Training in your Workouts!
13-08-2017 | Posted By: Vivek Singh | 2393 View(s)
Who doesn’t want to lose weight? Who doesn’t want to look good or to feel good and confident? Who doesn’t want to reduce body fat, increase lean muscle mass and burn calories more efficiently? Most of the time people assume that cardio and some of the stretching exercises are enough to lose weight and make the body more flexible and lean. They think that it would be very helpful for the strengthening of muscles and ligaments. But the fact is that apart from cardio and stretching workouts, Weight Lifting or Weight Training as a strength training exercise is a must and can work wonders in your quest to achieve your Weight loss Goals.
Weight Training is essentially strength training that uses free weights or weight machines for resistance. Using weights not only helps strengthen your bones and muscles, but it can also help you tone up. Weight training should be an essential part of the exercises on a daily basis. Weight training plays a significant role in burning more calories efficiently and is the key component for overall health and fitness for everyone. Ideally, It doesn’t take a long session at the gym to get results. Just 20 to 30 minutes of weight training two to three times a week can help you reach your goals.
After the warm-up, go for weight training first, because it requires lots and lots of energy. Follow it up with chin-ups, abs workout or crunches, frog kick and then cardio. No doubt cardio is necessary, but weight training is the most essential of all.
Strength training is not just about going to the gym and lifting weights. It can be beneficial to people of all ages and especially for those with arthritis or Heart conditions. It requires lots of practice, Self-motivation and dedication too. However, before indulging in Weight Training, you need to figure out the areas which you would be targeting and tailor your workouts accordingly. Choose exercises which cater to specific body parts and go for exercises that target those particular muscles. You also need to decide upon the amount of effort you are willing to commit to achieving your goals along with the intensity of workouts. Come what may do ensure that the exercises are done under supervision and do not be in a hurry to increase the weights too fast. The important thing to keep in mind is to ensure that you take proper rest between sets. Depending upon your goals whether it is muscle size or endurance, rest for about 30 to 60 seconds or so. If you are looking for muscle strength, allow up to 2-4 minutes between sets.
After a workout, Muscles needs time to repair and grow. The thumb rule is to rest the muscle group for at least 48 hours to allow sufficient recovery time.
Benefits of Weight Lifting as a Strength Training :
1. Weight training helps in developing Strong Muscles
Weight Training helps to increase muscle strength, power, endurance and size resulting in the ability to execute day to day tasks of lifting, walking and even carrying with great ease.
2. It reduces the risk of Bone Diseases
Lean muscle mass naturally gets diminished by age, and after puberty, you end up losing about one per cent of your bone and muscle strength every year and the best way to slow down or reverse this process is by adding strength training to your workout regimen.It even helps to reduce arthritis pain, reduces the risk of bone fractures and aids in glucose control besides helping to reduce back pain as well.
3. Increases Metabolism Rate
Apart from cardio workouts weight training helps in losing weight, increasing metabolism rate by as high as 15 per cent and helps to burn more calories.
4. Weight training helps in strengthening bones
Weight training helps in strengthening Bones which increases your stamina level, and it would also be beneficial for you while doing day to day workout. It is known to elevate the level of endorphins, which can make you feel great and can also act as a great anti-depressant which can help you sleep better.
5 Aids in Weight Loss.
One of the major facts is people lose more weight by doing weight training.
6. Helps in Toning of the Body
One should spend an equal amount of time in weight training for every body part. It helps in toning of the body and strengthening it internally as well as externally. It improves body posture leading to improved body balance and diminishes the rate of falling in elderly by as high as 40 per cent.
A small daily dose of weight training on a regular basis helps your body to be in shape, stay toned, and strengthened. Last but not the least if you thought strength training meant going in for costly gym memberships, it is not the case.”Pushups, jump squats, lunges, and mountain climbing are all examples of exercises that provide strength training.”
A word of caution, not all activities are meant for everybody so it is important to take the advice of your Doctor or an experienced trainer to find out what can work best for you and in case you decide to go in for a gym then ensure that safety guidelines are properly maintained in the gym as a substandard equipment or machine could result in an injury which could prove costly and always train under the supervision of a qualified Gym Instructor
