Resistance Is Futile For Fat Loss?
Resistance training is all too often overlooked by people trying to get fit or lose weight
, in favour of long cardio sessions, but resistance really is the key to creating a fit and healthy body.
1lb of muscle burns 30-50 calories per day, while 1lb of fat only burns about 9 calories per day. The more muscle your body contains the more calories you burn each day. This is one of the reasons that resistance training is such a vital part of any successful fat-loss programme - it supercharges your metabolism both in the short term (by making the muscles you already have burn even more calories) and in the long term (by increasing the amount of muscle you have).
Long duration cardio, on the other hand, can actually reduce your muscle tissue and therefore reduces your metabolism! We need to think about the bigger picture when we exercise (and when we eat). It's not about what happens at that one moment that counts, but how we are becoming fat-burning machines!
Steady, slow, long duration cardio only burns calories while you are doing it, whereas resistance training causes you to burn calories for hours after the session has finished(this is called EPOC: Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption) and is the 'magic' behind resistance-based training methods, as well as interval training. As you become more efficient at the steady cardio, you will burn fewer calories, too, so you can easily think you are burning more than you actually are.
Resistance training, correctly applied, will ensure you have a balanced, strong and functional body. Repetitive cardio activities can actually worsen or create imbalances, so if you are a regular runner / cyclist etc. you need resistance training to balance everything out!
Resistance training has been called 'the fountain of youth' - and it really is. A recent study showed that when subjects engaged in resistance training their strength increased by over 20% and their genes literally 'reverted back' to the same markers as 'younger' genes after only six months! Also, when the older folks in the study began, they were almost 60% weaker than the younger members of the study. In just six months, they were only 38% weaker.
For maximum effect, perform compound exercises that use the largest muscles and more than one muscle group at a time (squats, deadlifts, lunges, rows, push ups and pull ups). This works your body as a unit which is more functional than isolating specific muscles, and also means you burn more calories in less time!
You can't 'spot reduce' fat - no amount of crunches will show the 6 pack beneath the flab - so the more of your body you work, the more fat you burn all over: the real secret to revealing those abs!
Copyright (c) 2010 Caroline Radway
by: Caroline Radway
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