The majority of my clients are women who are after the sporty look; meaning they want to increase lean muscle mass, tone up and get better muscle definition. That’s awesome. What I’m trying to do is my best to educate and help them to achieve these goals.
I have come to conclusion that cardio as well as maintaining or improving mobility are super important factors to get the results as weight training alone won’t stimulate the body enough. But don’t get me wrong here. I love lifting heavy weights. I’m that PT who is always preaching about women having to do some serious lifting because we just don’t get the muscles by accident and if you are after the lean but sporty look there will be some weight lifting involved. Us ladies need to work for it, in most cases, way more and harder than guys, simply because of the chemistry of each gender’s respective bodies.
Weight training is very important even if your goal is to just live a healthy lifestyle, being and feeling fit. Not to mention the benefits you can get from resistance training if you are mid-age or over.
- Increased muscle mass burns more energy (calories!) at rest, meaning your calorie intake can be increased while still maintaining the energy deficit required for fat loss.
- Muscle is denser and takes up less volume than body fat. This meaning that your overall shape becomes smaller, more defined, tighter and toned (this is what we are after, right?).
- Weight training stimulates increases in bone mineral density, which begins to diminish once we hit the age of 30 and can lead to osteoporosis.
- The older we get the weaker our body will become. The sense of balance, coordination and overall muscle strength starts diminishing. Loss of muscle leads to compromised functioning in performing daily activities such as getting off the toilet, opening a bottle and walking on uneven pavement. While any kind of regular exercise and physical activity is very important for us to stay independent and active as we get older, several studies have found that weight training has more overall benefits than any other type of exercise (cardio, stretching etc.) alone.
So now we know we should lift weights, next step is to know how should we lift for maximum results in limited hours. Hiring a personal trainer will help you to get your head around all of this, but no matter how often you see your trainer, you might have to put some effort in on your days training by yourself as well. Also the more you know yourself and the more you are interested in it, the more you get out of training with a trainer.
To get the optimal results, weight training program should be structured according your goals – muscle needs to be fatigued differently to ensure increases in strength vs hypertrophy vs power. Most of the changes for your body re composition come through your diet while the training volume for fat burning and building muscle remain quite similar.
Strength training is neurologically focused in that it depends on teaching the central and peripheral nervous system to recruit more motor units for each contraction of the muscle. Strength based regimes require heavier loads, with more sets and less reps in order to encourage greater neurological connection.
Muscle hypertrophy relies on breaking down the muscle fibres so they will build larger versions in subsequent rest days. This type of regime usually requires approximately three sets of max of 12 reps, with a weight you can lift with a good form but best if you struggle with the last few reps. Fat loss-focused resistance training relies on limited rest to ensure the heart rate to increase calorie burn and higher post exercise oxygen consumption. Supersetting exercises with little rest between provides just that advantage while also saving your time in the gym.
Now, go on and pick up that dumbbell. Make sure it’s a bit heavier than you lifted last week and be sure to use correct form.
