What's in it for me?

When most people think of strength training they think of big muscles, body builders, getting hurt, and being toned. Women are especially afraid of “bulking up” or looking too masculine.

So why should we pay attention to strength training anyways?

Today I’ll address a few of these concerns and explain why strength training is so critical to reaching our goals. This will help to see the importance for the later weeks when I give example workouts.

Benefits:

Strength training is the key to maintaining weight, losing weight, and being healthy. Like I said, a lot of people think of it as an external benefit, i.e., looking toned. But remember how we talked our Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), which is how many calories our body burns naturally. Well, the more muscle you have, the higher that number will be! Muscle burns more calories than fat. So if you have more muscle, you’ll be burning calories just sitting in a chair, all day long. It’s been said that although cardio helps you burn calories for the time of your workout, strength training burns those calories the remaining 23 hours. I like that concept :)

Bulking Up:

For all those women concerned about bulking up, I’ve got something for ya! There’s about 2% of women who actually have enough testosterone to increase in muscle size. The make up of women’s muscles only gets more dense when she works out, it doesn’t get bigger. As long as you keep your repetitions high, like 15-20 reps, and keep the weights low, then you’ll be sure to tone your muscles instead of increase the size. And that’s just to play it safe. Even if you lifted heavy weights, it’s more than likely that you’d still only get stronger, but not increase muscle size. What happens is when women start lifting weights, initially they “feel” stronger, and thicker. But remember, it’s just a “feeling”. Also, you have to remember that even if your muscles are toned, yet have a layer of fat over them, you won’t necessarily see that definition. That part comes in with doing our cardio and eating clean. You’ll need to decrease your body fat to see that definition. Which brings me into my next point.

Circuit Training:

The best thing us women can do is to perform a Total Body Circuit workout three days a week, on top of our cardio for the week. This circuit workout will combine body parts during exercise with little rest in between, which will keep our heart rates high throughout the workout and help us have the most efficient workout possible. We’ll burn as many calories as if we were on the treadmill for the same amount of time. This type of workout has been found to be effective for women whose goal is weight loss. (I’m always in that category ☺) This way we can still be effective in losing body fat by burning as many calories that we can, while still getting the benefits of strength training. Yes, it’s the best of both worlds. But don’t be mistaken, circuit training does not replace cardio.

So even though cardio is so important, don't skip the strength training! Remember that in order to see 100% results, you need to have an even mix between nutrition (33%), Cardio (33%), and Strength (33%). They all make up 100%, so if you're slacking in one area, you won't be as efficient in reaching your goals.