Tag bodybuilding

When you go online, you’ll probably realize right away that there are millions of websites dedicated to diets. Most diets are about losing weight, others focus on health, and there are even diets for ethical or religious reasons. But if you want to build muscle, you also need the right muscle building diet.

Of course, the “right” diet is open for debate, because many experts have different opinions. What is obvious is that a specific diet needs to be customized to your requirements and circumstances. While a nutritionist can probably help you out, there are some things which you can do yourself when you are looking for the right muscle building diet for you.

A Good Muscle Building Diet Requires Monitoring Your Calories

The first thing you’ll need to do is to figure out how many calories you need per day. For that, you can go online and use a calorie calculator. This calculator estimates the minimum number of calories you need to consume.

If your aim is to lose weight, then you’ll need to eat less than what your body uses up. But if your goal is to pack on more muscle mass, then you may have to consume more calories than what you burn.

You can start by consuming about 20 calories for each pound of body weight if you want to gain weight. After a month or so, you can change this if you’re not gaining weight or if the weight gain is too much.

Now, this means you need to do some research on how many calories each meal will have. Canned and packaged foods have this info on the label and there are also many guides online for calorie content of common food items. Just track the number of calories you consume each day, so you can tweak your muscle building diet accordingly.

Plan on Eating Smaller Meals More Often

Now figure how many calories you need per meal. You should plan on eating 6 small meals a day, instead of three large ones. It’s easy; just take your normal meal and divide it in two, and then eat the other half three hours later. Eating six small meals means you won’t get hungry often because your food intake is spaced out.

Tracking Your “Muscle Building” Protein Intake

Next, track your protein intake. This is just as important as your calorie intake, because protein and amino acids are the building blocks for muscle growth. If your protein intake is insufficient, you won’t be able to grow as much muscle you want.

While some top-level bodybuilding athletes do is gobble up massive amounts of protein, for you it will be different. You can start by taking about a gram of protein for each pound of body weight, although you can go up to 1.5 grams per pound.

Carbs are a Necessary Part of Your Muscle Building Diet

Get enough carbs. Some people forget about carbs and concentrate on protein when building muscle, and then later on they complain why they’re not getting bigger and stronger. What they don’t realize is that carbs should be where most of your calories are coming from.

You can start by consuming about 2 grams per pound of body weight. Some may suggest as much as 3 grams per pound, but it’s a better idea to start low. You can always just increase the carb consumption if when you don’t gain muscle mass after a month.

Generally, you should opt for slow-burning carbs to raise your glycogen levels, which boosts your stored energy. Examples of these include oatmeal and quinoa.

For breakfast and for your post-workout meals, you should switch to starchy simple carbs. These raise your insulin levels, which helps you absorb nutrients more efficiently. You can also choose quick-burning carbs to replace your oatmeal or quinoa if you find it difficult to gain mass.

Fats are an Important Part of Your Muscle Building Diet

Don’t forget fat in your diet. This is also important if you want to build muscle. In fact, the rest of your diet should be fat after protein and carbs.

Fat has 9 calories per gram while protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram. If you weigh 200 pounds, then you may be aiming for 300 grams of protein and 400 grams of carbs, which gives you 2,800 calories. If you are aiming for 4,000 calories a day in your muscle building diet, then the rest of the 1,200 calories comes from about 133 grams of fat.

As you may have noticed, these are not hard and fast rules. Just make sure you track your food intake and monitor your gains. Then tweak your muscle building diet routine when you want to make improvements or if you’re not making any improvement. It’s as simple as that.

Many people seem to think that it’s easy to learn how to gain muscle mass. The problem is that most of them don’t do enough research. So what happens is that they make a lot of mistakes, and then they become frustrated when all their efforts don’t pay off.

There’s a Right Way and Wrong Way to Gain Muscle Mass

To avoid such problems, here are some clear-cut rules you need to follow so that you will gain muscle mass more effectively:

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• Define your focus. Some people think that bodybuilding and weight loss are synonymous, but for workouts, these are two completely different objectives. That’s why high intensity training is good for people who want to lose weight, but it’s actually counterproductive if you’re a pipsqueak who wants to be bigger, stronger, and more muscular. For that, you need heavy weights and lots of calories.
• Eat more. We’ll presume for the moment that you’re on a sensible diet and you’ve actually done your research on what and what not to eat. But when you start learning how to gain muscle mass, you’ll need calories. About 500 more calories than your usual intake should suffice. Do not take too much calories though, because you’ll just turn the extra calories into fat instead of muscle.
• Space out your meals. Instead of three big meals a day, try eating 6 small meals. This keeps you from getting hungry, and the meals also provide you with the protein and carbs you need.
• Drink protein and carb shakes. Whole foods are great, but then protein shakes are good too. With shakes (Recommendation: Zeal for Life Protein Shakes), you make sure you get adequate carbs and protein that your diet may not provide. For the most part, they’re also much easier to digest.
• Don’t forget to stretch. Quite a few people keep forgetting the very important step when they work out. Stretching is not just for yoga fanatics. Stretching before and after a workout makes you more flexible, improves your recovery, and also prevents you from getting injured.If you keep on having pains after working out, that may mean you didn’t stretch properly.
• Limit your cardio workouts. About twice or three times a week of jogging should suffice. And don’t jog for a couple of hours at a time. Instead, keep it to 30 minutes. Your best bet is to sprint for a full minute then alternate with a couple of minutes of jogging.
• Don’t spend too much time on your lifting exercises. Your proper weightlifting workout for the day should last for just 45 minutes. You should make sure you warm up before your workout, and you need a cool-down routine as well. About a dozen sets for each muscle group is okay, but more than 20 sets is overkill. Your reps for each set should range anywhere from 6 to 12, so that you only spend 40 to 70 seconds each set. When you lift weights, after an hour your body will start producing cortisol in response to the physical stress, and this will impede on your progress. Cortisol signals your body to store fat and burn muscle.
• Perform exercises that focus on several muscle groups at once. These exercises include pull-ups, rows, deadlifts, and squats. You can train your entire body or concentrate on either your upper your lower parts, but this is more efficient than working on just a single muscle group per session. By doing this, you reduce the risk of injury when you work out. You become stronger and your muscle development gets better. Besides, it helps you look so much more attractive.
• Change your workouts regularly. The body has a strange way of adapting to various strenuous events. So after a month or so, you may want to vary your workout a bit. Your 45 minutes per workout is enough for about 6 to 8 different exercises, and each one should have alternatives. Or, you can just vary the sequence of the exercises instead.
  You should note down your workout details in your journal, so that you have an accurate record of what you’ve been doing.
• Get enough rest. Make sure that you give your muscles enough time to heal, grow and develop by resting them after a workout. Get enough sleep as well.

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Learning how to gain muscle mass also means appreciating the time needed to attain noticeable results. Shortcuts aren’t recommended because they may eventually become harmful for you. Just make a habit of lifting weights and following your muscle building program. Give it time and dedication and you’ll begin to gain the muscle mass you want.

Almost everyone knows the benefits of bodybuilding and by using these 15 bodybuilding tips, you’ll be on your way to sculpting your body to be the best it can be.

Bodybuilding does wonders for your social and professional life, and it also gives you considerable health benefits as well. But you only get these benefits if you do your workouts properly and exercise a little patience as well. It takes much time and energy for your body to develop into a lean, toned, muscular work of art.

These tips are a fit for both men and women; even though women do not normally put on as bulky of muscles as men do, the strength and appearance benefits both in the same way.

Crucial Bodybuilding Tips to Keep in Mind:

1. Create a bodybuilding plan. You can ask a personal trainer about this or you can do some research online. But you can’t just buy bodybuilding equipment or go to the gym and do any random exercise. You need a good plan that outlines the specific exercises needed, the exact number of reps and sets, and a time frame.
2. Start a healthy diet. No list of bodybuilding tips is complete without mentioning the need for a proper diet, because workouts are just one aspect of your bodybuilding plan. Make sure your body gets enough nutrients, especially protein. Take some supplements as well, since your diet probably can’t give you all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients your body needs.
3. Get enough protein. As a rule for highly physically active people, you need at least a gram (or even up to a gram and a half) of protein for every pound of body weight. So that means if you weigh 200 pounds, you should consume 200 to 300 grams of protein per day.
4. Don’t forget about BCAAs. These Brain Chain Amino Acids are necessary for bodybuilding, and they’re available in supplement form.
5. You must have a rest day. You can’t workout every day. This is a very common mistake, and even some bodybuilders who have been at it for quite a while still make this mistake. They train too hard, and too often, so as a result, they become prone to injury and they’re not getting the results they want. Keep your workouts to just three times a week. At the very least, you need two days off each week.
6. Get enough sleep. It’s when you’re resting that your muscles repair and grow, and they can’t do that properly when you’re not getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep can affect hormones crucial to bodybuilding, and it also makes you too tired to want to exercise.
7. Make sure you target every muscle group each week. You can’t neglect a specific muscle group. When people commit this mistake, the results can be rather off-putting. You could end up with a huge torso and stick-thin legs.
8. Start with the basic equipment. If you’re a beginner, you should stick to the basics. Don’t waste your time trying to learn all the fancy new bodybuilding equipment in your gym. Just focus on free weights such as dumbbells and barbells.
9. Stick to fundamental exercises. There are numerous types of exercises out there, but the basics never go out of fashion. These exercises include the squat and the deadlift, as well as bench press and the military shoulder press.
10. Forget the written descriptions of exercises. Watch the videos on YouTube instead of reading manuals and guides. Take note of the proper form, and watch how the hands and legs are positioned.
11. Gradually increase your weights. Track your weights, and then every two weeks you should increase the weight slightly. Your muscles will need to be challenged continuously. What this means is that if you find a certain weight “easy”, then you’re not lifting enough. Lift heavier weights that really challenge you.
12. Vary your workouts every two weeks. Maybe you can change the exercises you’re doing, or this can be a simple matter of changing the order of the workouts. But you need variety so that your body doesn’t adapt and reach a plateau when you don’t progress.
13. Track your 1-rep weight. Every few weeks or so, find out how much weight you can handle with just one rep of a particular exercise. This weight should increase every time. Doing this tells you how much progress you’ve made in your strength training and it also helps motivate you into continuing your efforts.
14. Make your safety a priority. That means taking care of your weights properly, using a safety belt for heavy weights, and having a spotter near you. The point of all these workouts is to make you healthier. You’re not supposed to get injured while you build your muscles.
15. Be patient. Regardless of what you may have heard or read online, your muscles won’t grow overnight. You can change this with steroids, but this isn’t only illegal, it’s also unhealthy as well. So just be patient, keep doing what you’re doing and pretty soon you will have the body you’ve always wanted.

Of course, you have to think and act like a true competitor during this period in your life. Eat right, avoid bad habits, and commit to a healthy lifestyle. None of these bodybuilding tips will matter unless you do all these.

Sometimes we may find ourselves easily swayed by impressive ads and glowing reviews. If you’re looking for the best pre workout supplement, you need to choose carefully. There are a lot of options available, and picking the right one can be just as challenging as picking the right workouts and exercise programs.

One of the best ways to help you choose the best pre workout supplement is to focus on the contents as they relate to what you want to personally accomplish.

The content labels of specialty pre workout supplements will generally have some, if not all, of these nutrients:

• Arginine. This is an amino acid that maintains hormone and immune function, helps the kidney extract waste products from the body, and even helps your wounds heal. As a workout supplement, it helps because it changes into nitric oxide that boosts your blood circulation and helps blood vessels to relax.
• Beta-Alanine. Working in partnership with creatine, beta-alanine can increase your strength and also enables you to work out longer. It also combines with histidine in your muscles to form carnosine. The carnosine is crucial for muscle recovery and gaining strength.
• Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs). These are the combinations of three amino acids (isoleucine, leucine, and valine) popular among workout fanatics. Taking BCAAs can boost your energy and hasten muscle recovery. It also improves your stamina.
• Caffeine. Just as a lot of people need caffeine to start their day, many people who work out take supplements that contain caffeine. Caffeine wakes up the nervous system and it helps to keep fatigue at bay. It can also help you maintain your focus but don’t overindulge. What’s important is not to use products with caffeine on the label because that is synthetic caffeine; use products that contain real plants that contain caffeine such as green tea for an example.
• Citrulline. This is the duo of the amino acid citrulline and malic acid. As a combo it increases the volume of your cells. It also gets rid of ammonia in your body, thereby improving your blood flow and boosting your energy. It’s also a precursor to arginine.
• Creatine. Depending on who you’re talking to, the best pre workout supplement will probably contain creatine, as many fitness buffs consider it a requirement for exercise workouts. It’s probably the most popular supplement of all time for bodybuilders. Creatine works by pulling water into your muscles cells. This gives a quick burst of energy in your body and makes it possible for you to do a few more reps.
• Glycerol. This is converted by your liver into glucose, which your body uses as fuel. A lot of endurance athletes also love glycerol because of its hydrating benefits. It helps you to retain greater levels of fluids in your system, for a longer period of time. Body builders like it too because it improves vascular function; it dilates blood vessels.
• Taurine. It pulls more water for better muscle pump. It also improves the strength and endurance of your muscles, and encourages the production of nitric oxide which then increases the blood flow to your muscles.

For the record, we’re not saying that testimonials are useless when you’re choosing the best pre workout supplement for you. But you shouldn’t just believe everything you read online (or offline for that matter). Read the product’s labels first, find out what it contains and then make a decision that fits your personal workout routine and health goals.

Traditionally, strength training for women has not been exactly a mainstream idea. Most people don’t really find muscled women all that appealing, and many women don’t engage in strength training because they’re afraid that they’ll look like a female version of the Incredible Hulk.

Strength Training for Women: End the Double-Standards

Even in the Olympics, this double standard has endured, and it was only in the 2000 Sydney Olympics that women’s weightlifting was included.

Like strength training for men, there isn’t a single program out there that’s perfect for every woman. But the best strength training programs for women will have the following features:

• Heavy weights. This is perhaps the most important aspect of them all. Regardless of what you hear about strength training for women, lifting heavy weights does not cause massive muscles. Most women who do get those large muscles consume a lot of calories for that very purpose, and they probably take a lot of protein supplements as well. Since strength training is about tearing muscle fiber, those puny 5 pound weights are virtually useless. Women really need to lift weights which feel heavy for them, so that the workout becomes effective.
• Variety. The body adapts to exercises, so you need to challenge it in different ways so that it doesn’t stop progressing. There’s also the extra benefit that having varied workouts may prevent you from getting bored.
• During the first few months, you may want to start with the basic exercises. These involve barbells dumbbells or Kettlebells, but don’t get intimidated. These exercises are the power clean, deadlift, squat, overhead press, and the bench press.
• Some of these may have different versions for women. Once you master these, you may want to look into several different versions of each of these exercises.

• Kettlebell One Arm Clean
• Kettlebell Deadlift
• Decline Bench Press
• Dumbbell Leg Exercises – Squat
• Kettlebell Push Press

• Compensate for your weakness. Everyone, men and women alike, has weaknesses. While it can be exhilarating to improve all your strengths, it’s imperative that you work on your weaknesses. You’re only as strong as your weakest point. For women, the most notable weaknesses are the inner and outer thighs (which pros call the hip adductors and abductors), the mid to upper back, the shoulders, and the triceps. You overcome these weaknesses by doing some exercises that target these specific areas.
• Motivation. A lot of women admit to quitting, since there’s a subliminal atmosphere of disapproval about women lifting weights. So work with people who want to see you succeed in order for you to always have the motivation to push forward.

Contrary to popular belief, strength training is important for women as well. It’s not just political correctness, but common sense.

A strength training program encompasses everything you do in order to boost your physical strength. It isn’t just about exercises and workouts. It touches on everything, from scheduling the workouts and figuring out the frequency of each one, and also includes a careful look at your diet as well.

It may even include motivational techniques, since there is a very good chance that you’ll eventually give up due to the sheer amount of effort required to succeed.

It is highly recommended that you don’t try to create an entire strength training program on your own, unless you yourself have been highly trained on the subject. It’s too complicated a process, and there’s a very good chance that your efforts will be in vain. You may do all that hard work and still get very little benefit for your trouble. It also puts you at risk of injury.

Here’s a video example of a Kettlebell strength training program that can give you some ideas for creating your own program:
 

If you can’t create your own program, what are your options?

In general, there are two:

1. Get a personal trainer. A personal trainer can help you with just about everything you need. This is especially true if your trainer is also trained as a nutritionist. Before you choose one, take a look at several practical considerations first. Can you afford to hire a PT? A personal trainer may not be exactly cheap. You should also verify their qualifications so that you can be assured that the trainer knows what they’re talking about. Then you have to make sure that you can work with this person, because even the most knowledgeable trainer is useless if your personalities don’t jive.

A trainer will listen to you as you explain your training goals (whether you just want to look good, or you’re training for a particular sport) and then he or she will come up with a schedule that outlines when you should do your workouts, and what exercises you need to include.

There may also be a list of all the equipment you’ll need, although often they can all be found in the gym where your personal trainer works. The trainer can also help you with the right diet plan, including the health supplements you will need to take before, during, and immediately after a workout. And last but not least, a trainer can motivate you not to quit, because there’s always the temptation to give up.

2. Do some research and get a training program online. A training program is like a DIY manual. It gives you all the pertinent information that a personal trainer can provide. The problem with this is that it’s more generic, so it won’t be precisely tailored to your particular needs. Your best bet is to find a program for your profile. For example, a program may be geared towards elderly men, rehabilitating heart patients, football players, overweight individuals, or runners.

A good training program always includes lots of instructional videos, so that you’ll be able to do the recommended exercises properly. If possible, it should also include recommended diet plans as well.

There may be hundreds of strength training exercises out there, so listing them all will be next to impossible. And every day, you’re also likely to read about how a professional trainer has developed a new variation of a particular workout that promises to be the most effective of them all. It just adds up to the confusion.

Use an Instructor to Learn Strength Training Exercises

If you are new to strength training, the first thing you need to learn is how to do strength training exercises properly. If you can afford it, get a qualified fitness instructor who can teach you all the necessary techniques. The instructor can take note of your fitness goals and also consider your limitations, so that you are properly aligned and you execute the exercise correctly.

Use a Video to Learn Strength Training Exercises

If you can’t get an instructor to help, don’t just rely on written descriptions of the exercise. “Google” each exercise you read about and watch the instructional videos of how they are done. Try to do each exercise slowly at first until you master the movement. Your focus should be on perfecting the technique first, rather than trying to be as fast as you can or lift as much as you can.

Example of a Video on Strength Training Exercises:

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Strength Training Exercises Using Equipment

You should also make sure that you know how to use various machines and weights properly. There are many kinds of weights used in strength training, such as barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, stability balls, medicine balls, and benches. And there are also other machines which replicate rowing. Again, your best bet here is to have an expert demonstrate the proper techniques for each type of equipment or follow along with a video.

Now we come to one of the more difficult aspects, which is choosing the strength training exercises that you will perform. Opinions on this matter are quite varied, so it all depends on what you can actually do and what you would prefer to do. It also depends on your skill level, and you also should note that each exercise targets specific muscles in your body.

For beginners, you need to do basic exercises first before you progress to the more advanced ones. Chest presses, bicep curls, triceps kickbacks or extensions, overhead presses for the shoulders, and reverse flies for the back are great for your arms and upper body.

Lunges and Squats are also common exercises for the lower body, but beginners with weak joints may not find them suitable. The better alternatives include side-lying or standing leg lifts which focus on the inner and outer thigh, hamstrings curl for the back of the thigh, and quadriceps extensions for the front of the thigh.

You should also remember to strengthen your core muscles as well, with exercises like the planks. Planks are very popular, as they work on the core as well as the shoulders and lower back. The core muscles are those muscles in your abs and lower back area. You absolutely need a stable core, especially if you engage in strength training. Even if you have extremely strong arms and legs, you can easily hurt yourself doing a bicep curl if you don’t have a stable core.

If you decide to hire a fitness instructor, follow their advice if it makes sense to you. If you decide to learn from videos in your home, a good start would be to sign up for the MyFitnessNut.com Newsletter and get three different workout programs that you can use to learn strength training exercises from.

The popularity of strength training really grew when it was realized that great strength was an advantage in many types of sports. Many coaches in the collegiate and high school levels began to systematically incorporate weightlifting and other resistance exercises in their training programs when the benefits of strength training became apparent. It became obvious that greater strength allowed athletes to perform better.

For example, one of the benefits of strength training is that it allows baseball hitters to strike the ball harder with their bats, and this made more home runs possible. Greater strength also lessens the possibility of injuries, which is a crucial consideration in contact sports such as football, hockey, and basketball.

And obviously, it is also important in a lot of martial sports; being stronger is a definite advantage in boxing, wrestling, and judo. You probably won’t find any athlete in Mixed Martial Arts who doesn’t do any strength training.

In the military, strengthening exercises are mandatory. Pushups aren’t just meant for punishment among servicemen; they also function to make them stronger. Among military personnel, police officers, and firefighters, strength is important because part of their duties is to carry others to safety during emergencies.

But strengthening exercises aren’t just for athletes and emergency personnel. The benefits of strength training are for everyone. They’re for both men and women of all ages, and this includes those who aren’t in the most perfect of health. Actually, those with serious ailments such as arthritis and heart disease get the most benefits from these types of workouts.

Strengthening exercises prevent, minimize, or alleviate these health conditions:

• Arthritis. A study by Tufts University revealed that these exercises, when performed by older people with arthritis, increased their strength and overall physical performance, lessened their disability, and improved the symptoms of the ailment. The exercises were even shown to be at least just as effective in easing the pain as medications.
• Poor balance and lack of flexibility. In older people, these issues lead to falls that cause broken bones. Strengthening exercises can help restore some balance and flexibility. A study in New Zealand revealed that simple forms strengthening exercises for women considerably lessened the frequency and severity of falls.
• Loss of bone density. Every year, post-menopausal women lose about a percentage or two of their bone mass. The Journal of the American Medical Association published a report in 1994 which showed that strengthening exercises boost bone density and lessened the risk of bone fractures for older women.
• Obesity. Strengthening exercises can help you lose weight. Developing greater muscle mass is a common side effect of strength training, and muscle is essentially a group of tissues that consumes calories. It’s been shown that these exercises can actually boost your metabolic rate by 15%.
• Heart diseases. The American Heart Association recommends strengthening workouts to reduce the risk of heart disease, and also as therapy for patients rehabilitating from certain heart ailments.
• Diabetes. One study showed that strengthening workouts result in improvements in glucose control that are similar to taking diabetes medication.
• Anxiety and insomnia. It is also widely known that strengthening workouts fight depression and induce healthier sleep.

Here’s a little bonus: Strength training also makes you look attractive!

You can start getting the benefits of strength training very quickly using a workout program such as the ones found in our Dumbbell section http://myfitnessnut.com/dumbbells/ and in our Kettlebell section at http://myfitnessnut.com/kettlebell. Go pickup one or both of these excellent methods for building muscle and get started enjoying the benefits of strength training today.

The Benefits of Strength Training and Why They Apply to Everyone

Physical fitness is generally divided into two categories. You have cardiovascular training and strength training. Many people falsely believe that you have to pick one or the other – that you either have a strength training personality and strength training goals, or you have to take a cardio approach.

The truth is that the best way to achieve lifelong health and vitality and the best way to lose weight and keep it off is to embrace both. You don’t have to be a lifter or a runner exclusively; you can – and probably should – be both.

There are several reasons why strength training is so beneficial to your health and well-being.

Stronger Bones

Strength training has been proven to help reduce the risk of osteoporosis. It’s important to know that while more women suffer from bone loss than men, men do get osteoporosis as they age. The gradual loss of bone density can cause serious issues, including fractures of the hip and spine. Strength training slows down bone mineral loss.

Strength training also improves your muscle strength and coordination, which in turn results in improved balance and overall coordination. This subsequently reduces the risk of injury and bone damage.

According to a study conducted by the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, strength training does have a positive impact on bone density as well as soft tissue lean mass.

The study was designed to evaluate the effects of 18 months of resistance exercise on regional and total bone mineral density and soft tissue lean mass in premenopausal women aged 28-39, who were randomly assigned to an exercise or control group. The results for bone density showed “significant regional increases” for bone density in those women.

Weight Loss and a Kicked Up Metabolism

Obesity in adults is defined as someone who has a BMI of 30 or higher. It’s a weight that is higher than what is considered healthy, and is correlated with many diseases including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Strength training increases lean muscle mass, which burns more calories and has a positive impact on weight loss. To put it simply, muscle burns more calories than fat. Strength training not only burns calories while you exercise, but it also burns calories as your muscles repair themselves.

Strength training accomplishes this by increasing your metabolism to manage the repair process. Additionally, muscles require energy to function – fat doesn’t. By including strength training into your workouts you’re helping burn more calories in the moment, all day, and well into your future. Let’s not forget that obesity is about more than appearances, it’s a health risk.

Obesity is a risk factor for:

• Cancer (including breast cancer)
• Diabetes
• Arthritis and joint pain
• Cardiovascular disease

According to the CDC, Center for Disease Control…

Strength training is crucial to weight control, because individuals who have more muscle mass have a higher metabolic rate. Muscle is active tissue that consumes calories. Stored fat uses very little energy. Strength training can provide up to a 15% increase in metabolic rate, which is enormously helpful for weight loss and long-term weight control.

Muscle burns an estimated three times more calories than a similar amount of fat tissue. Which means if you add a few pounds of muscle you can burn an extra 100 calories daily. That adds up quickly and facilitates weight loss.

A high-intensity strength routine has been shown to bump metabolism by 20 percent for several hours post-workout.

Stop the Middle Age Spread

In their mid-30’s women begin to lose 5 to 10% of muscle strength every ten years. This loss of lean muscle impacts strength, coordination, and mobility. As lean muscle decreases it becomes more difficult to maintain the same level of activity you might have enjoyed ten years ago. Walking, standing, and even rising from a sitting position can become difficult.

Strength training slows down the loss of lean muscle and can build new muscle, depending on your approach. Women don’t need to strive to become world class bodybuilders to benefit from strength training. A simple program can help ensure you’re able to stay active and healthy well into your golden years. No walker required!

Better Mood and Outlook

In a study published in 2005, researchers examined the effect of a three-month exercise program on mild to moderate depression. 80 participants were divided into five groups.

Two groups took on a rigorous program, one of them for three days a week and the other for five days a week. Two groups participated in lighter exercise either three or five days a week. A fifth group, the control group, only stretched.

The results were positive across the board; ratings of depressive symptoms on the standard Hamilton scale fell in all of the groups, including the stretching group. However, those that participated in the rigorous exercise program had the biggest drop – significant enough to equate rigorous exercise to antidepressant medications or cognitive behavior therapy.

Resistance training has shown to reduce anxiety and cause an overall improved sense of well-being. Studies comparing and evaluating resistance training have found that moderate intensity strength training has a stronger impact on anxiety than intense strength training, and this decrease in anxiety can impact sleep and brain function. Still, both intensity levels showed a marked improvement in anxiety levels.

Strength Training Makes You Smarter

Strength training is often used as part of a treatment plan when people suffer from neurological conditions. One of the reasons for this is to help a patient remain as functional as possible. Another reason is that strength training often requires a person to make new mind/body connections.

For example, if you’ve never performed a deadlift or a squat, you have to learn how to safely perform the movement. As you learn the various movements required, your brain begins to tell your body how to move and new connections are created.

As we age, circulation tends to decrease. The results can be uncomfortably cold hands and feet, and a blue tinge is also common in the elderly. Resistance training, which strengthens muscles, requires the heart to pump blood to said muscles and thus also strengthens the heart, improves blood flow to muscles, organs, and to the brain.

This increased blood flow not only helps decrease circulation problems, it also improves cognitive function as the brain receives more blood. Additionally, resistance and strength training require a person to make new connections and perform new movements. You have to think about “proper form” and learn the new exercise techniques.

Joint Pain

Tufts University recently completed a strength-training program with older men and women with moderate to severe knee osteoarthritis. The results of the 16-week program showed that strength training decreased pain by 43%.

The increased muscle strength and general physical performance also improved the side effects of the disease and decreased disability. The study showed that strength training is just as effective, if not more effective, than pain medications and other medications used to treat arthritis. Additionally, similar results have been shown for studies on strength training and rheumatoid arthritis.

Improved Coordination

Increased age often means a loss of balance and flexibility, which in turn results in falls and broken bones. Strength training can improve range of motion and flexibility, and as we discussed above it can improve bone density so any falls that may occur aren’t as damaging.

A New Zealand study looked at women 80 years of age and older, and found a 40% reduction in falls with simple strength and balance training.

A 12-month study conducted on postmenopausal women at Tufts University showed…

1% gains in hip and spine bone density, 75% increases in strength and 13% increases in dynamic balance with just two days per week of progressive strength training.

Sleep Better Too!

People who exercise regularly enjoy better quality sleep. They not only fall asleep more quickly but they wake less often and they sleep longer. This improves disposition and overall health and well-being.

When older adults engage in strength training programs, their self-confidence and self-esteem improve, which has a strong impact on their overall quality of life.

Better Cardiovascular Health

Your risk for heart disease is lower when you have a healthy BMI. Studies have found that cardiac patients gained not only strength and flexibility but also aerobic capacity when they did strength training three times a week as part of their rehabilitation program. The American Heart Association recommends strength training as a way to reduce risk of heart disease and as a therapy for patients in cardiac rehabilitation programs.

Many women not familiar with the benefits of weight lifting tend to stay on the cardio side of the gym and avoid the weight lifting part for fear of developing too muscular of a body frame. When done properly, weight lifting will give them a more defined and toned body, but without the worry of “bulking up”; it just won’t happen and here’s why.

Muscle development is largely due to the amount of testosterone in the body. Men naturally have significantly more than women, so they tend to develop bigger muscles. Women have a small amount of testosterone naturally, but not enough to create large muscles.

Even women that try to pack on the bulk have a very hard time doing it without resorting to testosterone supplementation. So put that fear aside and start hitting the gym to gain these benefits from weight lifting:

Lift Weights for a Faster Metabolic Rate

Women work out at weightlifting for a number of reasons, however, one common thread is to lose weight. We all know that to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you take in and one way to burn more calories is to speed up your metabolism.

As you lift weights, you create tiny tears in the muscle fibers of the muscle group you are exercising. To repair these tears, the body must burn more calories than it would otherwise if you did not have the tears. And you are burning calories while working out.

Lift Weight for Greater Muscle Definition without Bulking Up

Another plus – it takes more calories to fuel muscles than it does body fat – 9 calories per pound of fat per day verses 2 calories per pound of fat (both at the resting metabolic rate) – so while you won’t bulk up, your muscles will become more defined or toned and your body fat will decrease. So you get the immediate benefit of your body burning calories to help repair itself and a long-term benefit of your body requiring more calories to fuel the extra muscle definition.

Lift Weight for More Functional Strength

As your muscles develop you get stronger. Everyday tasks that used to wear you out, such as vacuuming, laundry and carrying in groceries, are suddenly easier. Also stronger muscles reduce your risk of injury if you participate in sports or other physical activities.

So fear weights no longer! See http://myfitnessnut.com/building-muscles-for-men-and-women and start a weight lifting program so that you can begin enjoying the many benefits of an increased metabolism, greater muscle definition and easier everyday activities. Your body will thank you for it.