If you’re a woman trying to lose weight, trim down, or otherwise look your best, do you include strength training in your fitness routine? If you’re not lifting weights or using the cable machines at your gym on a regular basis, you’re missing out on some great benefits when it comes to your weight, your figure, and your overall health!
Strength training is not just about bulking up and looking muscular, but it is about getting toned and trim and building stronger muscles overall. It can also help you to lose weight and be healthier. Consider how strength training does all this and so much more.
Creating a Faster Metabolism and Burning More Calories
One of the best benefits of strength training is that it helps to raise your metabolism. Your metabolism is the average rate at which you burn calories throughout the day. The body is always burning calories for energy even when at rest, as it uses this energy to keep the heart beating and the lungs breathing and all other systems working. The more active you are, the more calories you burn.
Any calories you take in from what you eat or drink that are not used through activity are going to be converted and then stored as body fat. This is why it’s good to have a high metabolism, or high rate of burning calories, when you want to lose weight and keep it off. Burning the calories you take in from what you eat and drink will keep them from being stored as fat. How does strength training raise your metabolism and help you to burn calories?
The body needs to work harder to support muscle than it does fat or other tissue. Muscles need to be constantly fed and repaired because of the demands put upon them throughout the day. When the body is working hard to repair and feed your muscles, you are burning up those extra calories. If you add resistance training to your workout routine, you are building toned and firm muscles which the body will then need to support throughout the day. This means more calories burned even when you’re at rest.
Want to Look Better and Sexier, and Be Stronger Overall?
Resistance training can also help you to look toned and trim. While you cannot actually lose weight in any one area of the body by targeting it while in the gym, toning the muscles in that area can make certain areas look more fit. When you work on your waist or your arms and tone the muscles in these areas, they will look more contoured and shapely. Resistance training can also help your backside to be firmer and give you those toned calves that every woman wants.
Another great benefit to resistance training is that stronger muscles will mean better support for your body overall. This helps you in two ways; one is that you may have better posture, since your back and stomach muscles will be stronger and they’ll work harder to keep you upright. Better posture allows for better digestion since your stomach and intestines are not squeezed and bunched together. When your digestive system is working more effectively you are able to absorb vitamins and trace minerals from foods and in turn, this can benefit your overall health.
Better posture can also mean better blood circulation, which also makes you healthier. The blood carries those vitamins and essential minerals to all cells of the body, along with healing oxygen molecules. If you stand up straighter and are not hunched over, the blood can circulate more freely throughout your entire body.
Another benefit to these stronger muscles is that they will support your fitness routine more easily. When you add resistance training to your workout routine, you can also include more challenging aerobics routines. When muscles are weak you get tired and worn out quickly, but stronger muscles can mean a longer and more challenging session, and in turn you’ll burn more calories and keep your weight under control.
It’s Easier Than You Think!
Resistance training for women is often easier than you may imagine. If you’ve never incorporated resistance training into your fitness routine, start with cable machines. These make it easier for you to perform the routines correctly and safely.
Simple exercises include arm curls, leg curls, and pull-downs which work the shoulders and biceps. Be sure you sit up straight during each repetition so you’re not using your back, and start with a weight that is challenging but not too difficult.
It can also be beneficial to hire a personal trainer to walk you through a resistance routine. He or she can evaluate your needs and then show you the best equipment to use for your own personal goals, and also show you the correct way of performing each movement. A personal trainer can also motivate you to stick with your routine and keep things challenging.
Do you use resistance training when you work out? What are the benefits you’ve noticed that you would like to share with other women? What exercises would you recommend all women try to get stronger muscles and raise their metabolism?
Cover photo: www.buildbodydefinition.com
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