Weight Training: Burn Fat, Be Strong & Stay Healthy

Find out how adding weight training into your fitness routine can pay off big with more muscle and less fat

Weight training is one of the most effective additions anyone can make to their workout routine. It improves overall strength; encourages a more lean, “toned” appearance; can reduce the risk of injury (especially as you age) and is a potent metabolism

booster, helping you burn fat even when you aren’t exercising.

Yet many people never even start weight training because they either don’t know where to begin, are intimidated by the idea of lifting weights, or think weight training is something only bodybuilders or power lifters can benefit from.

What Exactly Is Weight Training?

Weight training is simply performing an exercise under resistance or with added weight to challenge the muscle to become stronger and larger.

When you weight train, you are resisting the force of gravity (which is increased by adding weight to the movement) during the exercise. You can increase resistance by adding additional weight in the form of dumbbells or weighted bars, or by utilizing a cable and pulley-based weight machine or cable-station.

Weight training improves strength and increases muscle size because it “overloads” the muscle and works it beyond what is normally required every day to meet your basic physical needs. This overload literally damages the muscle. However, the body, being the wonderful machine it is, responds by repairing the muscle in a way that over time allows it to meet the increased strength needs that regular weight training requires. So you get stronger over time, and your muscle also becomes larger to meet the demand.

The Benefits of Weight Training

Weight training has a number of benefits, regardless of your age or gender.  Ongoing weight training:

• increases muscle strength
• strengthens connective tissue like ligaments and tendons, which can prevent injury
• improves bone density, which can help prevent osteoporosis in both men and women
• increases your lean mass, which causes you to burn more calories even when you aren’t exercising
• provides a post-weight training metabolism boost that causes your body to burn more calories for up to 48 hours
• improves your physical appearance and muscle definition
• boosts endurance and cardiovascular health

In fact, weight training has been shown to have so many positive effects on your health, that the U.S. Government has made it a public health goal that, by 2010, at least 30 percent of Americans will be performing strength-training workouts at least twice a week. In 2004, that number was around 20 percent.

Weight Training For Women: The Next Big Thing?

And weight lifting isn’t just for male bodybuilders or football players.

Women are adding weight training into their workout routines at record numbers because it’s one of the most effective ways to change body composition, while also reducing bone-loss and improving overall health and physical fitness.  A  study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 1 in 5 American women perform at least 2 sessions of weight training a week.

While many women still have reservations about weight training due to myths around “bulking up,”  weight training is rapidly gaining popularity among females, and it’s no longer unusual to see women working out in the free weight room alongside men.

Weight Training Benefits for the Elderly

Lifting weights might seem better suited to a younger crowd, but again, the research on weight and resistance training shows benefits for all ages, especially seniors and the elderly.

As people age, they experience a loss of muscle mass, also known as “sarcopenia.” This typically begins around age 50, but increases dramatically after age 60.

Scientists don’t completely understand the mechanisms behind this rapid loss of muscle mass, but there are likely several factors at play, including decreased testosterone, growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 levels; increases in catabolic compounds; as well as muscle wasting from the reduction in activity that often accompanies getting older.

Sarcopenia may also be one of the reasons that older people experience slower metabolism as they age.  Muscle consumes energy even while at rest, and decreased muscle mass can eventually reduce the amount of calories you need to consume to maintain your current weight.

However, regular weight training appears to lessen muscle loss in older males and females, alike. And the earlier you start, the better, since having more lean muscle to begin with lessens some of the effects of the age-related loss of tissue.

New guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine suggest strength training two or three times a week. Be sure to give your muscles at least one day of rest between workouts.

The Takeaway

Regardless of your age, gender or previous training experience, adding weight training into your regular workout can help you reduce body fat, increase strength and improve overall health and fitness.

Next up: The basic principles of weight and resistance training that you’ll need to know to get started.

As always, you should consult your physician before undertaking any resistance, weight or cardio training program.

Comments (11)
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Mass Bodybuilding (1 comments) says:

Thanks for the great article on the benefits of working out. A lot of females I work with are afraid to start weight training because they don’t want to be too muscular…

I just wish they knew how hard it was to add muscle!

Reply
Richard Morden (1 comments) says:

Any weight training done properly has many added health benefits. You continue to burn calories many hours after working out since your body needs to repair muscle tissue and it has great mental health stimulus.

Reply
Egor (2 comments) says:

Hello been surfing the net for testosterone fat loss and found your blog reg Training: Burn Fat, Be Strong & Stay Healthy | Answer Fitness®. You relly know your stuff! I\’d like to see more posts here. Will definitely bookmark this one and come back.

Reply
patrick moore (1 comments) says:

i hope someone will provide me a complete 2hr. workout per day ( 6x / week) program…. like example :

day 1 etc….. day2 etc,,,,,,,, day 4 – off…etc..

my main concern is to gain higher vertical leap and upper body strength & specially in shoulder ( front / rear deltoid & triceps ) size….. im a basketbal player and i wanna develop explosiveness in jumping as well… im just 6’0 and 184lbs…..pls mail me…thanks pipzzzz… peace out

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Srvesh Jaiswal (1 comments) says:

I am young boy of 22 yrs.I feel very sad & borring because my weight is very less i.e. only 43kg I feel same as walk in road or in any party.Despite of it I also laso feel very weak. I want to increase my weight & be healthy. So please give me right solution to combact with this problem

Reply
Rob Smith (3 comments) says:

Some intersting points made there, its not rocket science guys eat less and exercise more to lose weight, eat more train heavy to gain. Remember keep it simple dont over think it.

Reply
How To Lose Man Boobs Quick (1 comments) says:

I agree with “Mass Bodybuilding’s” comment.

I’m a personal trainer and almost every woman who comes to me for a programme says “I don’t want to bulk up” as soon as I take her to the weights section.

“You won’t” is always the response but you will get all the benefits mentioned in this article above.

P.S if anyone reading is wondering why, it is becuase women have very low levels of testosterone where men have high levels and this is responsible for muscle building.

Women . . . hit the weights! Nothing more attractive than a toned body.

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