Weight Training and Fat Burning: Ladies only.

A lot of women believe erroneously that weight training would only make then develop bulky muscles and look masculine. No lady wants to look like a superman, so they stick to the treadmill and day in day out diet like a maniac. And painfully with so little result to show.

I want to tell you how weight training burn fat more than anything you can think of, and why you should embrace it.

Lifting weights has shown to burn more fat than steady state cardio because of the metabolic demand it causes on the body – this works through a fancy term called ‘excess post-exercise oxygen consumption’. When you perform cardio you will be burning calories only while you perform it, during high rep strength training you will be burning calories both during and post work out. So you work just as hard and get twice the results. Winning!

 Women always want to get ‘toned’, but cardio doesn’t build new muscle, in fact it can actually shrink muscle. Want to be skinny and flabby anyone?  Didn’t think so. Lifting weights and putting on some muscle will help you get lean and stay lean – why? A larger engine burns more fuel and nothing burns food like muscles. I’m not saying you should aim to look like a female version of Arnold Schwarzenegger (which, by the way is impossible for women to do without steroids), but by putting on more muscle your metabolism will become more efficient.

Above all of this, and possibly the most motivating factor of all is that you will feel like Superwoman. Pull-ups, chin-ups, squats and dead lifts are some of the most empowering movements – when you feel empowered you will train more. When you train more, you will look and feel so much better. Steady state cardio just doesn’t invoke that sense of power – it’s draining.

So – who’s ready to lift some weight and get that “body for life”?

If you’ve never lifted before, please don’t start flinging around a 30kg dumbbell by yourself. I recommend finding a good quality personal trainer to help you and show you the correct form, even if you just pay for a couple of sessions – you won’t look back, except to check out your own strong body in the mirror!

Chears!

By Onyinye orabuike.