Move some metal through space
Last time we talked about aerobic exercise. Specifically we talked about a very special kind of aerobic exercise called high intensity interval training that is going to help us burn more fat faster. This time we’re going to take a look at the second of the commonly utilized exercise techniques for losing weight.
Now I’m going to talk to you about resistance training. Oh no you’re thinking, he wants me to lift weights! Well yes I do. In fact you have to lift weights. I don’t necessarily mean that you need to lift dumbbells and barbells, but you have to move some kind of metal through space.
Here’s why. One of the things that’s going to happen when you change your eating habits and restrict your calories is that your body is going to want to slow down. Your metabolism is going to drop a notch, or at least is going to try to. Weight training is one of the things that were going to do to prevent that from happening. By training with weights, we are going to burn more calories than we would if we only done our HIIT, and we are going to burn a lot more than if we did nothing at all. In addition, lifting weights will enable us not just to loose that but to build muscle. When this happens we will be preventing our bodies from slowing down, and trying to conserve fat. On the contrary, your body will be using all its available nutrients ot give you energy for your workouts and build muscle.
Okay, I can hear you again. You don’t want to get all big and bulky. Please don’t worry about that. It is very very difficult to gain significant amounts of muscle mass. Especially for women. All were going to be doing is making sure that we stay taut and toned as we drop the flubber. What you will see happening over the weeks to come as you continue to do your HIIT, work your diet plan, and do your resistance training is a new body. I’ve seen this happen so many times, and it always surprises me. It is really very similar to a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. It’s one thing to just watch somebody lose a lot of weight. What happens if they do that – usually through some fad diet or simple starvation – is that they end up with a flabby floppy body.
When I look at someone who has lost weight using a sensible diet in conjunction with the proper kind of aerobic training and weight training, but I almost always see is someone who looks trim and taught. Most times not only do they look as if they had never been fat, but they look much younger than they used to. I think that’s worth picking up a few pounds of weights.
The kind of weight program that you go on is a function of your own personal situation. If you’re 55-year-old woman with a full-time job and a home to take care of your program is going to be very different from that of a 23-year-old college student. Given that however, there are universal concepts and ideas related to resistance training that will hold true for all of us.
Progression — this is the idea that the way that we improve when training with weights is to continuously progress. I know you’re thinking “DUH”. But it’s not really as simple as that. And here in an oblique sort of way, we get back to my previous statement that you do need to write things down so that you can measure them and make sure that you’re improving. When you’re trying to progress in a weight training program you’re trying to do one of the few simple things:
- Increase the amount of weight you are using
- Increase the number of times you lift the weight
- Decrease the amount of time it takes you to do the above
It’s really just that simple. I will suggest that as you begin your weight training program, you start out with about half of what you think you can do. There’s a reason for this. Two things happen when people start weight training programs that result in them dropping them. First of all they usually start off with weights that are too heavy. This leads to muscle soreness and it also makes the workouts extremely difficult. Nobody likes to do hard work and nobody likes to be sore. Result: they drop their program. The second thing that happens is that people get burned out. Some people have so much stick-to-it-ive-ness that they will not drop the program. Instead they will power through. Some of these people come out the other side. Others simply hit a wall three or four weeks and end up sick or injured.
This is why I want you to start out with much less weight than you think you’re capable of lifting. As a complete beginner your total time in the gym should be less than 40 minutes. That’s right, I’m not kidding. You should be doing 20 minutes of weight training followed by 20 minutes of high intensity interval training. In and out of the gym in less than 45 minutes.
Finally, I’d like to say that I wish that I could spell out in detail exactly what aerobics and weight training programs you personally should be doing, but I cannot. That’s a level of detail that is well beyond the scope of this blog and it is something that you need to discuss first with your doctor, and then with your trainer. Simply keep the concepts that I given you in mind as you and your trainer design your exercise program and you’ll do fine.
