We also forget that a newbie may not realize why they should be lifting weights at all. Sedentary folk who are tinkering with the idea of getting in shape may believe that any form of physical activity, from walking to swimming to playing tennis, will get them in the shape they desire. I'm here to persuade you to consider that weight training should be the cornerstone of your physical activities and that nothing else can duplicate the type of results you'll get from pumping iron. Go ahead and walk, swim or play tennis, but make sure you've spent some time in the gym too!
I. Benefits of Weight Training
For the uninitiated, lifting weights may seem to be an activity best left to athletes and bodybuilders. Newbies may think that if they lift weights, they will get too big…or become "muscle-bound" or inflexible…or that, in the future, if they stop lifting weights, their muscles will turn to fat. All of these things have become quite well known myths that somehow continue to thrive despite all evidence to the contrary.
I will delve further into exploring these myths in a future article, but suffice it to say that if you do not try to incorporate weight training into your fitness routine, you will be missing out on many important benefits. Most people know that weight lifting will increase muscle size and improve strength. Did you also know that resistance training stimulates bone growth and can help prevent osteoporosis? Did you know pumping iron increases "good" cholesterol (HDL's) and decreases "bad" cholesterol (LDL's)? Weight lifting also helps to promote strength increases in tendons and ligaments, thereby helping to stabilize joints. Perhaps most importantly, the muscle gained from the stimulus of lifting weights increases your metabolism! If there is one point you should take away from this article, this is it. You must increase your muscle mass to cause permanent increases in your metabolism.
II. Muscles are Your Friend
One of the biggest hurdles I face when working with a new client is making them understand that they need to do all they can to maintain and hopefully increase their muscle mass. Most beginners simply think of getting in shape as losing weight. They do not understand the implications of body composition, i.e. how much of their weight is lean tissue (muscle, bone, etc.) and how much is adipose tissue (fat). This lack of understanding leads many to the erroneous conclusion that any and all weight loss is a great thing. This is simply not the case.
Before I get into the details of body composition, let's look at why muscle increases your metabolism. Muscle is an active tissue. What this means is that muscle uses energy to stay "alive." Muscle cells are like a factory. They are busy producing energy all day long. Fat cells are on strike. They need burn only a minute amount of energy to maintain themselves. What this means for you is that more muscle allows you to burn more calories on a daily basis…even when you are being sedentary. So, whether you are in the gym working out or on the couch flipping channels, the person with more muscle will burn more calories than the person with less muscle. That means it is easier to lose body fat and easier to keep it off in the long run.
This is the key to permanent body fat loss. Add muscle and you will burn more fuel daily. It's that simple. Yes, doing cardiovascular activities burns calories and elevates your metabolism. But these effects are short-lived. Cardio on its own is not the best way to lose fat and maintain muscle. In fact, excessive cardio can actually catabolize or "eat-up" muscle tissue. In the long run this will do your metabolism a great disservice. You should still do moderate amounts of cardio to benefit your heart and lungs (30 minutes, 3-5 times/week), but you should not be trying to do an hour or two nearly every day like I see many people doing. Unless you are an endurance athlete, whose job it is to run, bike, and/or swim tens if not hundreds of miles a week, keep your cardio to a moderate level and spend the extra time lifting weights instead.
III. Body Composition Basics
Hopefully if you've read this far, you are willing to believe that you really need to gain muscle if you want to lose body fat and keep it off. Now you should know how to measure body composition and why it is more important than simply your bodyweight.
The bathroom scale is only one minor component in assessing your fitness level. When measuring body composition, we do need to know your weight. However, if that's all we measure, we are left with incomplete data. The next time you weigh yourself, whether your weight is up or down, you need to know why. Weight loss is not always good, and weight gain is not always bad. So forget about using the scale to gauge your progress. We need to measure how much of that weight is fat tissue and how much is lean tissue. How?
The most accurate method of body composition analysis is to be dissected and eviscerated and to physically weigh what is fat and what is left over. Of course, this is a one-shot deal, so it doesn't help us living folks much. The "gold standard" method of body composition assessment is to be underwater weighed (also called "hydrostatic weighing"). In basic terms, fat floats and lean tissue sinks due to their lesser and greater densities respectively as compared to water. This is a little uncomfortable and can be costly. It is also typically only done on college or hospital campuses where they have a human performance lab.
The most common form of analysis is with skin fold calipers. These little gadgets basically perform the old "pinch an inch" test. Various sites on the body are used depending on whose formula you are using. The various methods have been clinically studied and judged against underwater weighing; therefore they are a quite reliable way to measure body composition without the cost or inconvenience of hydrostatic weighing.
A few other methods using infrared scanning and bioelectrical impedance are common, but they don't tend to be as accurate or provide as consistent a measure as the aforementioned methods.
IV. Body Composition Illustrated
Once you've had your body fat tested, what do the numbers mean? Well, you first need to realize that the initial test for body fat doesn't mean a whole lot. Yes, it's good information to have, but regardless of what the numbers come out to be, you should not beat yourself up over a "poor" score. The first test simply establishes a base point from which we can measure the effectiveness of your workout program. It is these subsequent tests that hold the true value for having your body fat checked. If your weight is decreasing, but your percent body fat is the same or increasing, you are losing muscle as well as fat. That means you are losing metabolism and will eventually start to gain weight back. However, if your weight is staying the same or even increasing, but your percent body fat is declining, you are gaining muscle and adding to your metabolism. So, you get to keep that lost fat off.
With the following chart I've tried to illustrate the dramatic difference that adding muscle mass will make to your physique. Basically this spreadsheet shows the variances in body composition if our sample person lost a net weight of 20 lbs., coupled either with no muscle gain, a 5 lb. muscle gain, or a 10 lb. muscle gain.
You should be able to see by this chart that your body composition would improve dramatically if you add muscle mass to your body. Couple that improvement with a loss of body fat, and the results speak for themselves. In other words, you can be a lean 144 lbs. or a fat 144 lbs. depending on how much muscle you have; therefore, use %body fat, not simply scale weight to assess how lean and healthy you really are.
V. Conclusion:
I hope this has shed some light on the importance of body composition and improving it by the addition of muscle. Gain muscle and you'll increase your metabolism. Gain metabolism and it will be much easier to lose body fat and keep it off.
All right, time to quit reading and go to the gym. Good Luck!!
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