Why is lifting weights so important?

1. If you only do aerobic exercise and diet then you will lose muscle. Simply put, if you don’t use it – you lose it. Muscle tissue must be challenged with resistance in order to be stimulated (irritated).
2. Muscle speeds your metabolism. For each pound of muscle you have on your body, you will burn about 50 calories a day just sitting around.
3. Muscle is where fat is burned. Each one of us is born with a certain number of fat cells that we will always have. However, the determining factor in our health and appearance is whether the fat cells are full or empty. In order to release the contents of the fat cell, the fat cell must be transported into the muscle cell specifically to the mitochondria. This organelle will spur the release of fatty acids into the bloodstream to be utilized as fuel. In other words, muscles act as the furnace where fat is burned in the human body. If you lose muscle you are damaging your metabolism. If you add lean muscle then you create additional fat burning furnaces.

QUICK NOTE FOR THE LADIES!

It’s funny how many of my female clients once feared the 15-pound dumbbells. Why? Well, in my facility, that’s where they went from rubber coated to steel. It literally blew my mind considering that their children, heck, even their purses weighed more than fifteen pounds!

When it comes to lifting weights and muscle, women are usually scared to death that they are going to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, there is no need to worry. Women have 8-10 times lower androgen levels than men. Androgens are hormones that are responsible for building muscle and are commonly injected or taken orally by competitive bodybuilders and power lifters. With such low levels of these hormones, most women find it very difficult to add a significant amount of muscle. Rather than bulk up resistance training will chisel, strengthen and tone your body. Without resistance training a soft, weak flabby body will emerge. You have probably heard the term “skinny fat.”