I'm reposting this article because it always amazes and shocks me how many dieters and non-dieters never exercise and particularly never resistance train. Their attitude is like "I don't need to do that." Well, actually "yes, you do need to do that." And not for weight loss or weight maintenance alone.
Everyone should be doing some type of resistance training. You maintain your teeth by brushing and flossing, you take care of your hair and skin by washing, conditioning and moisturizing. You fuel your body with food and water. And most of you pay a lot of attention to your fat cells, how many you have, and how to shrink them. Why is it okay to ignore your muscles? They need maintenance and care too.
Many people view their muscles as inert things that take care of themselves. The masses never give much thought to their muscle mass. They ignore taking care to protect it, take it for granted, and expect it to remain intact and the same for life. This isn’t the case, especially if you’re sedentary.
Here are a few great reasons for preserving and building muscle with resistance or weight training:
1. Muscle is your engine. Muscle burns fat, about 50 calories a day per pound of muscle. A pound of fat burns about 3 calories a day.
2. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn.
3. A pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat. You can weigh more while taking up less space and wearing smaller sizes. Muscle is sleek and attractive.
4. Muscle makes you strong, functionally fit, increases your endurance, and improves physical performance in all areas of life, not just athletics.
5. Studies show fat (although not a big calorie burning engine) is metabolically active. Fat makes good and bad hormones and chemicals that affect health. The more fat you have on your body, the more nasty chemicals you’ll produce while the more muscle you have the more calories you’ll burn.
It is a fact of life that you will lose muscle mass starting around 30 years old and averaging 5 pounds of loss per decade without resistance training to counteract this phenomenon. So what, you may say, I’m not an athlete and I have a desk job. That mere 5 pounds a decade of muscle loss means you’ll burn approximately 250 calories less per day. By the time you turn 60 that adds up to 750 calories you are no longer burning. If you’re still eating the same as always your body and lifestyle will be a recipe for obesity.
The version of this article at my blog Kudos For Balanced Fitness and Lifestyle includes links to topics related to muscle, its functions, the perils of muscle loss, and the benefits maintaining and building muscle. If you’re interested in why you should strive to preserve and build muscle mass you can start to educate yourself with those information and links.
How Muscles Work by Craig C. Freudenrich, Ph.D.
Muscles are one of those things that most of us take completely for granted, but they are incredibly important for two key reasons…
Your muscle, your Metabolism
”…research suggests three months of weight training can lead to a 3-to 7-percent increase in resting metabolic rate, which translates roughly to an extra 100 calories burned per day. The exact number depends on the size of the person.”
Weight Training 101 Weight Training 101 From Paige Waehner
Getting Started
If you want to lose fat or change your body, one of the most important things you can do is lift weights. Diet and cardio are equally important, but when it comes to changing how your body looks, weight training wins hands down. If you've hesitated to start a strength training program, it may motivate you to know that lifting weights can:
• Help raise your metabolism. Muscle burns more calories than fat, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn all day long.
• Strengthen bones, especially important for women
• Make you stronger and increase muscular endurance
• Help you avoid injuries
• Increase your confidence and self-esteem
• Improve coordination and balance
Why You Should Weight Train http://www.muscleprogram.com/whyyoushouldweighttrain/
I am continually shocked by the fact by the fact that so few people incorporate weight training into their exercise regimen. The best that I've been able to determine, this is because of a very common misunderstanding regarding the benefits of weight training. I say this because, if you ask someone why they don't weight train, they tend to tell you that they don't want to be a bodybuilder and/or they don't want get "big and bulky."
Now, the reality of the situation is that weight training is extremely beneficial for everyone, regardless of their ambitions in health or life. Also, consistent weight training doesn't have to develop "big and bulky" muscles. The reasons that everyone should weight train are the same reasons why everyone should exercise…
Muscle Explained
Animals (including humans) use muscles to convert the chemical energy of ATP into mechanical work. Three different kinds of muscles are found in vertebrate animals ...
Muscle From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Muscle (from Latin musculus "little mouse" [1]) is contractile tissue of the body and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. It is classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscle[2], and its function is to produce force and cause motion, either locomotion or movement within internal organs. Much of muscle contraction occurs without conscious thought and is necessary for survival, like the contraction of the heart, or peristalsis (which pushes food through the digestive system). Voluntary muscle contraction is used to move the body, and can be finely controlled, like movements of the eye, or gross movements like the quadriceps muscle of the thigh. There are two broad types of voluntary muscle fibers, slow twitch and fast twitch. Slow twitch fibers contract for long periods of time but with little force while fast twitch fibers contract quickly and powerfully but fatigue very rapidly.
Muscle Metabolism: Aerobic vs. Anaerobic by Thomas Griner,DC
Four different types of muscle fibers will be discussed here. However, only the aerobic slow-twitch fiber and the anaerobic fast-twitch fiber are found in human skeletal muscle. For the purpose of gaining additional insight provided by comparative study, the cardiac muscle fiber and aerobic fast-twitch fiber will also be discussed.
Top 5 Reasons ALL Women Should Weight Train
http://realwomensfitness.com/top-10s/top-5-reasons-all-women-should-weight-train/
Weight training is often viewed as a man’s arena. My local gym is almost divided down the middle - women in the cardio room and men in the weights room. Here are the Top 5 reasons why women should weight train on a regular basis.
Why Women NEED To Weight Train
For many years, aerobic exercise was considered the optimal method for women attempting to lose weight. Using equipment such as stair climbers, treadmills, stationary bikes, etc. was thought to be the "ideal" way to lose weight.
Although aerobic exercise provides many benefits and is excellent for your heart and lungs, too much of it could hinder your efforts at losing body fat. Unfortunately, many women do not understand the true value of adding a weight resistance routine to their aerobic exercise program.
There are many popular myths on why women have turned away from using weights. Probably the most popular one is: "If I lift weights I will bulk up and look like a body builder." This is far from the truth, as women do not have enough of the hormone called testosterone. Testosterone is dominant in males and is responsible for muscle growth. Therefore, because of hormone levels and women's genetic makeup, it is very difficult for women to "bulk up." In addition, women would have to train for hours on end and eat a very specific diet in order to look like a "bodybuilder."
One of the reasons weight training will help women decrease their body fat and lose inches is because increasing the amount of muscle tissue raises metabolism. Muscle tissue is much more metabolically active than fat tissue; it burns 25% more calories than fat tissue. Men typically have an easier time than women losing fat because they ten to have more muscle overall.
