Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Lift Weights to Lose Weight!

I am a huge fan of Jessica Smith's workouts so had to share this awesome article with my Win, Lose, or Blog fitness friends! I am a strong believer in strength training for its many benefits- but many women shy away from lifting weights- keep reading to find out why we should ALL incorporate strength training into our fitness routines.

Here are some tips on Shine from Yahoo by Jessica Smith: 


1)    Get off the machines.

Weight machines isolate one part of your body at a time. And if your goal is weight loss, not hypertrophy, then the last thing you want to be doing is letting the remaining 80 percent of your body “rest” while you exercise. For example, instead of the leg press machine, stand up and do weighted squats, or swap the chest press for dumbbell chest presses on a stability ball to engage multiple muscles and burn more calories with every rep.
2)    Move multiple muscles all at once.
The lower half of your body contains most of your muscle mass – why not keep it active during your entire training session? Do bicep curls with a plie squat, push ups combined with mountain climbers or rear lunges with a rear back row. You’ll save time, burn more calories and keep your heart rate up during your workout
3)    Go for higher reps with lighter weights at a faster pace and/or include cardio intervals in between exercises.
While it is important not to move too quickly that you sacrifice your form during exercises, there is no need to take rests in between sets – unless you are lifting some serious weight. In between exercise, grab a jump rope, do some jumping jacks or even just march in place to keep your heart rate up and the calories burning. 
And yes, lifting heavy weight will help you build metabolically active muscle and not bulk you up, but the good news is that the American Council on Exercise suggests that high repetition, light weight training done to fatigue in under 90 seconds can produce the same results as less repetitions using heavier resistance loads. Lifting lighter weights, with good form, at a cardio pace can kill two birds with one stone – you’ll get your cardio and strength training done all in one.

For more information:
Visit Jessica Smith's 10 Pounds Down website
Like Jessica Smith's 10 Pounds Down page on Facebook
Visit Jessica Smith's Living in Thin website
Visit the Shine from Yahoo website

4 comments:

  1. I'm a huge fan of strength trainging!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I enjoyed this article. I never really thought about the weight machines before - makes me glad I'm an at-home exerciser with videos - I'm basically already doing what she suggests. I like Jessica's workout DVDs too!

    ReplyDelete

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