Weight training is very important when it comes to fitness and building muscle. In addition to increasing your physical strength and appearance, building lean muscle as a result of an intense weight training program and supplements burns calories, increases your metabolism and burns fat.
Weight Lifting Burns Calories!
Like any other exercise, the act of lifting weights burns calories. The amount of calories burned depends on the intensity of your workout, but the average weight lifter burns around 300 calories in 1 hour of exercising. In fact, your body continues to burn a slightly increased amount of calories for up to 48 hours after a workout session.
Weight Lifting Increases Metabolism!
Weight lifting will increase your basic metabolism, or the amount of calories your body burns in a day to function. Studies have proven that a regular workout routine can increase your metabolism by up to 15%.
Lean Muscle Burns Fat!
Lean muscle is an excellent way to burn fat. A pound of lean muscle tissue burns 10 calories more than a pound of body-fat. This means that if you build 10 lbs of lean muscle tissue, your body will burn 500 calories a day. That is a pound of fat a week!
Now that you know what building muscle can do for you, it is time for you to learn how to actually build that muscle.
To maximize muscle gain and fat burning (and to make sure your body doesn’t become oddly proportioned), you should learn about all the human muscle groups. If you want your body to grow or tone correctly, you need to work all your muscles instead of a select few.
Although weight training allows you to target specific muscle groups, if you were to only concentrate on biceps training to get bigger arms, for example, then it would have a detrimental impact on your muscle building efforts.
Isolated training doesn’t just help the muscles you are working. The release of growth hormones and testosterone as a result of leg training and working the larger muscle groups benefit your whole body.
What Are Your Goals?
When it comes to weight training programs, there are two ways you can stimulate muscle growth: building muscle and toning muscle.
Building lean muscle involves using heavier weights and doing a low amount of slow, controlled reps. This method is used to quickly build large amounts of lean muscle mass since the heavier weights stimulate growth much quicker.
Toning muscle involves using lighter weights and doing a higher amount of slow, controlled reps. This method strengthens and tones muscle for a tighter looking body but will not build as much muscle mass.
A final note about weight training. Lifting heavy weights can potentially lead to long-term muscle fatigue, or over-training, which can leave your body feeling exhausted, especially if you are a hardgainer with weaker CNS recovery the most. Don’t ignore supplementation with protein powder or other effective post-workout supplements to speed up recovery and to maximize your efforts in the gym.
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