Morris County NJ Personal Trainer Shows How To Strength Train For Weight Loss!

April 19, 2011 - PRLog -- BURN OVER 3500 CALORIES!
By Jose Fuentes/ Certified Strength Conditioning Specialist/Master Trainer

When it comes to changing how your body looks, weight training wins hands down. Muscle burns more calories than fat, as a result the more muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn all day long.  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 If you've hesitated to start a strength training program I can tell you that you are constantly losing muscle as days go by.  Muscle tissue is very active--it burns a lot of calories. Every pound of muscle burns about 35 calories per day. When people tell me they lost 10 pounds in two weeks, I ask "10 pounds of what?" On low-calorie diets, about 25 percent of the weight loss may be muscle. Using the above example, if you lost 12 pounds with pure diet, then, you lost pounds of muscle. You would be burning less calories per day per month. Since there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat, when you don’t strength train you would gain almost one pound of fat per month just from the muscle mass that you lost!
Strength Training Versus Aerobic Exercise
Contrary to what many people think, strength training is as important, maybe more important to successful fat loss than aerobic exercise. The reason lies in the amount of calories that are burned when you aren't exercising. Depending on the intensity and your weight, an aerobic workout (walking, cycling, stair stepping) will burn approximately 300 calories per hour. If the exercise is strenuous enough (which is unlikely in the beginning exerciser) the RMR will be elevated temporarily up to a few hours afterwards. Compare this to strength training which elevates the RMR permanently. The RMR accounts for 60 to 75 percent of your daily calorie expenditure, so even a modest increase will help burn off more fat.

You don’t need to workout in a gym for two hours to strength train. I have seen significant gains with a consistent 30-minute workout performed 2 -3 times per week.

The Basics
If you're setting up your own program, you'll need to know some basic strength training principles. These principles will teach you how to make sure you're using enough weight, determine your sets and reps and insure you're always progressing in your workouts.
O.P.S. PRINCIPAL:

Overload: To build muscle, you need to use more resistance than your muscles are used to. This is important because the more you do, the more your body is capable of doing.

Progression. To avoid plateaus (or adaptation), you need to increase your intensity regularly. You can do this by increasing the amount of weight lifted, changing your sets/reps, changing the exercises and changing the type of resistance. You can make these changes on a weekly or monthly basis.

Specificity. This principle means you should train for your goal. That means, if you want to increase your strength, your program should be designed around that goal (e.g., train with heavier weights closer to your 1 RM (1 rep max)). To lose weight, choose a variety of rep ranges to target different muscle fibers.

Finally don’t forget to rest and recovery. Rest days are just as important as workout days. It is during these rest periods that your muscles grow and change, so make sure you're not working the same muscle groups 2 days in a row.

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Jose Fuentes/Master Trainer
President Of Shapes R In LLC Founded On April 2003.
With Over 1000 success stories and life styles changed documented. His clients claimed he is a champion in getting results!
www.shapesrin.com