Thursday, August 28, 2008

10 Reasons You Should Strength Train

1. You will gain muscle strength and make it easier to carry those kids, groceries, etc (without throwing your back out!).

2. Want to minimize the look of cellulite? Adding a little muscle mass will help fill out that "lumpy cottage-cheese" look and give your skin a more even appearence (plus it will help burn that fat).

3. Obviously you will look more toned, as strength training sculpts and defines the muscles better than any other workout.

4. Want to burn more calories? Strength training (esp power circuit training)promotes lean muscle mass which will increase your basal metabolic rate=burn more calories during the day (even doing nothing!)=burn more fat!!!

5. You will lose inches and body fat (even if the scale isn't going down as much as you would like).

6. You will improve your posture, core strength, range of motion, and balance (which all go as we age). This means less injures, and less aches and pains too.

7. You will look younger and feel younger (and possibly be able to keep up with your kids)!

8. Strength training will burn more calories/workout than most other exercising (esp power ciruit training) because you will continue to burn calories post-workout as your muscles recover and rebuild whereas other cardio workouts do not.

9. Here's a big one-you will increase your bone density! This might not be important to you now, but osteoporosis affects 1 out of 3 women after age 65. Start now to increase and maintain that bone density and you won't have to worry about hip fractures and other things that come from getting old and having brittle bones!

10. Lastly, strength training will give you more energy! And let's face it, we all need that to get through the day (esp with kids)!!!

3 comments:

Yennigirl said...

Good advice! Thanks! I didn't know you continue to burn calories even when you're done strength training.

Matt and Allyson said...

What is power circuit training? I LOVE this blog!

Christina said...

Power circuit training is when you do a circuit workout moving from one exercise to another (usually about 5-10 exercise total-only the catch is you combine multiple muscles together in each exercise and throw in some plyometrics (ex. ball squats with dumbbell shoulder presses, followed by jump squats, followed by a push-up row combo, followed by lunges with lateral and front raises)....You get the gist!!