- You will gain lean muscle while losing body fat at the same time. Adding less than 1kg of muscle will burn up to 100 calories more a day while doing absolutely nothing! Your metabolism stays elevated for an entire hour after resistance training burning calories where as with cardio the minute you stop is the minute you stop burning calories. Doing cardio alone will burn body fat but unfortunately it will also burn muscle which is the reason why resistance training should play a major part in your weekly exercise programme.
- You will decrease your risk of osteoporosis. This is especially important if your female. Scientifically proven that resistance training can improve your bone density by 13% in just 6 months with an appropriate programme.
- Done correctly resistance training will improve your posture. Whether you sit behind a desk all day or just aging in general sooner or later your shoulders are going to get rounder and rounder moving forward. There’s only one way to prevent this from happening and that’s by building muscle in your upper back muscles. Choosing specific exercises in the form of resistance training will pull your shoulders back to keep your posture perfect.
- Resistance training reduces blood pressure and improves heart function. Resistance training significantly improves heart function. It has been shown in study after study that resistance training will decrease blood pressure. I have seen it first hand with a client who had not being doing resistance training BUT had been walking 40min a day at a fast pace with high blood pressure. Only once she began resistance training did her blood pressure drop to where it should be. Resistance training also enhances artery function by reducing inflammation increasing better blood flow.
- Resistance training helps prevent and improve diabetes. It’s no secret now that resistance training has a very positive effect on blood sugar function and insulin. As you know resistance training done correctly will build muscle which increases your lean tissues receptivity to insulin which increases your muscles demand for glucose transporting it from the blood stream. This helps prevent diabetes, while at the same time keeping your bodyfat lower.
- Resistance training has positive effects on hormones in both males and females. Testosterone is elevated in males after resistance training where as females who do resistance training have lower estrogen levels which means lower body fat and also lessens the chances of breast cancer.
- Resistance training will prevent you from losing muscle tissue as you age. Scientifically proven, adults who do NOT do resistance training will lose between 2.5-3kgs of muscle every decade. As this occurs your metabolism slows down causing you to start storing more body fat. Although endurance exercise improves our cardiovascular fitness it does not prevent the loss of muscle tissue as we age. From the age of 25 our hormone levels begin to drop off hence the loss of muscle tissue if you are not doing resistance training.
- Resistance training will reduce arthritic pain. I have seen this first hand with a client who had been on medication for painful arthritis of the spine. After 4 months of resistance training she was able to stop all medication and was pain free. Every Christmas she would go away on holiday for 3 weeks and the pain would begin to return, upon resumption of resistance training she would once again be pain free.
- Physically you will be a lot stronger doing resistance training than not doing it. Whether it’s lifting around the work place or doing general chores around the home what once felt heavy won’t anymore. Lifting children whether your a parent or grandparent won’t cause you to break your back because your abs legs and upper body will be so much stronger. Expect your strength to increase by 30-50% in the first 6 months if you are doing resistance training correctly.
- Resistance training helps depression. An American university study found just 10 weeks of resistance training reduced clinical depression more successfully than standard counselling.
Like anything there is a right and a wrong way to do things and resistance training is no different. There a certain systems that should be followed. The body will adapt so in order to keep improving your training must also advance in different ways for continued success. With 20 years of resistance training experience I’m equipped to help you achieve all of your goals.
contact me at either:
027 4156 711