While cardio does have its importance as far as losing weight and getting fit goes, weight training is absolutely crucial for burning excess fat and staying lean. What weight training does is it uses resistance in many different exercises, so that it forces the muscles, as well as the bones and connective tissues around, to become stronger. To further increase the benefits, you may choose to wear compression clothing for weight training. There are also tricks one should keep in mind when doing that, and this article is going to go over those tricks.
Bodyweight
If you’re a beginner, or simply don’t have the time or money to go to a gym, all is not lost, since you can easily do weight training by just using your own body weight. Indeed, if you think about it, weight training implies putting resistance for your muscles, and your own body weight is great for that. Things like squats and push-ups are great examples of exercises one can do with just their body weight. If you have the money, you can also add things like dumbbells, resistance bands and slider disks, to name a few.
Pair Upper Body with Lower Body Moves
If you’re doing your exercises only a few days a week, then it’s very important to do full body work. While experienced lifters may dedicate a whole day for one body part, for those who are just starting out, or are simply only working out a few days a week, it’s best to target the entire body rather than just a part of it, because these sorts of workout maximize caloric burn. The great thing about pairing upper body moves with lower body moves is that while one works out the upper body, the lower body has a chance to rest, and vice versa.
15 Reps and 3 Sets
It’s best to keep it simple at first, by repeating the same move 15 times, and doing 3 sets of all the exercises. As one becomes more comfortable, they can start to change things up, but there is no need to have everything very complicated right off the bat. However, once you begin to advance, switching up your set and rep ranges through a protocol called periodization which is explained in more detail in this Shortcut to Size workout review will help speed up your progress.
Hold It
Having a muscle contracted, and held in that position gives great benefits as far as endurance and strength go. For instance, one can use a stability ball to do a wall squat. At first, keep the squat for half a minute, and increase the time as your muscles become stronger.
Add Resistance
As one becomes more and more proficient with these sorts of exercises, they should consider adding more and more resistance. Now, while it is true that using heavy weights has about the same results as using lighter weights, as long as the muscle is worked to exhaustion, using heavier weights will get you there faster, thus making the same amount of time spent working out more efficient.
Explosive
Bodybuilders used to light heavyweights very slowly in the past. However, now we know that explosive movements, such as kettlebell swings or box jumps target fast twitch muscle fibers, which create more force than the slow twitch ones.
Keep Track
Even if you’re not a big fan of keeping track of things, the truth is that having a record of what you’ve been doing is very important, because it will help you track your progress better. This will also create motivation to keep going, since seeing how long a way you’ve come will only make you want to get even better.
Go with Someone
Finding a partner is another great way of keeping motivated, and working out more. As such, working out with someone will improve your workout indirectly, but in an important way, nevertheless.
Weight training can certainly be lots of fun if you know what to do to get the most out of it. This way, you will learn to make every minute of your workout count, and lead to great results.
Sources:
https://www.verywellfit.com/strength-4157137
https://greatist.com/fitness/improve-workout-intensity-tips
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/sport-strength-training-woman-2260736/