@livinglately
Waterfalls, sunsets, and triceps. These are just a few of our most beautiful things. We're not on a journey to skinny, but rather a trip to fit for strong, lean muscle. To achieve this, we need to add strength training to our regimen.
"Strength training is the number-one way to build more muscle. And for every three pounds of muscle you gain, you can expect to burn an extra 120 calories a day without moving a single one of those muscles," says Mike Donavanik, C.S.C.S., C.P.T.
Before we send you off to the weight room, let's see what research says on the subject: (via
Womens Health Magazine)
- One pound of fat takes up 18 percent more space than one pound of muscle.
- When people did a total-body workout with just three big-muscle moves, their metabolisms were raised for 39 hours afterward.
- Circuit training with weights raises your heart rate 15 beats per minute higher than if you ran at 60 to 70 percent of your max heart rate. This approach strengthens muscles and provides cardiovascular benefits similar to those of aerobic exercise—so you save time without sacrificing results.
- People who did three total-body weight workouts a week for two months decreased their diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) by an average of eight points.
- Six months of resistance training enhanced lifters' cognitive function. In fact, the sweat sessions resulted in better short- and long-term memory, improved verbal reasoning, and a longer attention span.
We're lifting our weights to a strong physique while also lowering our risk for diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis! Let's flex our fierce muscles and show our toughness.
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