It would seem that most people are now aware that the addition of lean muscle mass does amazing things for a body's metabolism and fat burning capacity, as well as providing other benefits towards a happy and healthy life.
The unfortunate truth is that many people who complete weight or resistance training are spending too much of their time at the gym completing exercise, but not working hard enough at it.
The secret behind training lean muscle and strength require three key elements to be properly applied. These vital elements are often ignored during training.
The three key elements are:
- The intensity of the workout.
- The volume & frequency of exercise.
- Progression of the work completed.
Intensity is a measure of how hard you are working to perform the exercise, in your current condition. The volume and frequency are measurements of how often and how much exercise you complete. The progression relates to how much change of demand happens from workout to workout.
Commonly, weight training is carried out for longer than required and completed too many times each week. People often approach weight training in the same way that they approach the so-called fat burning aerobic exercise. Even though weight training and aerobic exercises are so different, they are actually total opposites.
Weight training, or anaerobic exercise is characterized by high intensity, with lower volume and frequency, with lots of progression to obtain maximum effectiveness.
With low to moderate intensity weight training you may see benefits over the first few weeks but these will tail off. From a high level perspective it's the combination of high intensity exercise with an attempt to increase the repetitions or weight trained that's going to transform your body into an ever evolving fat burning machine.
You'll also have to keep other factors in mind when you're planning out that maximum efficiency workout, which will minimize the time spent in the gym. Because the pattern of rest, after an intense workout, is as important as the workout itself. You won't get stronger unless you rest!
When you undertake strength training properly you'll create tiny injuries to your muscles. So, you'll have to make sure the body has a chance to repair that damage, even letting it build up beyond the damage done during the workout. Exercise again before that process is completed and you'll have little to no impact on muscle building or fat loss.
A properly conceived rest program means waiting 1 to 3 days of rest between each workout, to allow your body to recover from resistance training..
Now, this is the important point. When you start talking about adding muscle to your body it's very common for people to freak out and think "I don't want bigger muscles, I want to lose weight". It's a shame that people, especially women, are wired to think this way as the result they imagine is unlikely to happen, and the fat burning benefits that come with resistance training are being lost.
Most people, men and women alike, lack the capacity to produce the kinds of muscle tone that'll make them look bulky or over-developed. The genetic traits that drive this include their testosterone levels, muscle fiber, and muscle belly length, among others.
When you see men and women who've dedicated themselves to competitive bodybuilding you have to be aware that these people are the top candidate for this kind of development, genetically speaking. You also need to factor in the high chance that they've engaged in high doses of anabolic steroids, as well as growth hormone, and a raft of other bodybuilding drugs.
Whatever you do, don't be fooled by those images you see, on TV or across the internet. And don't let this type of imagery scare you away either. Lean muscle, which is what we're talking about, is more compact than fat, and it takes less room to store in your body. So, if you replace the fat with lean muscle you'll actually be getting smaller..
What I'd like you to please understand is that, no matter who you are, you're putting yourself in the best possible place to succeed with fat loss and fitness goals by carrying out properly conducted resistance training.
Please make sure you understand and apply the three principles I detailed above, as they are critical to your success.
If you don't apply them you're destined to be unhappy with the results you achieve, no matter how hard you work. And as a result, you won't achieve the strong, lean and healthy body that your hard work deserves.
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