Use It or Lose It
To keep seeing results, you have to keep forcing your muscles to adapt by pushing them. Even outside of your comfort zone, but do it safely!
Cardio is a great fat burner, but that effect stops when you do. Build more muscle and you’ll keep your body burning fat all day long.
“Lifting weights can increase your lean body mass, which increases the number of overall calories you burn during the day,” says Jacque Crockford, CSCS and spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise.
You may burn more calories during your 1-hour cardio class than you would be lifting weights for an hour, but a study published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that women who did weight training burned an average of 100 more calories during the 24 hours after their training session ended. And the effect is magnified when you increase the weight, as explained in a study in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Women who lifted more weight for fewer reps (85 percent of their max load for 8 reps) burned nearly twice as many calories during the two hours after their workout than when they did more reps with a lighter weight (45 percent of their max load for 15 reps).
The old saying, “Use it or lose it” seems appropriate for your muscles.
Lifting lighter weights for more reps is great for building muscle endurance, but if you want to increase your strength, increasing your weight load is key.
Heavy resistance training can help fight, and reverse, the loss of muscle mass. It can also strengthen bones and help prevent osteoporosis, especially in postmenopausal women. You’ll fight osteoporosis! The key to this one is consistency, as research has shown that lifting heavy weights over time not only maintains bone mass but can even build new bone, especially in the high-risk group of post-menopausal women.