What are your goals, is a better definition of muscle you desire or is it just for you to lose a few inches around your waist?
Or do you go to BURN FAT?
The type of exercising I see and hear people performing is mainly cardiovascular exercise, such as running or walking on treadmills or cycling for miles on the the stationary bike.
This type of exercise has benefits on the cardiovascular (CV) system, the heart and lungs. HOWEVER, this type of low intensity exercise does not promote a great deal of lean muscle growth and wont help in fight against fat long term.
Lean muscle is what gives our body it's definition, unfortunately it's easily covered by the layers of fat that our body stores on itself. Lean muscle is a living tissue and requires energy to survive. The energy it uses, in the form of calories, can be from the glucose from the foods that we eat or from the energy the body can release from the fat cells.
So more muscle tissue requires more energy. If the body is in a "fat burning" environment, this means with low blood sugar levels, the muscle is able to use your own body fat for its energy!
The goal to burn fat starts with building more muscle, to enable the body to burn more fat 24 hours a day, rather than the half hour treadmill session 3 times a week....do the maths and there's only one winner here!
Resistance training is the key to building muscle. Resistance training is exercise in the form of weight training or bodyweight exercises where there is resistance on the muscle causing it to contract. Examples of these exercise can be seen in this previous post.
The goal of the exercise is to break the muscle fibres down and then rest, recover and provide your body with all the nutrition it needs in the form of essential fats, complete proteins, vitamins and minerals. The muscle will then rebuild bigger, stronger and more calorie hungry than before.
Ladies thinking that they don't want to build muscle and look "bulky" rest assured this will not happen. To grow large muscle mass the body requires specific hormones that are a lot more prevalent in males than females.
The theory of fat burning zones and exercising at low intensity has it's limitations. The body can only burn fat if you are in the fat burning, low blood sugar zone. It's no good having that lucozade before the hour of power walking!
Also, the low intensity exercise does not promote the the breakdown of muscle and release of muscle building hormones that can create a more defined body and calorie hungry tissue!
Start today and change the way you exercise, leave the treadmill alone and pick up the weights.
Build muscle to burn fat 24 hours a day, 7days a week.
