Weight Lifting Is Essential For Great Fitness
If you are wanting to get in the best shape of your life, you may believe you need cardiovascular training. Although this is true, you should also incorporate weight training. The below article contains great knowledge on this concept for those who are not familiar with it.
First, understand that you should not be lifting weights on a daily basis. Many people who weight train will overexert themselves, causing "overtraining syndrome." This occurs whenever you push your muscles too much, which will hinder results from coming and will put you at a higher risk of injuring yourself. Instead, make sure you only lift weights three or four times per week, and avoid training the same muscle groups more than once or twice each week. Understand that muscles need time to recover. It is during this recovery time that muscles actually regrow, so let them rest!
Understand that there are numerous benefits that come from lifting weights. First, your body will get stronger, which will help ward off potential diseases as you get older, such as osteoporosis. Second, your body will become leaner because the more lean muscle you have on your body, the higher your metabolism will be. This results in less fat on your body. Third, you will not have to train nearly as hard to achieve results.
You may hesitate to try weight training because you are afraid you will hurt yourself. If you have never lifted weights before, you probably picture large beefy guys lifting really heavy weights, and you know your body simply cannot handle it. However, this is not what you will be doing. This type of training builds bulky muscles, which do not necessarily help you get in shape. Lifting light weights at high repetitions is what helps you burn fat, build lean muscle, and get in incredible shape.
Keep in mind that your diet is a very important factor in your weight training. You are not going to have proper energy to lift weights with a diet full of cookies and pizza. You need to transform your diet to include fruits and vegetables for energy, and lean meats for protein.
In addition, you should not neglect carbohydrates. You may have heard that carbohydrates are bad for your body; however, this only applies to the bad carbs like the cookies and pizza already mentioned. Your body needs good carbs, such as vegetables and whole grains, in order to have energy for your workouts. Don't avoid them!
Finally, you should not give up your cardiovascular training. Although weight training can get your heart rate up and burn fat, you should still incorporate some cardio in order to maximize your results. An ideal strategy is to lift weights three or four days per week, and do cardio training two or three days per week. Allow one day to rest.
As you can see, weight training can significantly improve your level of fitness. It will help you get in incredible shape and lose a lot of weight, so do not neglect it.
