My most recent fitness goal, has been to lean down to 179 lbs.  This is new to my body, as I can remember being 180 lbs since I can remember ever thinking about my weight (besides my heavy “rock-star” days about 5 years ago…wink).  I’m currently hovering right around 185 lbs right now and am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  However, as I was powering through my elliptical session yesterday, watching the burned calories add up, and thinking…”YES, I ROCK!” , but then I looked across our apartment gym, and saw the weights sitting there.  I thought to myself, you know what, I haven’t done any weight training in quite some time.  Yes cardio like running, hiking, biking, swimming etc are great ways to burn those calories and drop weight, but we cannot forget how beneficial and necessary weight training is, even when you’re just trying to lose weight!

Here are 6 amazing benefits of weight training;

Stronger Bones

- If you’re losing weight by cardio alone, you can actually start to reduce the mass and density of your bones.  By weight training you strengthen your bones and reduce your risk of Osteoporosis.

Raise Your Metabolism

– By weight training, you increase your lean body mass which also increases your metabolism.  The faster your metabolism runs, the more calories you burn on a day to day basis, assisting any weight loss goals.

Elevate Your Wellness

- When you weight train, you release endorphins that actually elevate your mood, strengthen your immune system and improve your sleep which can really add to your overall well being!

Improve Muscular Endurance

- When you train your muscles with weights, you increase your overall strength and endurance, which will make day to day activities easier, like carrying groceries, opening doors, moving furniture or lifting a child.

Reduce Injury

- The stronger your muscles are, the less likely you will injury yourself in, sometimes known as, “all too routine” ways, such as sprained ankles, sore knees or even back injuries.  Improved strength by weight training, assists your every motion and increases daily body safety.

Improve Posture / Balance / Coordination

- having improved posture, balance and coordination can improve your day to day ease of life as well.   On top of that however, those 3 improvements can also improve your overall look, feel and self confidence.

Create Sexy Toned Muscles

- weight training will tone those muscles, so that you feel more confident when showing them off!

One funny comment I’ve heard over the years is, “I don’t want to weight train, because I’m afraid I’ll get too huge”.  To that I say, unless you’re consuming 200 calories a day and pounding heavy weights for 2 hours a day, you’ll never have to worry about all of a sudden waking up one day and saying to yourself, ” CRAP…I’m HUGE now!  I Didn’t see that coming!”

The ultimate plan to “leaning down”, as I like to call it (losing weight while maintaining and even building more muscle), is a healthy combination of the 2 exercise types.  Try alternating, one day run, the next day do weights and so on.  Or you can try circuit training…keeping your heart rate up while lifting low weight at high reps.  If you can fit 2 workouts in a day, do your hour of cardio in the morning on an empty stomach, and lift weights in the evening when you have some food energy in you, and you’re more alert.   The point being, make sure you train your muscles with weights, no matter what the health or fitness goal.  You’ll thank yourself the day after when you see more definition than ever before, and you’ll thank yourself years down the road when you feel stronger and more agile than ever before!

Thanks for letting me share my passion with you!  Now…What are you waiting for?!  GO HIT THE GYM !

(safely of course!)

: )