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Do I really need to lift weights?

Posted By: Scott Baumann, co-owner and General Manager on 01/26/2012

Whether you are a man or a woman, whether you are looking to lose 50 lbs. or just “tone up”, strength training should be the core of your program. Why? Let me explain. We’ve all known the person who struggles with diet after diet and just keeps getting bigger.  And the person who does cardio for hours every day and never loses weight, right? So why does this happen? Because both of these strategies, restrictive dieting and excessive cardio, don’t address the real problem.

The real problem here is a slow metabolism. Metabolism = how many calories your body burns daily. It is determined by a number of factors but primarily by how much muscle mass you have. More muscle mass = faster metabolism= more calories burned every day (ie: a bigger furnace to burn fat.)

Dieting and excess cardio do nothing to build muscle. Resistance training is the ONLY way to build muscle and build a faster metabolism. So even if your primary goal is weight loss and you thought you would wait until you’ve lost the weight to start toning up (a common thought, but a bad idea, by the way), start lifting some weights now. Resistance training to build muscle will speed up your fat loss efforts and is the only way you will truly change the shape of your body and the way that it burns calories. Three consistent workouts per week should do it.