Strength Training is Better than Dieting for Weight Loss
Our muscle mass peaks in 20's, that means we keep losing muscles as we age. The amount of muscle loss is accelerated after 40's, that rate is about 10% every decade. Isn't that scary?
130 pounds woman at age 40 with body fat is 25%.
Her fat free mass is 97.5lbs at age of 40. What will happen if she does not do any strength training when she reaches 50 years old. Her fat free body mass will be 97.5lbs x 90%= 87.75lbs. It is about one pound muscle mass loss a year. Our body produces heat to maintain our body temperature and body cell and blood repair and production which is called basal metabolic rate. Age, nutrition, and activity are factors that influence basal metabolic rate. Body composition becomes the key how much we will burn calories a day. Fat tissue has a lower metabolic activity than muscle tissue. As lean muscle mass increases, metabolic rate increases.
A pound of lean mass burns 35 to 50 calories a day!
A pound of lean mass burns 35 to 50 calories a day, that is not a much. But the loss of a pound of lean mass causes 6 pounds of weight gain in a year. Since the woman from 40 years old to 50, she may gain 30 pounds without stopping sarcopenia.
Higher intensities of training produced better effects compared to low and moderate intensities. To be able to increase muscle mass, a 60 to 85 percent intensity of the one-repetition-maximum is necessary. To be able to increase quickly available muscle force, greater intensities (85 percent or more) are necessary. The ideal amount of exercise for healthy older people is 3 to 4 training sessions each week.
The Importance Of Exercise
In this chapter, I will tell you about different types of exercises and their effects on different aspects of your life and health.
Exercise to improve bone and muscle strength
Flexibility increasing exercises
Cardiovascular exercise
Aerobics
Exercising
Exercising and dieting are two things that go hand in hand. If you just diet without exercising, you may not see any result at all because you are not losing calories fast enough in your diet. Also if you do manage to lose weight without dieting, you would look thin and frail as you lose your fat. So it is better to exercise to keep your body fit while you diet. There are also other reasons to exercise.
“A recent survey showed that seven out of ten adults do not exercise regularly and close to four out of ten are not physically active. If you do not exercise, then you will risk getting stroke, diabetes and heart disease. This has lead to death for about 300 000 people.”
Before you start exercising, you should consult a physician. This is to know your current body condition and see if you would risk injuries if you perform tiring exercise activities. When you first start out exercising, do it slowly. First start off with only 10 minutes which then is increase to 20 minutes then to 30 minutes and so on and so forth over the period of months. This will help avoid your body to feel very sore after each work out and decrease any injury risk.
You should at least do 30 minutes or more of moderate cardiovascular activities each day. You do not have to do all 30 minutes together; it can be even short bouts of intermittent activities. Then twice a week, do exercise that would train your muscles. You can incorporate this physical exercise into your daily life. For example, take the stairs to the office instead of the elevator; go for a jog during your lunch time or park further away from your work place.
If you feel this is a too much of a chore, why not try to make your leisure time more active. Instead of sitting at home only, ask your family out for a bicycle ride, join a rock climbing club or just stroll the park every evening.
Pick out exercising activities that you would enjoy to do, find it satisfying and gives you a feeling of accomplishment. A successful run will motivate you more to be physically active. Make it easy for you to be active by picking exercise that is easier accessible so you will not be unmotivated every time you want to perform your exercise. Lastly, pick out exercise that is compatible with your body and current age.
The 3 Main Types Of Exercise
First of all, you need to know that there are three kinds of exercise plans which are available and all four of them have different advantages for your physical health.
Exercise To Improve Bone and Muscle Strength
These exercises are also called strength and resistance training. Most of the people take body building as strength and resistance increasing exercise but you need to know that body building is another category of exercise in which the primary goal of the person is to enhance muscle growth.
You can add some weight lifting and body building in your fat burning and weight control plan but you should do it to an extent where your body can bear it without any problem. If you over tried this exercise then, your whole body can be a mess. I have seen people joining gyms and doing hard exercise just by watching other people doing it. This is not the way to go instead consult your trainer personally and ask him about appropriate exercises which can fit in your needs. If your weight is under control and you need just light exercise to keep your healthy system going then, you do not need to lift heavy weights.
Flexibility Increasing Exercises
Second type of exercise plan can be to increase your flexibility and in more common terms you can say that if you used to have pain in your arms, legs, lower back, neck and other similar areas of your body then, you need to make your body more flexible. Flexibility will increase resistance and you will be able to cope with more difficult positions and postures easily. You have to go through different postures in daily life for example if you work in an office then, you can be given an uncomfortable chair at times or you may be given some work in which you have to concentrate hard on computer screen and you cannot rest your back with chair. In these situations, if you do not have any flexibility in your body then, it will create problems but regular flexibility exercises which will not take more than 10-15 minutes of your time, will increase this flexibility and will make you feel better and active.
Cardiovascular Exercise
Cardio means heart and vascular means the vessels of blood and this whole phrase means that these exercises improve the functionality of your lungs and make the use of oxygen more effective and rectify any heart problems which you can have. These exercises are little time consuming and should be properly learned from your doctor or trainer. Most of the times, people who already have got some heart problem perform these kinds of exercises to avoid any future problems.
Weight training is the quickest and feasible way to increase your lean mass ratio. This method works better than caloric restriction dieting to maintain health weight.