​Want To Be Toned?
Silly question really, I guess we all want to be toned and have good shape and the good news is it with a good weight training programme you can, and it does not mean spending hours at the gym.

Weight training is the key to strengthening your skeletal muscles, these are the muscles that provide movement and sit under the skin and can be seen.  As I mentioned in the previous e-mail, it is very hard to build muscle and I know many females shy away from weights as they do not want to increase muscle size.

The truth is by lifting relatively heavy weights you will put your muscles under stress. The body will adapt to this by increasing the strength and tone of the muscle, providing the programme is performed consistently, is hard enough to cause adaption and the resistance is increased over time, otherwise you will find yourself going backward. The principle of reversibility!

My advice is to have your programme checked on a regular basis to make sure your balance of exercises is correct, that they are performed correctly and they are hard enough.
If you're not going forward you're going backwards.
Jon

Today I will take a look at the first reasons from my list of 7, the first being increase of metabolic rate.

Your basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories your body burns every day at rest without you doing anything. It is largely dependent on age, gender and genetics.

As we get older your BMR unfortunately slows down making it easier to gain fat as we age. There are probably many reasons for this but one main reason could be a loss of muscle tissue.

Muscle is not a massive calorie burner.  To maintain 1 ib of muscle seems to require around 10 calories a day.  To build a pound of muscle requires lifting heavy weights and is not a fast process, especially for women due largely to a difference in testosterone.

So I feel the real value for performing weight training in terms of increasing metabolic rate is to be able to maintain muscle tissue rather than losing it.

Use it or lose it!
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So, we have looked at cardio exercise without paying too much attention to weight training.  I would like to start this series by bringing to your attention the top 7 reasons why resistance training should be an important part of yout training schedule.

1.  Increased Metabolic Rate.

2.  Shape & tone.

3.  Reduced injury risk.

4.  Increased bone health.

5.  Delay the effect of muscle loss.

6.  Postive hormonal effect.

7.  Reduced risk of many health related illness.

Short and sweet, I will cover each benefit in more detail in the next series of blogs.

Happy pumping
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