In my last blog post about belly fat loss I mentioned strength training, in other words, adding muscle.
And then it occurred to me that many women (and yes, even many men) are confused about why muscle is so ESSENTIAL.
So we might title this week’s blog post:
MUSCLE: Why you need it!
First, you need time to build muscle so it’s important you don’t get discouraged. You can’t take a linear approach like you can with fat loss. Muscle is built in spurts.
Next, adding muscle will melt body fat faster than any diet plan or cardio workout.
How? It increases your metabolic rate.
Muscle gives you an edge because it requires fuel to burn. It’ll burn up calories and your body will have less calories to store as fat. Another way to say this is that your consumed calories are burned at a quicker rate.
And YES, even over the age of 35 people can still build muscle!
You lose more than a pound of muscle every year past the age of 35, which means keeping muscle and adding more muscle is a MUST.
That’s because muscle (even a POUND of it) melts off body fat. If you don’t pay attention to your muscle mass, you’ll get fat.
Here are some tips to apply to your muscle gaining efforts:
1. Change your routines frequently. Remember, muscle is built in spurts and responds to intense activity. Once your body gets used to what you’re asking it to do, it’s time to change things up.
2. You want to keep your training fresh. Often a three week routine followed by a week of rest and then a new routine for the following three weeks works well. Cycle your routines.
Some people need to gain muscle to look the way they want and some people have enough muscle and just need to burn fat. I rarely come across anyone who doesn’t need to diet down first and then add some muscle. Five to ten pounds of muscle added for most of us is a good goal.
Again, we all should be REALLY serious about adding lean muscle to our bodies. Don’t think it’s not important for you just because you’re not into “bodybuilding.”
I’m talking about having a healthy and lean body look. I don’t like the word “toned” but that’s the image most people think of. When we see a woman who has a healthy proportion of fat and muscle, we often think of that woman as “toned”.
Yes, we need to lose body fat, but adding muscle ensures the fat doesn’t come back!
So I hope this refreshes your memory as to why we need muscle.
If you’re not already doing muscle KEEPING or muscle GAINING activities, I’m encouraging you to start NOW. You have nothing to lose (maybe) and plenty to gain!
shelli
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