Strength Training is Important For Weight Loss

Article by Chris Morris

Losing weight requires a person to moderate the amount they eat, reduce eating unhealthy foods and exercise. Exercise should involve both cardiovascular as well as strength training activities. Weight lifting will tone muscles and help firm up your body after all that weight is lost. Working out the muscles as the weight comes off will help eliminate the flabby feeling and look one get as they lose weight.

Strength training can involve weights, isometric exercises, machines or even rubber bands. There are many ways to engage your muscles as you exercise. One of the most popular and well-known is using barbells and weight plates. You can get a full body exercise by performing bench press, shoulder press, curls, squats and lunges among many other variations. Dumbbells or barbells can be used for any or all of these movements.

A person’s body weight can also be used to strengthen and tone your body. Push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups are well-known exercises. There is a huge variety of additional exercises that you can perform as well such as dips for the tricep muscles, squats and lunges with your hands locked behind your head, front and side plank for your core, etc. The list is long and varied and really your imagination is the only thing limiting you from developing an exercise using only your body weight.

Weight machines are popular especially for those just beginning with weight training. The machines reduce the possibility of injury as the movements are self contained. You can easily adjust the amount of weight used to lift with a simple adjustment of the key. You will need to make sure you read the recommended positioning of your body for the exercise. Control and deliberate lifting of the weight is important to get the most out of the activity. If you are in a gym or health facility, the trainers should be able to show you how to use the equipment.

One of the more interesting tools are resistance bands. These are basically big rubber bands with varying amounts of resistance as you pull them. You can maneuver the bands to do most any exercise from chest exercises similar to bench presses with weights to arm curls. The bands are very adaptable and once you get used to the movements they can definitely help tone your muscles. You will simply have o task for assistance or read the manual to get the most out of the exercises.

Muscle toning with weights is an important part of your goal of losing weight and getting in shape. There are many types of exercises and movements that can be done to firm up your body.