Positively Fit Tips & Tricks
Get Quick Results when Shaping Up For Summer!
by Shana Daniels on 05/16/18
If you want to look & feel better in your bathing suit or any other skin baring "Summer attire", now is the time to get busy! The best sure-fire, quickest & most efficient way to tone, tighten & create your ideal body is by doing resistance training at least twice a week. So if you want more "bang for your buck", please read on.
The beauty of working out with weights is that if there's any body parts you wish to sculpt & tone up (think legs, triceps, abs, etc...), you can just isolate & focus on those particular areas & truly make a difference in their appearance. That is just not possible with cardio, or Yoga alone, because even though these forms of exercise are beneficial for other reasons & you want to include them as well, the fact is, you can't "spot reduce", whereas with weights/resistance bands you can "spot tone" & actually re-sculpt your body!
In other words, say you're trying to lose weight & also want to tone & tighten your muscles but you are only doing cardio activities, well, if you're combining your efforts with eating "clean" & watching your total caloric intake, you will lose weight & body fat, but you will not change the shape of your body, so if you started out with a large "pear shaped"body, you would end up with a smaller "pear shaped" body, & could still have soft or flabby muscles. This can be very frustrating because most people are wanting different results, so if your goal is to get that lean "hard body", you really need to add that resistance training in my friends!
Some other benefits you'll get from weight training include:
- An increase in your metabolism-lean muscle is "active tissue" while fat is "inactive tissue". Muscle burns up to 15 X's the calories of fat, so you burn more calories even while being sedentary or sleeping!
- When you work out with weights, you continue to burn calories at a higher rate for up to 24-48 hours after your workout, whereas with cardio you only burn calories at an accelerated rate for 4-8 hours afterward.
- By just strength training twice a week,you increase your bone density & strengthen not only your muscles but also your ligaments & tendons thus preventing osteoporosis.
- You'll lose inches & fit into smaller sized clothing because muscle is more compact than fat-i.e.one pound of muscle takes up about half the space than one pound of fat does!
- It improves your posture when you strengthen the upper back muscles, so you'll look & stand taller & feel more confident.
- Helps improve the body's ability to process sugar properly & improves insulin sensitivity which is very beneficial for those dealing with diabetic conditions.
- Studies show that strength training may increase the "good" HDL-cholesterol, while lowering the "bad" LDL-cholesterol & triglyceride levels.
- Helps ease the pain for people suffering from arthritis by strengthening the muscles & tendons surrounding the joints thus allowing for a fuller range of motion & making joint movement easier & more fluid.
- Research proves that the positive benefits of strength training affect people of all ages, so it's never too late to get started!
Exercise is actually the "fountain of youth" at the cellular level because when you engage in physical activity your muscles release specific chemicals that signal all the cells of your body to grow, whereas sedentary muscles let out the opposite type of chemicals which tell the cells to decay.
This process of growth that spreads throughout every cell of our bodies makes us functionally younger-a lot younger. True biological aging is a surprisingly slow & graceful process. You can live your life in a powerful, healthy & fit body if you are willing to put in the work-consistency is the key, & the rewards keep on giving! So decide now to add years to your life & life to your years!
Here's to living up to your full potential,
Shana
