Running and biking are great forms of exercise, but if you really want long-lasting fat loss, reach for those dumbbells! According to a study from the University of Arizona, postmenopausal women who followed a progressive strength-training program for six years prevented weight gain more so than those who did not. Even more interesting; those who performed the least amount of squats gained significantly more weight than those who adhered to the exercise over six years. While this study targeted women only, everyone can find benefits in resistance training.

The benefits from resistance training are endless. Resistance training increases bone mineral density, which slowly decreases as we age. It improves strength and mobility for sports and activities of daily living, lowers blood pressure, and most importantly, increases lean muscle mass and decreases body fat. Decreasing body fat can help reduce your risk of other weight-related chronic diseases while an increase in lean mass will in turn boost your metabolism.

Lean muscle mass helps to boost metabolism through its metabolic activity and the ‘after-burn’ effect. Metabolism is run by muscle mass, so an increase in muscle mass also increases metabolism. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue, requiring energy to maintain itself. Because of this, muscle will continue to burn calories throughout the day. Therefore, the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you will burn when not actively working out.

Resistance training and higher intensity exercise creates a larger ‘after-burn.’ The ‘after-burn’ created post-exercise all boils down to this phenomenon called EPOC – Excess Post Oxygen Consumption. This refers to the elevated amounts of oxygen our bodies are consuming after we exercise to restore our bodies to its pre-exercise state. EPOC elevates quickly when beginning exercise, levels off throughout the exercise session, and decreases following exercise. After you stop exercising, your body is still working hard to repair muscles and restore your body by delivering oxygen to blood and muscles, decreasing body temperature, returning to a normal heart rate, and normalizing hormone levels. This restorative work burns calories and increases metabolism. EPOC decreases fairly quickly following aerobic exercise and is extended for hours after high intensity interval training and resistance training. In the end, your body is doing a lot more restorative work following resistance training than it is following steady state aerobic exercise, in turn burning more calories.

Now, what exactly do I mean by resistance and how much? Resistance can be body weight, resistance bands, suspension training, or good ol’ dumbbells and barbells. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends at least 2 days of resistance training per week, completing 8-12 repetitions of 8-10 different exercises. These recommendations complement cardiovascular exercise, which should be completed 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week, for general health. This is a great place to start, but based on your goals the frequency and intensity of your resistance training sessions can be adjusted. Cardiovascular exercise should always be a component of your routine, but if you want to spend more time pumping iron than running, be sure to give your muscles time to recover allowing 48 hours between sessions working the same muscle groups.

Right now I can hear all you ladies saying ‘but I don’t want to get bulky’ or ‘I just want to tone my arms.’ That’s alright too, but to tone up or lean out, you still need to utilize resistance training, because that is what will give you definition. Unless genetically inclined or on a very strict exercise and diet, women will not become ‘bulky’ like men. Men have twenty to thirty times higher levels of testosterone in their blood, which is why men see such an increase in muscle hypertrophy, or muscle size. Studies show that women and men respond similarly to resistance training and see similar gains in strength, but men see a much higher increase in hypertrophy than women due to their high levels of testosterone.

Coach Cota