Weight Training or Resistance Training stimulates the muscles and the bodily systems. The response to which is supercompensation to the increased load or stress on the body. This should be visible in the form of increased muscle size, strength, endurance and stamina.
Lift a weight, do as many reps in a way to tax the muscles, go close to failure of the muscle and rack the weight. Rest for a few minutes and do it again, always focusing on the muscles being worked, and trying hard to never stress the joints. It is that simple, yet this has dawned on me after many years.
Earlier it was always about increasing the reps or weight on the bar, serving only to stress the joints, increasing recovery times and often cause injury. There are many to blame for this, as some strength advocates put so much emphasis on strength that they almost ask us to ignore the feel of the exercise on the muscle focusing solely on the bar going up and the number of reps being done. As per them increase is size is just a by-product. Famous line is focus on function, form will follow.
On the other end of the spectrum is another dangerous set of people whose whole focus is on food, protein supplements, fatloss foods, and wrapped in all this is the hidden steroid menace. Advise from these people is very dangerous, as body may show great results, but internally one might be losing his vital organs like liver function, natural testosterone production, etc.
What about Fat loss through exercise? Well, I don't know if this a business strategy or whether it's just good intentions with poor understanding of expenditure of fuel during exercise. Any form of exercise during and in recovery from exercise will expend some energy, i.e. burn calories, but not enough for us mostly sedantry people. Professional Atheletes yes, they can ignore the number of calories they eat, as I am assuming they are exerting 6 to 8 hours of their day dedicated in improving their skill for the sport they intend to do well in. We 9 to 5 desk job people cannot assume that an hour of exercise per day, however intense can result in the fat loss visible in atheletes. We will have to manage our intake better, without which you will get FAT, however dedicated you are for that 1 hour you spend in the gym every single day of the year. It is just not going to be enough.
Exercise can increase help increase your capacity to do more work, and that is all about it. It will not reduce your fat.
And please, there is no food that burns body fat. There might be thermic effect of certain foods, but that would be small percentage of what it can actually do. Mostly it will add extra calories to your frame, mostly in the form of what, yes, FAT again.
Does yoga burn fat, does aerobics burn fat, does walking burn fat, does resistance training burn fat. None of the above burns fat. They might help in expending some energy, but that's about it. Nothing else.
All these activities are good for you. Yoga helps in maintaining flexibility and mobility. Aeorbics like running is a functional ability, one should always have that ability, similarly walking. If you run, you surely can walk. Resistance training helps in improving strength, saves muscles to atrophy. All the above will increase your aerobic capacity and cardiovascular health. There is no better form of exercise, one cannot be done to the exclusion of the other.
If weight loss is the goal, then one has to reduce the amount of food one consumes. There is no escaping that for normal people whose main occupation doesn't involve intense physical exertion of 5 hours a day and hence shouldn't be compared with someone who does, read professional atheletes.
Lift a weight, do as many reps in a way to tax the muscles, go close to failure of the muscle and rack the weight. Rest for a few minutes and do it again, always focusing on the muscles being worked, and trying hard to never stress the joints. It is that simple, yet this has dawned on me after many years.
Earlier it was always about increasing the reps or weight on the bar, serving only to stress the joints, increasing recovery times and often cause injury. There are many to blame for this, as some strength advocates put so much emphasis on strength that they almost ask us to ignore the feel of the exercise on the muscle focusing solely on the bar going up and the number of reps being done. As per them increase is size is just a by-product. Famous line is focus on function, form will follow.
On the other end of the spectrum is another dangerous set of people whose whole focus is on food, protein supplements, fatloss foods, and wrapped in all this is the hidden steroid menace. Advise from these people is very dangerous, as body may show great results, but internally one might be losing his vital organs like liver function, natural testosterone production, etc.
What about Fat loss through exercise? Well, I don't know if this a business strategy or whether it's just good intentions with poor understanding of expenditure of fuel during exercise. Any form of exercise during and in recovery from exercise will expend some energy, i.e. burn calories, but not enough for us mostly sedantry people. Professional Atheletes yes, they can ignore the number of calories they eat, as I am assuming they are exerting 6 to 8 hours of their day dedicated in improving their skill for the sport they intend to do well in. We 9 to 5 desk job people cannot assume that an hour of exercise per day, however intense can result in the fat loss visible in atheletes. We will have to manage our intake better, without which you will get FAT, however dedicated you are for that 1 hour you spend in the gym every single day of the year. It is just not going to be enough.
Exercise can increase help increase your capacity to do more work, and that is all about it. It will not reduce your fat.
And please, there is no food that burns body fat. There might be thermic effect of certain foods, but that would be small percentage of what it can actually do. Mostly it will add extra calories to your frame, mostly in the form of what, yes, FAT again.
Does yoga burn fat, does aerobics burn fat, does walking burn fat, does resistance training burn fat. None of the above burns fat. They might help in expending some energy, but that's about it. Nothing else.
All these activities are good for you. Yoga helps in maintaining flexibility and mobility. Aeorbics like running is a functional ability, one should always have that ability, similarly walking. If you run, you surely can walk. Resistance training helps in improving strength, saves muscles to atrophy. All the above will increase your aerobic capacity and cardiovascular health. There is no better form of exercise, one cannot be done to the exclusion of the other.
If weight loss is the goal, then one has to reduce the amount of food one consumes. There is no escaping that for normal people whose main occupation doesn't involve intense physical exertion of 5 hours a day and hence shouldn't be compared with someone who does, read professional atheletes.
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