Hope your having a great week and implementing the strategies from the last email.
In today’s tip I want to share with you the importance of resistance training and why you should incorporate some into each workout. And can I say straight off the bat, no ladies it won’t make you bulky, you lack the necessary levels of the hormone testosterone to make you bulky. You will get stronger yes, leaner yes, have definition in your arms, legs and abdominals yes, but bulky…. sorry no.
The part I didn’t share with you in our metabolic momentum discussion is, what parts of your body continually require energy? Your heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys etc. work all day and night and require a small amount of energy to continue to their respective jobs. This is known as basal metabolic function – providing the bare minimum energy to maintain necessary bodily function. Fat tissue is quite dormant, though having a massive energy supply itself, really doesn’t require much energy to just sit there. Bones don’t require much to sit there and provide structure either, they are similar to a picture frame around a picture, don’t really do much as it’s the picture that gets all the glory, but try and hang a picture without one!
The body part that requires a constant flow of energy to keep performing its daily duties is your muscles, with every thing you do during the day muscles are working, if your sitting down certain muscles are working and certain muscles are resting, but then if you stand up other muscles work while other muscles rest. This pattern continues for every task you perform. If you have a low level of muscle mass, your body won’t require too much energy to complete all its tasks on a day to day level, however if you have a higher level of muscle mass obviously your body will require an elevated level of energy to complete its everyday tasks. And by higher level of muscle mass I don’t mean you need to look like Mr. /Mrs. Body builder, it’s simply enough to give you nice definition in your triceps, nice curve to your bum and a nice shape to your legs.
To achieve this increase in muscle mass/shape/tone/definition (whichever is least scary for you) you don’t have to lift huge amounts of weights for hours on end. You can get almost all the strength you require from simply performing ‘body weight’ exercises ie. Squats, pushups, pull-ups, dips ect. When performed correctly these exercises really benefit your high intensity cardiovascular work. In fact I use these very exercises and some other favorites I have between repeated sprint bouts for all my clients to make sure their metabolism stays firing during and after their workouts, that way when all the fat melts away they have a nice, lean and toned physique to show off.
Good luck,
Andrew Zagami