A lot of people make the mistake of only doing cardiovascular exercise and dieting when looking to lose fat. This is commonly due to the misconception that resistance training is just for building big and bulky muscles.
While cardiovascular exercise is important for fat loss, you’ll find that resistance training is equally if not more important.
The one thing to keep in mind is that the mitochondria of a muscle cell is the only place where fat can be burned for fuel. This is why the more lean muscle you have, the more fat you can burn. It’s the same rationale for why the most muscular athletes like sprinters and gymnasts have the lowest body fat percentages.
The Resistance Training And Calorie Burning Misconception
There’s also the misconception that cardio is better than resistance training because you burn more calories during the workout. For starters, it all depends how you’re doing your resistance workouts and at what intensity.
Traditional health club resistance workouts done on machines burn very little calories while burst training done with free weights or your own body weight can actually burn more calories than regular aerobic workouts.
It’s important to remember that it’s not necessarily how many calories are burned during the workout but rather after the workout that’s important.
The benefit of resistance training is, if don properly, you can continue to burn calories from fat up to 36-48 hours after a workout. Whatever fat burning that occurred with regular cardio workouts stopped when the workout was over.
The Importance Of Resistance Training On Hormonal Balances
While males have more muscle mass than the females both can take advantage of resistance training for fat loss. As men and women get older the testosterone levels naturally drop. Testosterone is what helps men increase muscle mass and strength.
One of the best ways to naturally stimulate testosterone hormone production is through resistance training. So if both men and women don’t start resistance training before they hit their thirties, they can lose lean muscle, slow down metabolism and see some weight gain.
Resistance training doesn’t need to involve heavy weights, barbells, or super-complex exercise machines. In fact, you can get resistance from resistance bands, medicine balls, or even your own body weight.
Any way you go about it, it’s essential to include resistance training with your cardio if you want to be successful with fat loss.
0 Comments