Tracking your weight can be frustrating, especially if you have more than a few pounds to lose. Besides, body weight can fluctuate by a few pounds a day, making it even more frustrating!

When you’re thirsty, your body panics and retains water, causing
you to weigh more. When you’re adequately hydrated, your body drops the water
weight causing you to weigh less.

Although these small fluctuations in weight don’t matter in the long term, it can mess with your motivation. 

Fat Loss Not Weight Loss

Muscle weighs more than fat but takes up less space. That’s why two people can weigh the same but look different.

By focusing on replacing fat with muscle you can lose inches around your belly, arms, thigh, and hips without losing a single pound on the scale. This is known as body recomposition. You can end up with a completely different ratio of fat to muscle, which is good news if you’re trying to lose weight.

The more muscle mass you have, the faster your metabolism. Therefore, you will burn more calories, which speeds up fat loss.

But please don’t obsess over the number on the scale if you want to build muscle. It’s so easy to panic when that number goes up even if you look leaner in the mirror!

Body Recomposition

Body recomposition is simply the process of replacing body fat with muscle, which is achieved by aerobic and anaerobic training.

Spending endless hours on the treadmill might help you lose body fat but it does very little for muscle growth. You need to combine running, or some other form of aerobic activity, with weight training for body recomposition to take place.

Start with light weights you can manage easily while learning proper form. It helps to have a trainer when first starting to ensure correct technique and avoid injury. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, start challenging yourself by lifting just a little bit heavier each time.

Nutrition plays a BIG part in building muscle mass. You need between 0.5 and 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight for muscle growth. Stick to lean sources of protein, such as chicken breast, beans, lentils, and Greek yogurt.

Lastly, instead of weighing yourself every day or week, consider twice a month. Get a scale that measures body fat percentage and muscle mass, and don’t be afraid to look for professional advice if you’re not getting the results you’re expecting.

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So, you kicked off the New Year with a great resistance workout and left the gym beaming with pride, but now your muscles are so stiff and sore that it hurts to even walk. Should you give your body a break or grind through the pain and keep going, forcing your body to adjust to your new exercise routine?

There is no simple answer to this question because it depends on the intensity and duration of the pain.

How Bad Is the Pain?

There are two main types of muscle soreness associated with intense resistance training: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and Rhabdomyolysis.

DOMS – the Annoying Pain

DOMS is caused by microscopic tears in the muscle fibers. Although that sounds kind of bad, it’s actually part of the muscle building process. The amount of damage varies depending on the intensity, duration and type of exercise.

The soreness starts as early as 12 hours after an intense workout and can last several days. However, the worst pain occurs about 48 hours after the workout when you’re first starting out. Your body gets acclimated in a few days and the pain goes away.

Rhabdomyolysis – the Dangerous Pain

The second and more serious type of muscle soreness is called rhabdomyolysis. It occurs when a direct or indirect muscle injury causes the death of muscle fibers, releasing toxic substances into the bloodstream. This can lead to kidney failure if the kidneys are unable to remove these wastes from the body.

Rhabdomyolysis can happen to anyone, from beginners to pros. Its symptoms are muscle pain, weakness, problems with urination, brown or dark red urine, irregular heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and vomiting. If you experience these symptoms after a particularly tough workout, rush to the ER immediately.

Bottom line, if you’re only experiencing mild soreness that makes walking up the stairs uncomfortable, or when stretching your arms or legs in a certain way, it’s perfectly okay to continue your workouts. In fact, it’s likely that the pain will decrease significantly after you’ve been exercising for a few minutes and your muscles are warm and filled with blood. However, don’t push yourself as hard as you did the previous day; go lighter.

If the pain is bad enough that you think you might have sprained something, take a day off. However, keep in mind that a day can easily turn into a couple of days or week. Get back to your workouts as soon as the pain reaches manageable levels. Push yourself but in a healthy way.

How Long Have You Been Sore?

Other than the intensity of the pain, you should also consider the duration. DOMS should be gone within 3 to 7 days without any form of therapy. If the soreness lasts longer than this and your workout performance declines noticeably, your body may be trying to tell you that it’s time to chill out.

Take a day or two off and increase your protein intake to speed up muscle recovery. Alternatively, you can change your workout to give the sore muscles time to heal. If you have overworked your abs and arms, give them a break and focus on your legs for a couple of workouts – but remember to give your legs at least one day off between workouts as you should never work the same muscle group two days in a row (the exception to this rule might be abs; it’d be wise to seek advice from your personal trainer).

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness happens to everyone; most times you can push through the pain and discomfort. However, if the pain is too intense or lasts longer than a week, it would be wise to take a break and seek medical attention.

Always remember that an object in motion stays in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest. We were built to move! So, do what you need to do to be healthy and well, and don’t let pain keep you on the sidelines indefinitely (unless it’s an injury) because your body will start to deteriorate, which is much worse for your life and health in the long run.

(Photo credit courtesy of Trainer Academy https://traineracademy.org/) 

The post Still Sore From Your Last Workout? Take a Break or Keep Going? appeared first on Lifestyle.

Weightlifting increases muscle mass, so it’s great for your health and transforming your body. In the long run, it torches more calories than pure cardio because it keeps one’s metabolism elevated over a longer period of time than does aerobic activity long after the workout is done. Plus, the more muscle you add, the more calories you burn because muscle uses more energy than fat does.

Additionally, weightlifting improves posture and strength, making everyday activities easier.

Lastly, weightlifting is a great way to challenge yourself to create a strong work ethic because it takes grit to stick with it.

What to Expect

It goes without saying that weightlifting isn’t a walk in the park; it takes time and dedication to master correct form but the time and effort are worth it.

Most lifters rely on 4 main exercises known as the Big Four: the squat, bench press, overhead press, and dead lift. These lifts are incorporated into nearly all routines because they use multiple muscles at once.

For example, the bench press relies on the chest muscles, shoulders and triceps. It’s the perfect lift for less experienced weight lifters who lack the knowledge and experience to perform isolation routines that are designed to target individual muscles.

Getting Started

There are plenty of great resources online about the Big Four and how to do them. However, if you’re a complete beginner, your best bet is to join a gym and get a personal trainer.

While the weight lifting culture at some gyms is not exactly welcoming to beginners, the benefits of lifting correctly offset the discomfort of being a newcomer. In fact, most people are more than willing to offer help if you ask but otherwise they won’t bother you.

At the end of the day, learning to lift weights is just like learning anything else. It is challenging in the beginning but if you stick with it, it will be incredibly rewarding in more ways than you can imagine, especially with regards to weight loss, body composition and the great numbers you’ll get at your annual physical.

Women can Lift Weights Too

Many women consider weight lifting to be a man’s sport. They fear that lifting weights will make them look bulky and massive. However, this is a terrible and unfortunate misconception; weightlifting actually makes the bodies of women look shapely and toned. Weightlifters who look massive and bulky usually become that way by using steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. If you don’t take drugs, you won’t become huge and bulky.

In closing, the thing to keep in mind is that building muscle turns your body into a fat burning machine. It does this by increasing lean body mass, which in turn increases the amount of calories you burn daily. Combined with a modest calorie deficit, this means you will burn fat as fuel, resulting in a more toned and shapely body (and a healthier one, too because appearance isn’t everything).

A healthy diet, plus weight lifting is more effective for weight loss than a healthy diet alone. It’s because weight lifting burns fat while cardio burns both fat and muscle.

If you want to start lifting weights, talk to a personal trainer or coach. Remember, it’s easy to injure yourself when first starting; using correct form is more important than how many pounds you lift. So do yourself a favor, to prevent injury and make steady progress, seek advice from someone who knows what they’re doing as you begin your journey to total body transformation.

The post Less Treadmill & More Weights! appeared first on Lifestyle.