A cardio workout can be the go-to workout everyone turns to when they want to lose weight. You can decide to start swimming, join a running club, head to an aerobics class but more recently women have been turning to strength training to lose weight. Why? There are a few reasons, the main ones being; cardio is time consuming, you can get physically exhausted, it can injure your joints and in the long term you can lose muscle mass (where your body has no tone or definition). Cardio is no longer the go-to method for fat loss.
More recently women have been turning to weight training. It is a low impact workout that can be completed in as little as 30 minutes. We know our Team Fit members, who have not lifted weights before, have been surprised at the benefits of our online weight training sessions. They have found they sweat more and burn more calories than any cardio class they have attended. And guess what, they didn’t place any impact on the knees once!
When you lift weights there is an amazing feeling of being in control and powerful. The effect of building muscle makes you burn more calories than you would during a cardio workout. Then you have the after effect that comes with resistance training. Muscles are metabolically active, so once worked, they burn calories even when you are at rest. As long as you have a resistance that is challenging for you, you will see results.
The Definition of heavy varies from person to person.
The key is to challenge yourself, within your limits.
We spoke to Fitness WBFF Pro, Andrea Wallace, on how she shredded for her competitions and to our surprise she told us 80% of her training was lifting weights and about 20% cardio for the whole 3 years. She mainly lifted weights to achieve her defined body. This is another reason why she encourages resistance workouts on the Team Fit Online programme.
You have a number of factors involved in resistance workouts that contribute to greater fat loss. That being doing more compound movements such as a squat, lunge or deadlift where more joints are involved in a movement, more muscles have to be recruited to execute them. That means more calories burned.
Act like a lady, lift like a boss
So instead of running for hours on end each week, strength training can get you the same results, and more in a quicker time without being detrimental to your body.
Every Wednesday at 7.30am join Andrea for Reps n Sets with Team Fit Online Workouts for an effective weight lifting class where you learn how to safely and effectively lift weights at home.
Contact us to trial any of our classes
Or send us a DM on Instagram