Weight Training For Ladies - Does It Burn Calories?

What's your goal in mind when you step into the gym or any kind of exercises? - weight loss? strength? muscle gain? I run, I lift and I also love high-intensity interval training (HIIT). But today's post will focus predominantly on weight training for ladies.

I'm a lady, and I have seen enough ladies in the gym whose exercise routines revolve around jogging on a treadmill. It's not bad, but cardiovascular exercises (running on the road or treadmill) do little to physical progress or burning calories, at least for me. I began running in 2011. I find that cardio is decent for burning calories, but it only burns calories while you're running. Studies have proven that there is limited Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption with cardiovascular exercises. 

I personally find that, apart from getting the runner's high or my knees giving way, nothing significant happens in terms of progress in my overall fitness. I'm no expert, but this point is proven in many studies and expert insights that might change your perspective towards weight training, especially if you're someone who feels intimidated by weights: "The_hierarchy_of_fat_loss". Here's one study from the article:

Kramer, Volek et al.

Overweight subjects were assigned to three groups: diet-only, diet plus aerobics, diet plus aerobics plus weights. The diet group lost 14.6 pounds of fat in 12 weeks. The aerobic group lost only one more pound (15.6 pounds) than the diet group (training was three times a week starting at 30 minutes and progressing to 50 minutes over the 12 weeks).

The weight training group lost 21.1 pounds of fat (44% and 35% more than diet and aerobic only groups respectively). Basically, the addition of aerobic training didn't result in any real world significant fat loss over dieting alone.

Thirty-six sessions of up to 50 minutes is a lot of work for one additional pound of fat loss. However, the addition of resistance training greatly accelerated fat loss results.

Alwyn said that working with a large number of muscle groups from squats, lunges, deadlifts, rows, raises, push ups and pull ups in a circuit, keeping your reps within 8-12 range, will help you build muscle and burn calories long after you completed the exercises - up to 38 HOURS.

The take-away message, though, is "Nutrition". You can't out-exercise a shitty diet. You lose fat through a caloric deficit, while fuelling yourself with sufficient protein, good carbs and essential fats. You want to lose fat? Include weight training in your routine and pair it with whatever cardio/high-intensity exercises that you do. 

• Don’t let fear stop you from training your strength. There is no such thing as toning. You don’t get bulky from lifting weights, your muscle will improve definition and reduce the layers of fat around these muscles.
• Read widely and research on the concept of any exercise you do, until you know enough to do it well. Don’t do it because someone else does it or told you it was good for you.

I'm in Yangon for a week and was surprised by the gym at Trader's Hotel Yangon last night. I didn't think I'd find a good gym here, but there I was working on perfecting my deadlift. The error in this video - my hips rise too soon. 

Fail, but always fail better.

Have a strong week everyone!