First, set your weight loss goals and enjoy the benefits of strength training. Getting started is easy.
You may already know that muscle mass naturally decreases with age. If you don’t do anything to replace the muscle you’re losing, you’ll increase your fat stores. But regular strength training can help you maintain and improve muscle mass, at any age.
As part of your weight loss program, building lean muscle mass will help you control your body fat. By increasing your lean muscle mass, your body burns calories more efficiently.
Contents
5 Benefits of Strength Training
1 Develop strong bones, which reduces the risk of osteoporosis
2 Reduce your risk of injury, strength training protects your joints from injury
3 Increase your endurance, the more you persevere, the less you will tire
4 Improve your body image
5 For a better night’s sleep
Start with simple exercises
Most fitness centers offer a variety of resistance machines, weights, and other tools for strength training. But hand weights can also be effective. Also, resistance bands, elastic type or bands available in different tensions, are inexpensive. Of course, your own body weight matters too. Try push-ups, sit-ups, and leg curls.
Start slow and work your way up
When you start strength training, start slowly. Warm up with five to ten minutes of stretching or gentle cardio activity, such as brisk walking. Next, pick up a light weight that you can lift at least 12 to 15 times, using gentle, controlled movements.
Finally, train with a weight that tires your muscles, making it difficult to complete the movement on the 12th rep. (The number of repetitions refers to the number of times you do a specific exercise. A set means that you have performed a specific number of repetitions).
If you use the right weight or resistance, you can build muscle just as effectively with a single set of 12 reps as you can with multiple sets of the same exercise. When you can easily do 12 or more reps of a specific exercise, increase the weight or resistance by up to 10%.
To give your muscles time to recover, rest a full day between each exercise for each muscle group. But stop if you feel pain. While mild muscle soreness is normal, sharp pain and aching or swollen joints are signs that you’ve overdone it. Two to three strength training sessions per week of 20 to 30 minutes are enough for most people.
* Presse Santé strives to transmit medical knowledge in a language accessible to all. In NO CASE can the information given replace medical advice.
