Weight Lifting Tips to Help Lose Weight Faster

When you think about your weight lifting program, have you been noticing that it's not reaching goals as fast as you'd like? Perhaps you've reached your goal weight for one week, then something happens: your ego says that you need to work those muscles harder to get there another week, and now you're upping the resistance level and breaking through a plateau. When you feel like your strength training program is suddenly stalled or if you are not seeing the progress you want, it is time to check to see if you are lifting enough.

In reality, lifting really can change your body. Lifting heavy weights can increase your metabolism so that your body will use that extra energy to burn fat and change your body composition. That extra energy is burned up pretty quick, however. After your first few reps, your body is probably tired and your metabolism is now working against you instead of working for you. As a result, afterburn (or delayed food absorption) kicks in, and your workout doesn't burn any fat or build any muscle.

Your muscles won't build much of a lot, either. Most people believe that weight lifting damages the muscle, but this isn't true. Your muscles don't get damaged when you lift weights, even though they might feel sore for a day or two afterwards. Your muscles don't "know" that they are tired, and the only way for them to "feel" like they have worked is by releasing a little bit of energy. Afterburn causes your metabolism to "work harder," leading to more calories burning during your workouts.

If you lift a heavy weight, your muscles do need some time "warm up" so that they can get ready for the heavier reps. After you lift a heavy rep, your muscles should feel "tired" because it takes a little bit of time for your muscles to "cool down." This "down" time allows your muscles to recover from the recent workout, allowing you to lift more weight for each subsequent rep. Your next rep will feel harder, and the cycle continues.

So, when you lift weights, your muscles are "worked" for anabolic effects, but you aren't building muscle mass. At best, you'll probably gain a pound or two. When you stop lifting weights, your body rebuilds the muscle that was lost, resulting in a small increase in size. So, by lifting heavy weights, you aren't actually building muscle, you're "building more muscle than you're lifting."

A much better way to lose fat is to use interval training. In this type of workout, you alternate high intensity endurance exercises with low intensity workouts. For example, jog one hour before you lift weights, and then run another hour. By alternating these exercises, you are setting up your metabolism for high intensity bursts, which will speed up your metabolic rate while burning calories at the same time.

Another common myth is that you need a lot of strength training in order to lose weight. It's true that you do need strength training if you want to build muscle, but the vast majority of people don't need it. Strength training doesn't build muscle, it builds strength. You can lift heavy weights, but if you don't have the proper strength training program in place, you'll be unable to lift as much weight. In other words, you can train hard, but you can't train smart.

The number one reason people don't build muscle or lose fat is because their workout plans simply don't allow enough recovery time between workouts. Between meals, most people have three to four hours to recover between workouts. If you're trying to build a lot of lean muscle, you need to give your body at least four hours between workouts, so that your resting metabolism has plenty of time to repair itself.