The Importance of Weight Training for Burning Fat

Cardio is important for fitness and body composition, but weight training is also important for burning fat.

A weight-training session does not always burn as many calories as cardio in one sitting, but cardio is important for weight loss. Diet changes, however, are far more effective. But you also need strength training for weight loss. Plus, it offers many more benefits.

This article discusses strength training for both adults and children. Read on!

What Is Weight Training?

Weight training uses some type of resistance, like weights, to do exercises that target all the muscle groups in the body, including the chest, back, shoulders, arms, core, and legs.

If you want to make your muscles, bones, and connective tissue stronger, you should use more resistance than your body normally handles. This can be done by using weights or working against gravity.

Weight training also helps you build lean muscle tissue. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat. This means that when you have more muscle, you burn more calories even when you are not exercising.

You don’t need to use dumbbells or machines to do weight training, but they can be helpful. You can use anything that provides resistance to work out, such as resistance bands, barbells, or a heavy backpack. If you’re a beginner, your own bodyweight might be enough to get you started.

Benefits of Weight Training

Too often, people skip weights in favor of cardio. Some people worry that if they lift weights, they will get too big. However, this is not something they should worry about. Bodybuilding of this type requires a diet and exercise plan that is specific and dedicated.

If you’re doubtful about starting a strength training program, knowing how much it can benefit your body may be motivating. Weight training can:

Help raise your metabolism , since muscle burns more calories than fat
Strengthen bones
Strengthen connective tissue (tendons and ligaments)
Make you stronger and increase muscular endurance, making everyday activities easier
Help you avoid injuries
Increase confidence and self-esteem
Improve coordination and balance

Principles of Weight Training

There are four basic principles of strength training that you should know when you’re just getting started. These principles are gradually increasing the amount of weight you lift, gradually increasing the number of repetitions you perform, using a variety of exercises, and incorporating rest days into your routine. This will ensure that your workouts are helping you to lose weight rather than hitting a weight loss plateau.

Overload

To build lean muscle tissue, you have to lifted heavier weights than you are used to lifting. It is important to do more than your body is used to in order to avoid hitting a plateau in your fitness journey.

This means that you should be lifting a weight that is heavy enough that you can only complete the desired number of repetitions. Your final repetition should be challenging, but you should still be able to maintain good form.

Progression

To keep making progress, you need to increase intensity regularly to avoid plateaus or adaptation. To change up your workout routine, you can lift heavier weights, do different exercises, and/or use a different type of resistance. You can change these things on a weekly or monthly basis.

Specificity

This means you should train for your goal . If you’re looking to get stronger, you should focus your workout routine around that goal by lifting heavier weights. If you want to lose weight, you could try circuit training, which is a combination of cardio and resistance exercises, for a more efficient and effective workout.

Rest and Recovery

Rest days are just as important as workout days. Your muscles need time to recover between workouts, so you shouldn’t work the same muscle groups on back-to-back days.

Create Your Weight Training Program

Every training program consists of several components, including the type of resistance equipment, exercises, number of reps and sets, weight, and rest period between exercises and workouts.

A well-rounded weight training routine should have a mix of volume and intensity to keep you and your muscles interested.

Choose Your Resistance

Depending on where you decide to work out, your equipment choices will vary, but the options include:

No equipment : You don’t have to start with any equipment if you’re a beginner or you’re on a budget and want to start simple. This no-weight workout gives you some ideas for how you can work out without any equipment at all.
Resistance bands : These are great for home workouts and traveling, and you’ll find them at most gyms too. They can be used for a wide variety of total-body exercises.
Dumbbells : You’ll eventually want to get a variety of weights, but you can easily start with three pairs of dumbbells: A light set (3 to 5 pounds for women, 5 to 8 pounds for men), a medium set (5 to 10 pounds for women, 10 to 15 pounds for men), and a heavy set (10 to 20 pounds for women, 15 to 30 pounds for men).
Machines : You can buy a home gym machine or use the huge variety of machines you find at the gym if you’re a member.
Kettlebells : If you know how to use them correctly, kettlebells are great for building strength and endurance. It’s best to get instruction from a professional before using them, however.

Choose Your Exercises

Choose 8-10 exercises, one for each muscle group. The muscle groups are:

Choose Your Reps and Sets

What about the number of sets and repetitions for the exercises you should be doing? Your decision should be based on your goals. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 4 to 6 repetitions with heavier weight to increase muscle size, 8 to 12 repetitions for muscular strength, and 10 to 15 repetitions for muscular endurance. In general:

For fat loss : One to 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps using enough weight that you can only complete the desired reps.
To gain muscle : Three or more sets of 6 to 8 reps to fatigue. For beginners, give yourself several weeks of conditioning before going to this level. You may need a spotter for many exercises.
For health and endurance : One to 3 sets of 12 to 16 reps using enough weight that you can only complete the desired reps.

Choose Your Weight

When deciding how much weight to lift, people usually think about how many reps and sets they’re going to do. The rule of thumb is to lift a weight heavy enough that you can only complete the desired number of repetitions. This means that you want your last repetition to be the one where you can still do the movement with good form.

If you’re a beginner or have medical or health conditions, you should find a weight that challenges you without causing fatigue.

Strength Training For Children and Adolescents

In addition to the physical benefits of increased muscle mass and performance enhancement, resistance training also offers psychological benefits like improved self-confidence and body image.

Strength training at a young age is beneficial for preventing future health issues by improving health markers and reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases.

When can a child begin resistance training?

Today’s science indicates that the sooner a child is introduced to resistance training in some form, the better. This is because old myths and misunderstandings concerning strength training in children have been busted.

A child can take up structured strength training when he or she has reached a mature enough stage to understand and follow instructions to ensure correct exercise form. The child must also have reached the neuromuscular maturity needed to maintain balance, control, and posture while performing an exercise.

Since children develop at different rates, it is impossible to say when an individual child is ready for resistance training. The average age at which all the necessary parameters are met is typically between 6 and 7 years old, but it can vary from this range.

The central nervous system is more flexible during puberty, which allows children to develop motor skills and strength. If children participate in resistance training during this time, they will have an advantage over sedentary children their age. ,31,32 It has been shown through a number of studies that children aged 5 and up can enjoy and benefit from playful resistance training, as long as they are mature enough to understand instructions and physically able to do the exercises with proper form, while being supervised.

Practical recommendations

,32,33 There are recommendations on how to structure a proper, science based resistance-training program for children and adolescents readily available from sources like the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Warm-up

A resistance-training program for children and adolescents should start with a warm-up protocol. A warm-up that gets your muscles moving and your heart rate up helps your body perform better in activities that require a lot of force. Such a routine can help prevent injuries, especially to the lower body.

A good warm-up should last for 5 to 10 minutes and involve various exercises that get your whole body moving, like hops, skips, jumping jacks, push-ups, sprints, crunches, and standing leg raises with toe touches.

Choice of exercises

There are no exercises that are bad for children based on their age, and there is a large variety of exercises to choose from. The types of exercises a child does should be based on the child’s size, training level and experience, and individual motor skills.

The exercises you select should ensure that the muscles around the joints are balanced, as well as between muscle groups that work against each other, like the quadriceps and the hamstrings, or the biceps and the triceps. This will help reduce the risk of over- or under-stimulating certain body parts or muscle groups.

No matter what type of exercise you do, it’s important to do the concentric and eccentric phases of the movements in a controlled way with proper form and full range of motion.

Intensity

Training with the heaviest weights you can lift 6 times produces the greatest gains in strength in adults. This means that if you are looking to develop muscular endurance, you should be looking to lift loads that will allow you to do 20 or more repetitions.

Youth who participate in resistance training see better results when they perform a higher number of repetitions. A repetition interval of 10 to 15 offers the best training adaptations in terms of strength increases, especially during the initial months of strength training.

An average intensity of 75% of 1RM is a common and prudent recommendation. This means that the sets are not performed to failure.

Training volume

The National Strength and Conditioning Association currently recommends that young individuals who are resistance-training perform 1-3 sets per exercise for muscle strength and health.

Training frequency

If you are resistance training and you are young, you should train 2 to 3 times per week, making sure that the days you train are not consecutive. Training just once a week provides only two-thirds of the strength gains you could get from training twice a week. In some exercises, training just once a week can actually eliminate any potential strength gains.

Training twice or three times a week is enough to allow your muscles and nervous system to recover, while still being often enough to see results.

Set rest

It is generally recommended that adults rest for 2 to 3 minutes between sets. The recommendations are not necessarily the best for children and adolescents.

The current scientific evidence does not indicate that young athletes reach a fatigued state in between sets the same way adults do. It has been suggested that one minute of rest between sets is enough for adolescents to recover maximal performance. However, resting for longer will not have a negative impact and may even be beneficial if time is not a factor.

Repetition speed

If you are new to weight lifting, you should do repetitions with a moderate tempo, maintaining complete control of the movement at all times. This will help you get used to the exercise and develop a strong mind-muscle connection. It is a good idea to do this regardless of age, but it might be especially helpful for young people who are doing strength training.