Turning up the work-out beyond cardio...

People ask me all the time, "How is lifting weights going to make me thinner?" They usually follow up with, "I don't want to get all muscular and beefcake". Let's go ahead and start here.

There are principally 2 types of resistance training: Endurance and hypertrophy-specific.

Endurance training: Resistance training characterized by low weight and high repetitions. It improves overall stamina and endurance at a muscular level. In doing so this form of training facilitates the improvement of cardiac output, increased hemoglobin in the red blood cells, increased mitochondria volume and increased production of capillaries in the muscles.

What does this mean to you?

Well, improved stamina and endurance means you can spend more time doing strenuous activities before you get completely tanked out. For instance, helping a friend or loved one move into a new place or perhaps something as simple as carrying in groceries or washing the car.

Also, an improvement in cardiac output is matched by an increase in the number of capillaries in the muscles. Together, this takes away that feeling of not getting enough air by allowing the blood to move more slowly through the muscle to maintain the time needed for oxygen diffusion. Long story short, less wheezing from the more dreaded exercises. Adding an increase of hemoglobin increases the amount of oxygen carried to the muscles from the lungs in the first place.

Likewise, an increase in the number of mitochondria in the cells INCREASES THE RATE AT WHICH FAT IS BURNED during cardiovascular exercise. For the uninitiated, mitochondria are the living organelles in the cells that eat fat and spit out fuel. That's a good thing.

Furthermore, this kind of workout has been shown to cause a natural release of endorphins which are known to suppress stress, pain and anxiety as well as increase natural levels of serotonin which can ease your overall mood and stress levels as well (think of how you feel after you eat turkey on Thanksgiving...you know, tryptophan). If nothing else, it also releases that wonderful feeling of a job well done. It's what I tell my clients: What you are doing in this half-hour period is more than most people will do all year. And that's a statistical fact.

The Overload Principle
Placing a greater than usual demand on a muscle or muscle group that eventually leads to increased functionality.
Another thing people ask me is, "How do I know how much weight I should be using?" This is a good question and actually has a very involved answer. Ideally, we would first consider the concept of 1RM or one repetition max. This is the amount of weight that can be, with proper form, moved a single time. For the purpose of endurance training, we would consider 75% of 1RM. However, this amount can drastically vary throughout different muscle groups. For example, 75% of 1RM will allow me 8 or 9 repetitions with my chest whereas 75% of 1RM on a leg press will allow anywhere from 12 to 20 with my legs. Furthermore, constantly testing 1RM for every exercise you intend to perform is just not practical. This is where you have to apply judgment as well as increase the number of sets. I like to keep my number of reps to at least 8 and no more than 10 for 3 sets. This, I find, makes for a well-rounded endurance workout.

Hypertrophy-specific training: This is what builds that crazy bulky muscle. This is high weight and low repetitions. This is a totally different ball of wax and doesn't really suit our current purposes so I won't delve into the finer points of it in this particular post.

Ok, think of it like this. Endurance resistance training is college for your muscles. You train them, develop them, teach them how to function productively and the smarter and better equipped they become the more productive and efficient they will be in the real world. Now think of cardiovascular training as getting that dream job for your muscles. This is the entire reason for going to college in the first place. It's all about the job afterward. Keep in mind, you get out of your job what you put into it. The harder you work and the more time you spend doing it and refining it and coming up with new and interesting ways to do it, the more you will ultimately get out of it. Learn to love the job. Take time to do it from home if you need to. What's more, this job takes away stress and makes you feel better.

Finally, do some research on simple and sensible exercises. I would hate for anyone to gum up the works by doing exercises that are simply too complex or just too dangerous in general (yes, those exercises do exist). Use the K.I.S.S. rule: Keep It Simple...Superstar. Concentrate on muscle groups as these are stronger and easier to work out than individual muscles. Groups like the chest, the legs and the back. Using several muscles at once carries a greater benefit than single muscle exercises.

Remember, the days you don't feel like working out are the days you NEED to work out most. Stay positive and push yourself.

More later...