Join the Muscle Mass Today
When this happens, they can’t do as much physically, so their performance declines when surfing, playing golf, hitting a tennis ball or even carrying a bag of groceries.
Muscle holds a lot of your body water and is essential for regulating body temperature. Muscles are big spenders and burn lots of calories 24/7. When people are on restrictive diets ( bad ) the body is tricked into believing it’s on a deserted island with minimal or no food – therefore as a natural defense mechanism, the body attacks it’s most active tissue, muscle in order to SLOW down the body’s metabolic rate.
There are wonderful health benefits of building muscle:
Increases endurance and flexibility
Protects your joints (reducing risk for injury)
Increases your energy level and boosts metabolism
The math: If you gain 1 pound of additional muscle tissue which can burn 35-50 calories per day…over the course of a year you can burn 91,250 calories a year! Fat burns 2 calories per day. On average, the amount of muscle gain when performing a resistance program, a person can gain 3-5 pounds ever 3-4 months. Keep in mind that this will vary greatly depending upon age, genetics, and type of training program you are performing.
To help my clients increase their strength, the goal is to do strength-building activities a least two to three times per week. Sometimes the challenge is getting clients t use enough resistance to overload the muscle. Some people, especially my older female clients, tend to under estimate their abilities.
You can accomplish the weight exercises with a number of different tools. For beginners, I recommend resistance bands and free weights. Machines are okay, but don’t allow one to learn how to stabilize the body on their own. Also, using your own body weight is great. Performing simple squats or push-ups are an example. Or pull ups are good too.
The more advanced person, one can change the angle variable to change the intensity of the particular muscle group. Or of course, depending upon your fitness goals, increase the amount of weight. Remember, if increasing load you may need a spotter.
If you hop on the scale and you see a little weight gain, don’t panic. Muscle weighs more than fat. The proof it’s working: Your clothes fit looser because of the overall toning strength training provides.
Joining the muscle mass is a good thing! Remember to keep good form when performing any resistance training, and manage a weight that won’t lead to injury. Progress slowly and then begin to increase the load or intensity. Go ahead, show me those muscles!
I hope you enjoyed this article. Feel free to leave a comment!
Warm Aloha,
Suzie Cooney, CPT www.suzietrainsmaui.com/blog
