1.
Weights Increase Your Metabolism Lifting weights increases your metabolic rate - the amount of overall calories you burn each day.
You'll still be burning calories even when you're sitting on the couch after a weight training session.
This is because after a strength & toning workout your body uses up energy to repair the muscles.
Aerobic exercise - such as jogging or cycling long distances - doesn't have any significant effect on your metabolism.
Lifting weights, however, has been shown to elevate your metabolic rate and have your body burning fat for up to 39 hours following the workout! 2.
Weights Burn 40% More Fat than Running Many people mistakenly believe that aerobic cardio training is the key to burning fat.
However, hundreds of scientific studies all show that when compared to aerobics, hitting the weights burns a higher amount of fat.
You'll still lose weight with aerobic exercise, but a higher percentage of that weight will be muscle.
When you lose muscle your metabolic rate is lowered, which makes it very easy for you to regain the weight soon after.
3.
You'll Prevent Osteoporosis Later in Life As you age your bones deteriorate and women in particular are more prone to suffer osteoporosis and fracture joints easily.
The good news is that resistance training for 16 weeks can strengthen your bones by up to 20%.
4.
You'll Lose Waist Inches Faster If you want to drop a dress size and fit into those skinny jeans, lifting weights is the way to go.
By the age of 50 you'll lose 10% of your body's muscle.
This will eventually be replaced with fat around your waist.
That is NOT good because one pound of fat takes up almost 20% more space than one pound of muscle.
5.
You'll Be Less Stressed Here's another interesting find: toning exercises with weights reduces the amount of stress hormones in your body.
On the other hand, excessive aerobic exercise will increase the amount of stress hormones released into your bloodstream.
The worst of these hormones is called cortisol, which tells your body to store fat around your midsection.
That's only going to make you even more stressed and cause a vicious cycle! 6.
Weights Are Better for Heart Health than Aerobics Strength training is great for your heart health.
After all, your heart is a muscle.
A full-body toning routine can reduce your risk of a stroke by 40%.
7.
You'll Spend Less Time Exercising Because lifting weights boosts your metabolism you burn most of the calories after the workout.
This means you can keep it short and sweet in the gym, and go home knowing that you'll be burning fat all day long, whilst other people are slaving away on the treadmill for hours every day.
An effective fat-burning toning workout should only take 20-40 minutes, three times per week.
8.
Weights Help Prevent Diabetes Resistance training and boosting your strength levels increases your insulin sensitivity and stabilizes your blood sugar levels, which lowers your chance of suffering diabetes.
In fact, people that have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic can reverse the effects and become non-diabetic in mere weeks with the help of weight training.
9.
You'll Gain Muscle Tone & Shape You can lose weight with aerobic exercise, but the drawbacks are that it takes a lot longer, plus you'll end up just looking like a smaller version of yourself, with no shape or tone.
Resistance training is the only exercise that can give you shape and definition.
10.
You Have Less Chance of Hurting Yourself Some people may claim that lifting weights is dangerous, but this is only true if you are working with an incompetent trainer or are lifting weights that are too heavy.
However, running gives you a far more real risk of injury.
65% of people who start a running program become injured, especially women.
From a physiological standpoint, women are not designed to run, due to the wider q-angle of the hips.
This puts more strain on the woman's knees, and leads to ACL injuries (which are far more common in female athletes compared to male athletes).
Lifting weights on the right program will keep your bones, ligaments and joints strong and healthy.
11.
Weights Make You Happy! In an interesting find, studies show that due to the effects on positive hormones in your body, people who lift weights three times per week are happier, less aggressive and are generally more alert and energetic than those who only go running.
The bottom line is that the mounting evidence clearly shows that resistance training is far superior, faster and more enjoyable for weight loss than aerobics and running.
So women, if you want to get in shape this summer get on those weights and ditch the boring treadmills!