How do I start a weight lifting workout?

Weightlifting is a good way to not only strengthen your muscles but burn calories too. Find out how you can begin weightlifting by reading this informative article!

Weightlifting is great exercise for anyone who wants to not only firm up their muscles, but also to burn calories and lose body fat. The first thing you will want to do, before you start a weightlifting program, is to get permission from your physician or healthcare professional. After you get the go ahead from him or her, you can then start by either purchasing some basic equipment or just by visiting a local health club and using theirs.

As with any other form of exercise–and there are no exceptions–you must begin your session with a short period of warm-up exercises. These exercises are intended to stretch your muscles and to get you ready for your weightlifting. Your wamr-up period should last between five and ten minutes. Slowly stretch your wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, hips, waist, knees, and ankles. Then, depending on the physical condition that you are in, you can begin a weightlifting regime.

Your equipment can include a weight bench, for one. Most can be adjusted to be either a flat surface or an inclined surface. There are also dumbbells, a bar with different sizes of weights, and machines. Dumbbells can be as light as two pounds each. They are normally held one in each hand, and are raised above the head or pushed out in front of you, or held lowered at your sides and raised up to your waist level. Whatever exercises you choose to do should be repeated about ten times for a beginner. Breathe in and breathe out deeply and do not make the mistake of holding your breath as we tend to do when we are under pressure or stress. Don’t push yourself into doing more even if your arms feel good and you don’t feel any pain yet. Any pain in your muscles will be felt within the next day or so. You have to start out slow and work your way up.

To use the lifting bar, you simply slide the amount of weights onto the bar. For a beginner, you should only start out with about ten pounds on each side. Place the bar into its holder and now lie on your back on the weight bench. Remember to breathe as you firmly grasp the bar and lift it straight up. Hold it just for a couple of seconds and then place it gently back onto its holder. Do not use quick jerky movements or you can possibly cause injury to yourself. Make your lift a controlled movement–grasp firmly, lift up, hold to the count of one, two, three, and then lower the bar.

For a beginner, your session should last no more than fifteen minutes. After you have finished with your weightlifting session, you must, for your muscles’ sake, perform cool down exercises. These exercises will help your body to relax. For about five or ten minutes, perform some simple exercises. These exercises should include some gentle bending and stretching moves.

As you progress with your program, you can add on additional weights in small increments. You will be amazed at how much firmer your body becomes by doing weightlifting.

Lose fat by building muscle

Everyone thinks the best way to lose fat is aerobic exercise. Personally, I’d rather lose fat just breathing normally. Building muscle helps speed up your metabolism naturally, so you burn more fat doing everyday chores. And you don’t have to end up a muscle-bound hulk either!

It may be that I am the only person in the world who gains fat by doing aerobic exercise, but I think not. The fact that you’re reading this article suggests that you probably also spend too much time on aerobic exercise with too few results.

The secret, of course, is building muscle. Aerobic exercise can strip away muscle as well as fat, and muscle is what uses up your body’s stores of energy.

Think of your muscle as an engine that needs fuel to run efficiently. A small motor scooter engine can run for days on a gallon of gas. A powerful V8 won’t make it out the garage. In the same way, if your body has very little muscle, it won’t burn off the calories you get from your food, while a competition bodybuilder can eat a meal that would feed a family of four for a week, and not pick up an ounce of fat as a result.

Now, you don’t have to have huge muscles in order to burn fat efficiently. The ratio of muscle to fat in your body is far more important. You can be a slim, attractive woman on the outside, but still have a good muscular framework burning up calories while you watch television.

Your first step is to measure your body fat. You can buy home measuring kits, or you can go for an expensive body fat test. Unless you’re a competition athlete, a home measuring kit is fine. These simplest kits comprise callipers and a book of instructions. You use the callipers to measure the skinfolds in one or more places on your body, then look up the results in the book of instructions.

A good body fat measurement for a women is between 21 and 28%, while a man would expect to be leaner, at between 11 and 19%. Competition athletes strive for much lower body fat percentages.

The next step is to start doing exercises that build muscle, which means working with weights. Heavy weights. If you are carrying too much fat, you are more likely to burn fat faster and get into shape sooner by working on your muscles rather than working on your fat. As your muscles grow, they will burn more fat naturally.

Don’t panic at the thought of your muscles growing, especially if you are a woman. They don’t grow that fast, for a start. Second, competition bodybuilders have to put in a huge amount of effort and work intensively for months in order to grow muscles that big. Third, muscle is what gives your body its attractive shape. Undeveloped muscle is what makes many thin women over forty just look scrawny. With well developed muscles, you will easily look ten to fifteen years younger than your real age.

Remember too, that muscle takes up far less space than fat, even though it weighs the same. Compare the size of a pound of steak to that of a pound of butter. Growing muscle doesn’t automatically mean growing bigger: it does mean growing leaner.

If you are carrying a lot of fat, or if you are over forty, it’s probably a good idea to consult your doctor before starting a serious exercise program. Working with heavy weights will put a lot of stress on your muscles – that’s what helps them grow – but we don’t want you stressing a failing heart muscle, for example. If you have to lose fat because it’s putting too much strain on your heart, a sports doctor should be able to guide you into an effective but safe program.

Assuming that you’re fit to train, start by working out your biggest muscles first. After all, they burn the most fat. The biggest muscles are those in your upper back, your chest and of course, your butt and thighs. Build muscle by working with weights that allow you to comfortably do between four and eight repetitions of the exercise before taking a rest. Once you can do eight comfortably, move to a slightly heavier weight.

Do two to three exercises per big muscle: a total of six to eight exercises in all. Start by doing each exercise once, and work up to three times. This will take you between twenty and thirty minutes to complete, which is not going to dent your schedule dramatically. It should also make it easy to fit in an exercise program three to four times a week. Try and skip a day between sessions.

Once your fat starts coming down to a level where your shape is showing through, you can start working on the smaller muscles. At this stage you’ll want to change your exercise program completely, perhaps doing upper body exercises one day, and lower body exercises the next. Build up a repertoire of exercises for each body part, and try using different ones every time you train. It will not only help keep your program fresh, it will also help keep your program effective, as your muscles will be less likely to get used to particular exercises.

Any good gym will be able to advise you on which exercises train which body part, and help you put together a program. You can also buy your own weights, and train at home using a program from any one of a number of excellent books and videos.

Just remember you want to build muscle. Choose books and videos that will help you do that first. Once you’re in the shape you want, you can try other programs that appeal to you more.

But quite frankly, burning fat while watching television because I work with weights three times a week is still the most attractive option for me.

Proving Something To Yourself

The major benefits of body building should be obvious to just about anyone, with the fact that physical power is always highly coveted. Strong men have always been respected and held in awe, as far back at least as Samson in Biblical times. But often someone who takes up body building is not thinking about being held in awe. In fact many are thinking just the opposite, wanting people simply to stop thinking of them as a twelve-stone weakling. Showing that you can do what it takes to become physically strong and powerful takes work – but it is work that carries its own reward.

There are many practical situations in which the ability to lift something heavy, or simply to move something large, is of major importance. But shifting a mental block is at least as valuable. Many of us underestimate just how physically strong we are, and how much potential we have, and as far as proving it goes there is no better way than training to a point where we are capable of physical achievements that would be beyond many.

Most of us would love to be capable of things that we watch happening on television week in and week out. Many of the most popular sports feature individuals who have trained to the point where they are capable of pushing another (pretty large) human being backwards at a high speed. Gridiron and rugby – two of the major sports in their countries of origin, would be impossible without the muscle bound guys who don’t always get the credit – but are invariably favorites with the fans.

Keeping in Shape

Although body building is principally seen as something largely cosmetic – there is not a heck of a lot of practical reason for having arms wider than a small tree – there are reasons beyond the aesthetic effects of it for sticking to a regime. Not least of these is that a good body building regime can have a knock-on effect on your general good health. As long as it is a measured and defined program, a body building regime can be one of the best things you ever do on the auspices of good health.

Your heart requires exercise. One of the most frequent contributory factors in a heart attack or heart disease is a sedentary lifestyle. As much fun as it may be sitting on a couch watching television and eating nachos, it does not make a recipe for a long life. It will also give you less chance of successfully running for a bus. By training often and well, you will lose the fat that makes your energy levels so low.

Additionally, staying in shape will allow you to do so much more. If you have kids, being able to join in their games is something on which you cannot put a price. Kids seem to have boundless energy, and if you do not have an exercise regime to keep you in shape, their energy will seem unmatchable. Being able to keep up with them will allow you to play more of a part in their games, and make parenthood all the more enjoyable.

What Not To Eat

An exercise regime will only bear the kind of results you are looking for if you accompany it with the right diet. This is known as a “holistic” approach, where you view every part of your routine in a critical fashion and look to see what you can do to make it the best it can be in every way. If you are studying for an exam, on which questions will be asked on a range of topics, it is all well and good studying heavily on one of those topics to the point where you could answer every question that could be thrown at you on that topic – but if you ignore all the others in doing so, you’ll end up failing.

So it is with body building. You can be the most committed trainer that there ever has been, and you will effect positive results in some respects. But if you are just eating fries and burgers all of the time, you will not be giving your body some of its most vital nutrients. You will get tired more quickly, train less effectively, and sustain injuries. For this reason it is worth taking a realistic view on diet – cut out the ice cream sundaes for a time, drop the greasy burgers and lay off the beer, too. Alcohol does horrible things to muscle recovery.

Of course, you can work scheduled breaks into your regime – in fact it is probably advisable at the beginning – during which you can treat yourself. Just remember the end goal when you have to get back to training.