Do You Even Lift?

Women tend to like to do all the cardio because they want to see the maximum number of calories burned in one single session. But cardio is not everything. So let's talk about strength training a bit, shall we? Why is strength training so important? 

Reduce the Risk of Injury: Well, for one, if you are constantly doing cardio and not toning your muscles, it increases your risk of injury. Strong muscles help to protect your joints when you do high impact exercises like running and plyometrics. This is especially true for your knees.

Burn More Fat: It's easy to be super-focused on cardio when you are trying to lose weight. But building muscle tone actually helps the body to be in constant fat-burning mode, partly because the body does more work to keep repairing the muscles, but also because some of the food you eat would then be used to 'maintain' the muscles.

Look Better: When you lose weight, but don't work on toning your muscles, your skin usually does not retain that elasticity that makes you look fit. When you build muscle, you work on your skin's elasticity as well, which means your body looks better and looks younger for longer.

Build Strength: I don't know about you, but I want to - no, I need to - be stronger to do all the things I want to do in life. Lifting weights helps me work on my strength. It also helps your body build endurance if you want to run races and do other physically tasking activities.

So I ask "Do you lift weights?" If the answer is no, what are you waiting for?

Cheers Eights & Weights!