Strong

Many of us are concerned about weight gain these days.  We may feel helplessly under the sway of the refrigerator and the take-out menus.  We may be using eating as a coping technique.  We may not have our usual options for working out.

 

I get it.  It is not a simple problem or else we’d all have it solved by now.  But we can start dealing with it with some simple steps.  I’ve been pushing cardio over the last while because of its mood-boosting benefits and because so many cardio exercises don’t require that we have a bunch of stuff—if we have shoes, we can walk or run.  However, if we really want to get on top of the weight issue, we need to consider strength training.

 

Strength training not only burns calories while we do it, but over time it also changes our body composition so that we burn more calories all the time.  This is because muscle tissue requires more energy to maintain.  In other words, when we have more muscles, we have a higher metabolism automatically.

 

The manufacturers of fitness equipment and the Fitness Industrial Complex will have us believe that we need acres of equipment and fancy machines and the Magic Bullet Exercise Doodad of the Week.  Nope.  We can get a good strength training workout in with just our bodies.  (Hey!  I posted one on Monday!)  If we have weights or other equipment, we have even more options.  Or the resourceful among us can lift water bottles or jugs, canned goods, or cooperative pets and children (uncooperative ones tend to lead to extra cardio…).

 

Some notes:  do not do strength training of the same muscles two days in a row.  Our tissues need time to recover.  Always use good judgment and stop if there is pain (the real kind, not the growing kind).  If there is soreness over the next two days, use ice or ibuprofen as desired and tolerated.

 

Go play.