No doubt you’ve seen countless joggers, cyclist and walkers doing laps of your local park on weekends, or pounding the pavement in the wee hours of the morning. You might have tried the same at some stage. While cardio is great (and we highly recommend it!) to truly get the most out of your fitness regime, you need to be incorporating more than just cardio. Weight training has been show to ramp up calorie burning, and keep that burn going for hours on end after your workout is over.

The benefits of weight training are exceptional.

• It helps you lose weight more effectively. While cardio helps you to shed fat, combining it with lifting heavy weights will also help you replace fat with muscle.
• Muscle burns calories more efficiently than fat because, even at rest, it takes more energy to maintain. For this reason, people with higher levels of muscle generally have faster metabolisms than those with higher body fat levels.
• Building muscle prevents injury. Weight training can increase the strength of the muscles that surround joints. You may notice reductions in shoulder, knee and hip soreness after your muscles start to grow. It can also contribute to the maintenance of posture.

If you are considering incorporating weight training into your fitness regime, don’t be concerned about “bulking up” with muscle. Heavy weight training will only do this if you pursue it excessively and include very large amounts of protein and protein supplements in your diet.

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