One question that I am asked on a daily basis about workout programs is which is the best way for one to stay lean and lose fat without spending endless hours in the gym. The answer…Weight Training. Yes, I said weight training and not cardio. Here’s the best example I can give you:

You have two people on a treadmill, both weigh 140 pounds. The difference is that one is 140 fat pounds and the other is 140 muscle pounds. They both walk at the same speed, incline, and stay on for the same amount of time, but the muscular person, because muscle is heavier and requires more energy to move, will burn almost twice as many calories as the other person.

Weight training is a must for anyone’s workout program. Muscles need to be challenged; our bodies were designed to have a certain amount of strength. The thing to understand is that for proper muscular development you need “overload”, that means challenging your muscles with a load that is heavier than it is used to. A well-rounded weight training program will focus on each body part with 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps. A typical myth is that if you do more reps you will have leaner, less bulky muscles than doing fewer reps – sorry to say, but that is not the case. The way your muscles develop has more to do with your genes than your reps, anything more than 12 reps actually starts to break down muscle tissue instead of building it.

Pilates, Yoga, Zumba, and the wide array of programs that are popular today all come with their own added benefits but none will substitute the muscular benefit of weight training. So at the end of the day, incorporating an hour a week on the weights can add a tremendous amount of benefit to your overall lean muscle mass and increasing your strength will not increase your size unless your “genes” make it so.

Click HERE to workout with some of my workout videos

In Peace, Love, and Health, Adita

Let me know what you’d like to see for future posts or recipes in the comments section below. And don’t forget to SHARE this with all your peeps, Thank You!

©Copyright 2017, Adita Lang Adita Lang works with individuals and groups to maximize their health through exercise and nutrition, both through Coaching and Public Speaking. Feel free to email me: Adita@NutritionalBrilliance.com

For past Livets®, recipes, and more visit me at www.MyLivet.com or www.AditaLang.com