resistance training

Get Off The Treadmill

You may be shocked to learn that the quickest way to lose weight is not by spending hours per week running on a treadmill to destinations you’ll never reach.  Sure, that type of cardio exercise will burn calories, but only while you’re doing it. 

Instead, you want to get to the heart of the matter and burn off the fat stored in the body.  You want to awaken your body’s fat burning process with muscle strengthening workouts to increase lean (fat free) muscle tissue by doing resistance training exercises.  However, these are NOT bodybuilding workouts.  The intent is not to build massive, bulging muscles, only lean, strong muscles.  And yes, this works for ladies, too.

Burn Fat While You Sleep

Have you ever heard the claim ”burn fat while you sleep”?  Actually, it’s not as far fetched as it seems.  Here’s an over simplified explanation.  In a resting state, that is, no exercise or movement is going on, the number of calories the body uses to carry out basic functions like breathing, blood circulation, cell growth and repair is known as your basal metabolic rate (BMR), what one might refer to as metabolism.  Muscle is metabolically active, that means it requires calories to be maintained.  Fat, on the other hand, does not require anything to be maintained.  A body that has more muscle will burn more calories during a resting state.  Literally, your body can become a “fat burning furnace”. 

So the goal is to build muscle with strength training exercises by gradually increasing the resistance level that work the muscles to a point of exhaustion.  That means doing reps with a sufficient amount of resistance so you really have to strain in order to get that final rep in.  After your workouts, the muscles “heal” themselves by growing new muscle tissue and during this growth phase, they consume large amounts of fuel in the form of stored fat.  That’s that metabolism thing I was talking about.

Lean Muscle Melts Fat

As new muscle tissue forms, yes, it is possible to gain some weight, but remember, that new muscle is also burning off fat at the same time.  Just one pound of new lean muscle needs an extra 40-50 calories just to stay alive.  So if you add only 10 pounds of new muscle, you’ll burn an extra 400-500 calories a day.  The more muscle you add, the more calories you’ll burn.  As long as you’re eating a healthy diet, you’ll create a calorie deficit and shed the fat.  Looking at how much you weigh is not an entirely accurate accessment of your progress.  More accurately, look at the inches you’ve lost. Lost inches means vanishing fat.  Bob’s your uncle! 

And don’t sabotage your efforts by stuffing your face thinking that your workouts will offset that Big Mac.  You can’t out exercise a bad diet.  You want to burn off store fat, not create more fat.

Putting It All Together

So how do you build muscle?  All you need are the following two things – free workouts and some Bodylastics resistance bands like the ones shown below.

Free Resistance Training Workouts

Bodylastics is offering completely free workout shows for use with its bands.  If you already have some resistance bands, you can still get the workouts for free.  Just click here to create an account and get all the muscle building free workouts you want.  The muscles building workout show you want is called Chiseled.  Chiseled is also available on DVD. 

There are additional online workouts available, too.  Bodylastics Toning for toning and strengthening muscles.  It’s less intensive than Chiseled.  Eight Pack is a strictly abs workouts.  There’s also cardio, Pilates, Kenpo, workouts for teens called TX2 and more.  Again, it’s all free. 

I strongly urge you to create an account and watch some of the workouts.  You’ll be amazed what you can do with resistance bands.

About The Bands

So why not just go down to Walmart or Target and get some bands?  Because the bands they carry suck.  They’re poor quality.  They come in light, medium and heavy and just exactly how much resistance IS that?  But the worst part is, they have handles already attached.  Why is that a concern?  Because when you need to increase resistance you have to buy another band and then what happens when there’s nothing available beyond that “heavy” band?  You’re screwed.

Bodylastics bands have clips on the ends that allow you to combine the bands to create custom resistance levels.  The heavy duty metal clips have the tension level in pounds stamped right on the clip.  Remember the part where I said you want to gradually increase the resistance level of your workouts?  By combining multiple bands, that’s exactly how you’re going to do it. 

So if you attempt to do some of the free muscle building workouts and you can’t keep up, instead of giving up, all you have to do is use less resistance, but enough resistance to stay challenged.  Click here to download a free color coded chart that will show you how to combine the bands.

A set of Bodylastics bands are very cost effective with complete sets starting at $45.95.  You not only get multiple bands per set, but a set of handles, ankle straps that can also be used as wrist straps and a non-marring door anchor (requires NO hardware) that allows exercises to be performed at varying levels.  That door anchor alone is part of what makes Bodylastics bands so powerful because it allows you to perform exercises from overhead for shoulders, arms, back and abs, chest level for chest, arms, abs, and floor level for legs.  No machines needed.

Instead of having a room full of expensive machines and weights, all you need for a first class workout is a single set of Bodylastics resistance bands capable of performing over 140 exercises – the quickest way to lose weight and feel great.

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