Hi there, it’s Rob Hall again, Operations Manager and Personal Trainer at The Shrewsbury Club with some advice on the benefits of adding weights to your workout. 

Over the last few months, it’s been great to see an increasing number of women adding weights to their workouts, but a large majority still feels that lifting weights is just for people who want to bulk up (i.e. “blokes”!). The truth is, if you want a toned, lean physique, anyone can benefit from incorporating weights into their gym routine. There are a number of different benefits of incorporating weights into your workout.

It helps you burn calories:

If you have more lean muscle mass and increase your overall strength, your body will need more calories even whilst doing nothing to sustain the lean muscle. This means that you will burn more calories when you have more lean muscle mass; in fact, if you compare how many calories 1lb of muscle needs to 1lb of fat, muscle requires around 6-10% more.

You will have better muscle definition:

I meet members and gym visitors to The Shrewsbury Club all the time who tell me they want to look ‘better’. If I ask them what ‘better’ is, they want to look leaner and stronger, have more muscle definition. But when I tell them that it’s time to pick up the weights instead of just doing cardio, they look at me as if I am crazy! Some of the people I train start with light weights that challenge their muscles without being too much of a shock to the system, then they work their way up. Aside from eating the right things, using weights in your workout is going to make a great difference in how your body looks. However, looking leaner is only achieved with a combination of dropping body fat, which is where healthy eating comes in!

OK, but what about the ‘getting bulky’ bit?!

One of the reasons that many women tend to ignore the weights altogether is because they do not want to look like a bodybuilder. It is important to remember that most women are not going to consume enough calories or have the genetics to create the look that they are afraid of. Getting big like a bodybuilder is not easy; you have to eat more than your body uses on a daily basis. It is not just going to ‘happen’ because you learn how to use free weights.

You will have more energy:

Some people assume that you may get tired lifting weights – not true. In fact, a study published by the National Institute of Health suggests that you can increase your energy hours after you train with resistance. Even if you do the minimum of resistance training, it will improve fat oxidation and your energy balance.

You will sleep better:

If you are someone that has a hard time getting to sleep or staying asleep, weight training has been proven to be very effective. A study published in the International SportMed Journal suggests that weight training can influence the time of sleep after training and the quality of sleep after training. Lift some weights – sleep better! 

Adding weights to your workout is a great idea for both genders. It is not just for people who want to ‘be big’. If you want help on where to start, what foods to eat (and avoid) to get the look you’re after, you can discover the difference weight training can make at The Shrewsbury Club through quality personal training.

See you in the weights area!