Twelve weeks of strength training makes all the difference

Twelve weeks of strength training makes all the difference

Slave to the treadmill? Believe it or not, the gym has a lot more to offer than machines! Most people seem to head straight for the safety of a cross trainer, but you could be missing out on all the benefits of strength training by not venturing to the free weights area of your gym.

Weight to go..!

As the name suggests, the obvious benefit of strength training is that it makes your body stronger overall, as well as improving its appearance by toning up muscles. However, it also helps improve heart health and speeds up your metabolism, meaning that you can burn more fat.

Alongside improving your overall form in the gym, weight lifting can also help you move more easily in your day to day life, being particularly useful for easing back pain. For example, working in an office can cause significant problems for people – sitting all day puts a great deal of pressure on your lower back, leading to stiffness and pain, and potentially contributing to more serious issues later in life. Lifting weights can help to strengthen core muscles, which support your spine, to reduce the pressure/discomfort and potentially undo some of the damage.

When lifting weights, you’re not just engaging your major muscles, you’re also working smaller, ‘stabiliser’ muscles, which do as the name suggests! You may not consider it important to be able to balance successfully on one leg for more than 5 seconds without toppling over, but stability is actually crucial in keeping you upright, and becomes more vital as you age.

The benefits aren’t just physical, either. There’s a great deal of determination involved in weight lifting. The more absorbed you become, the more determined you are to move up weight ranges and increase your range of motion while lifting heavier to see those all important results. This translates to mental strength, as weight lifting teaches you to persevere in order to overcome discomfort, and challenge yourself to see what you’re really capable of.

Keep up the cardio

Despite my clear love for weights, I’m not saying that you should ditch your cardio activity altogether – combining the two forms of exercise in your programme will help you to get the very best from your workout. Cross training is a highly effective method of training, ensuring that your entire body gets a good workout and efforts aren’t just focused on one area. For example, football players don’t just put in the miles on the treadmill to make sure they can cover the pitch. To be all-round athletes, they’ve got to incorporate strength training to make sure their bodies are in peak physical condition so that they can perform to the best of their ability.

And let’s not forget that all exercise, no matter what it is or where you do it, encourages your body to release those all important endorphins and makes you look and feel better.

Transformations

I don’t know about you, but I tend to take a lot of health and fitness articles with a pinch of salt because there’s rarely anything to back them up. That’s why I wanted to show you some of Ultimate Performance Fitness’ client transformations, to show you the outcome of incorporating strength training.

First up, Victoria. She came to UP Fitness after having a baby – although she had quickly reverted to her pre-pregnancy weight, she’d fallen out of love with her body and wanted to do something for herself. Victoria signed up to our 12-week transformation programme and has seen incredible results in her body as a result of the workouts she’s been doing, but it’s not just her shape that has changed. Despite juggling a busy working life with being a mother, she gave full commitment to the programme and worked it into her daily routine. As a result, she has recognised that she’s in control of the way she looks and that hard work and dedication really does lead to success.

Dave came to us as a regular gym-goer who was struggling to get the physique he’d been working to achieve for over five years. Refocusing his goals and working alongside one of our PTs meant that Dave managed to reach a healthy balance with food and training, something he’d struggled with for most of his gym life. Careful coaching also meant he was able to correct his form and, because he was fuelling his body in the best way, he has finally seen the incredible results he’s been working to achieve for several years.

Clearly, his hard work has paid off and he looks great – but Dave’s also noticed a huge impact on his health. To quote the man himself: “better sleep, more energy, feeling stronger and more confident, and generally being more positive is something you can’t put a price on.”

Take a look at our website for more detail on the fitness journeys of our clients, and to see more transformations.

If you’re keen to feel the benefits of strength training, get in touch with us and see how we could help you to transform in as little as twelve weeks.