Why workout with weights?

Jan Calvert has been an important of my weight loss story, not only as my Zumba instructor, she has also been a fount of knowledge and advice and, during this year, she has helped me to incorporate weights into my exercise plan. I asked her to write a guest blog and below she passes on her expertise to you:

The benefits of using weights to change shape

I have been a personal trainer for over thirty years, starting with teaching exercise classes, then moving onto working in gyms and becoming a personal trainer. In those days there was a big difference between the kind of workout a woman would do (i.e. aerobics classes or spend hours on a cardio machine). These types of workouts only burn calories but rarely tone or tighten muscles. Women had a fear of bulking up when using weights whereas men were more often found using weights to increase their muscle mass. They produce more testosterone, which helps them when trying to build muscle.

When it comes to strength training anything that is considered a healthy workout for men is also healthy for women. It is actually difficult for a woman to produce large muscles because women generally have high levels of oestrogen and have smaller amounts of lean muscle tissue.

In the 90s, to add a bit of resistance to the typical aerobics class, I started teaching my aerobics classes using ‘hand weights’. Many women noticed a great improvement in their muscle tone, as the body begins to lose fat tissue and becomes firmer. They were even happier to see improvements in their circulation, co-ordination, balance and bone and ligament strength because it’s a well-known fact that as women get older they need to use resistance exercises to prevent loss of bone density and avoid the onset of osteoporosis.

Over the years women have become more confident in using weights in the gym and the

‘free weights area’. It’s no longer a man-only area!

Why free weights?

I like to use free weights as they aren’t too expensive, are available in most sports shops, they don’t take up much space and if you haven’t got weights you can use household items, i.e. cans or bottles of water.

There are a multitude of different exercises that you can do with free weights and you have the ability to work at different levels of intensity by using light or heavy weights depending on the exercise.

It’s a good idea to book a couple of sessions with a personal trainer so that you learn the correct technique.

When will I see Results?

In six weeks you could lose 4–6 percent body fat and up to 20 inches of fat overall. You can combine your cardio workouts with 2–3 weight sessions and stick to a sensible nutrition plan and you will sculpt your body (bearing in mind that you must be consistent and determined to achieve optimal results).

Track your results

Before you start your weights programme take your measurements and weigh yourself. The reason for this is that muscle weighs more than fat and, although you will lose inches and go down a size or two in clothes, you may not see a massive difference on the scales.

If you have a personal trainer get them to take your body fat before you start, as this will be reduced dramatically after working out with weights. This will result in a leaner, healthier happier you!

Avoid Overtraining

Always remember that sometimes less is more! It is really important to have at least one rest day a week. This is to give your body a chance to recover, repair and rebuild. Overtraining can cause injuries and exhaustion.

Always remember to stretch all your muscles after a training session. It is quite normal to have some muscle soreness when lifting weights, which doesn’t always happen the day after training. It quite often is two or three days after, commonly called DOMs (delayed onset muscle soreness).

I hope this encourages you to take up weight training, and I guarantee you’ll improve your strength, increase you muscle tone, lose fat, gain muscle mass, and improve your bone density. Enjoy!

Jan Calvert, Personal Trainer/Massage Therapist