Benefits of Strength Training

Many people (especially women) who are wanting to lose weight or "get back into shape" focus more on walking, running, biking, and aerobics than strength training. While these activities will burn calories and help you to shed some pounds, strength training will increase your metabolism so you'll burn even more calories at rest.


The most common methods of strength training are using free weights and/or weight machines. From a women's perspective, we don't want to "bulk up" and look too muscular so as long as you use a lighter weight and do a lot of reps, you should just accomplish a stronger/toned muscle.

i.e. When I do bycep curls, I use 8 lbs and I do 15 - 20 reps. If I can't do at least 15 reps then I need to use less weight. I then repeat this 2 more times for a total of 3 sets (with a brief rest between each set).

For those who do want to "bulk" up then use a higher weight where you are only able to do 5 - 10 reps for 3 sets.


Click here for a great list of strength training benefits.

(Shanda, I tried to answer your questions under the comments on the last post. Hope it helps!)