Losing body fat is a health and aesthetic motivator for many people looking to get into exercise. With the influx of fad workouts and celebrity fitness personalities, you can read conflicting information about how to best target fat loss during your workout regimen. Strength training is one of the most effective ways to target body fat loss in your workout. If you are interested in incorporating this type of workout into your routine, you can learn about what it is and how it can benefit you.

What is strength training?

Strength training is a category of exercise that focuses on building muscle mass, strength, and endurance. You may also refer to it as weight, resistance, or muscular training. There are five types of strength training you can incorporate into your workout:

• Muscular hypertrophy: You can use moderate to heavy weights to stimulate muscle growth. For example, a full-body dumbbell workout can stimulate muscle growth throughout several muscle groups.
• Muscular endurance: You can sustain an exercise for an extended period to increase your endurance in specific muscle groups. For example, a bodyweight workout that involves high reps is a repetitive workout that builds your muscle’s endurance rather than increasing the amount of weight you can incorporate.
• Circuit training: Cycling through various exercises with short rest periods can help you condition your whole body to increase endurance and strength. This type of workout is also a popular fat-burning technique.
• Maximum muscular strength: Exercises involving low reps of heavy weights can improve your overall strength. This type of exercise is typically reserved for athletes or experienced weightlifters.
• Explosive power: Athletes may focus on their ability to combine power and speed to improve explosive movements during their sport.

Each type of exercise can include free weights, dumbbells, or your body weight. Many gyms also have weight machines and suspension equipment that helps guide movement and make adjusting weight easier for inexperienced weightlifters.

How strength training helps weight loss

Strength training is crucial for anyone looking to lose weight or burn fat. Here are some of the impacts of strength training, making it the best way to lose weight:

Speeds up your metabolism

Your metabolism is your body’s process of turning food into energy. Your quicker metabolism burns calories stored in food. By building muscle, you convert the food in your body into energy and muscles instead of stored fat, decreasing the amount of fat in your body.

Burns fat during rest

Raising your metabolism helps you burn fat even when you aren’t working out, making you lose weight fast. After performing an intense anaerobic activity, like lifting weights, your body continues to burn calories at an elevated rate for hours after your workout. You don’t get this benefit when you perform aerobic exercises like running or simple cardio.

Stimulates fat-burning hormones

The disruption strength training causes within your body also stimulates the production of hormones that target fat burning. The human growth hormone releases stored fat into your blood to be used for energy. Epinephrine and cortisol are stress hormones that break down fats as they are released during a workout.

You can receive varying benefits depending on how intense your strength training workout is and how often you incorporate it into your workout routine. Regardless of your routine, these benefits can impact your weight loss journey.

5 additional benefits of strength training

Strength training is a beneficial workout beyond simply improving body fat loss. Other benefits are:

1. Increases your strength: Getting stronger can also help you tackle other workouts and activities that may have been difficult before you started weight training. Broadening your ability level can open up new opportunities for movement and increase your enjoyment when working out.
2. Improves balance: Strength training can also improve your core strength and balance. This can make it easier for you to perform specific activities and prevent falls that can cause injury.
3. Lowers risk of injury: Increasing your strength and endurance decreases the opportunity for injury when working out.
4. Improves heart health: Strength training is an intense workout that improves blood circulation and heart health, so you can improve your overall health while losing weight.

How to incorporate strength training into your workout

You can incorporate strength training into your workout routine by supplementing your cardio routines with free weights or strength-focused workouts. If you want to focus on weight loss, you can replace some cardio workouts with circuit workouts or weightlifting sessions. When beginning to strength train, it can be helpful to work with a professional to figure out the correct form and technique to prevent injury. You can schedule an appointment with a personal trainer or a weight loss clinic to learn how to strength train correctly. A personal trainer can also help you develop a workout plan that considers your current workouts and timeline. That way, you can have a say in how quickly you lose weight and create a plan that works for you.

At Living Well Balanced, we can work with you to develop a workout plan. Our experience ed and knowledgeable pelvic trainers can help you get the results you want safely. You can make an appointment with a personal trainer or visit our nutritionists to begin your weight loss journey. If you have any questions, you can always give us a call at 212-579-2858 or send an email at info@livingwb.com. Check out our blog for more information about rehabilitative therapies.