Chandra on Strength Training!

Oh my gosh, my first guest poster is one of my favorite bloggers of all time!  She is hilarious, a great dancer, shares my love of Brit Brit, and is a health and fitness inspiration to us all!  I am so excited to introduce Chandra!  Not only that, she is sharing an amazing post on a very important topic for us ladies, strength training!  When I do strength training, I love how I feel and that you see changes right away, but sometimes I get into a cardio-centric rut and that’s no good.  So here’s Chandra!

 

Hello readers!  I am Chandra, writer of the blog Chandra’s Shenanigans.  I’ve been reading Melissa’s blog for as long as I can remember and I am so thrilled to do a guest post for her!  She has been a major running inspiration to me and is always so helpful when I need advice.  As much as I love running, I decided to make my guest post about another love of mine – strength training!!

 
So many women are afraid to do strength training for fear of “bulking up”, but trust me ladies – you can’t unless you try REALLY hard to get bulky.  We women just don’t have what it takes to build big bulky muscles (thank goodness!).  But strength training does have many benefits, so read on to find out why everyone should include strength training in their workouts!

 
Strength Training: Why you should do it and do it regularly
Strength training will increase your metabolism and reduce your body fat. We all know cardio is the fastest way to burn calories during exercise. Many of us are cardio queens. But what about burning calories when you aren’t exercising? How can you increase your “at rest” calorie burn? Build muscle. Muscle is metabolically active, meaning it burns calories. The more muscle we have the more calories we burn while we are sleeping, doing daily activities and through exercise.
Strength training will increase muscle mass (without bulking!) and prevent muscle loss. Cardio exercises may improve our cardiovascular fitness, but it does not prevent muscle loss. Even people who exercise but neglect weight training can lose an average of 1/2 a pound of muscle a year. Plus, as we age we lose muscle and our metabolisms decrease. Building muscle through strength training can help counteract this and keep your metabolism roaring.
Strength training will improve your bone mineral density. – As someone who is accident prone and has broken both her arms twice, this is important to me! :) Like muscle mass, we slowly lose bone mineral density as we age, which leaves us at risk for easier fractures and osteoporosis. The stress placed on bones during strength training stimulates the bones to lay down more minerals. This can help protect against fractures, “shrinking”, and osteoporosis.
Strength training will improve your glucose metabolism and help prevent diabetes. Poor glucose metabolism is associated with adult onset diabetes. Muscle built through strength training improves the use of blood sugars into the muscles, helping reduce the chance of developing diabetes.
Strength training can decrease your blood pressure. Combining strength training and cardio exercises is a very effective means of improving your blood pressure which means there’s less of a chance of developing heart disease. If our muscles are stronger, this places less stress on our cardiovascular system while performing day to day activities.
Strength training can make day to day activities easier. As you get stronger, day to day activities such as carrying laundry/shopping bags/children, going up the stairs, etc… will get easier. You will be less dependent on someone else for assistance. You should see me open pickle jars now. ;) Ha ha
Strength training can improve your attitude and help fight depression. I am walking proof of this. Besides building muscle and toning up to get that hot new body, as you get stronger you become more confident in yourself and your abilities. Plus there’s that hot new bod thing too, right? 
Strength training is extremely versatile. You don’t need a gym or fancy equipment to do strength exercises. There are many exercises you can do basically anywhere with dumbbells, resistance tubing, or even your own body weight! Exercises can also be adapted to make them easier or harder depending on a person’s ability. There are numerous exercises to work different muscle groups, so you can keep your routine fresh and creative so you don’t get bored!
There are many, many more benefits of strength training, these are just a few I picked out. I can honestly say I would not be where I am today without strength training. I am stronger, leaner, toned, and have gained a lot more confidence. Cardio alone cannot do that for anyone. Yes, cardio burns a lot of calories up front as you’re doing it, but building and keeping muscle is what keeps those calories burning and keeps you strong. Don’t get me wrong, we all know I love my running, but I will never again shove off my strength training exercise. 

 
Also, as with any new exercise regimen, it is important to learn how to perform strength training exercises with proper form, take rest days, and don’t over do it. If you would like a few tips/suggestions on how to start a new strength training routine, I found this article which has some helpful tips and links: Exercise for Beginners – Strength Training. And as always, if you have questions/opinions/comments, feel free to leave them below or send me an email!!
Happy fat loss and muscle building!

Thanks again Chandra!  I use your strength moves for inspiration all the time!  Hope we actually get to meet at some point!