How Lifting Weights Can Help You Reach Your Goal Faster

I talk to person after person about this topic. They want to get in shape, they want to lose weight, they want to “tone” up. Well what are you doing to accomplish this I ask?…Eating less, and doing as much cardio as possible, is usually their response… If this is you please put your right hand in front of your face, look long and hard at it.  Now smack yourself right between the eyes.

So you don’t want to “bulk” up or look like a man?? Ok, so just don’t eat 5,000 calories a day or EVER dabble in steroids…Not doing either of those? GREAT! Problem solved.

Want to look hot as f*uck, and irresistible in a bikini?

Step1: Go find something heavy

Step 2: Pick it up, and put it down

Now we all know, “Abs are made in the kitchen.”  No one is going to get where they want to be, eating like crap.  In my opinion diet is the most important part in this whole equation, and exercise is just a tool to speed up the process. You can grow some pretty kick ass ab muscles, but you are not going to see them when they are covered in a layer of fat.

Also, if running and cardio is your thing, what you love to do by all means do what you enjoy!  But in my opinion it is not the most effective way to go about losing fat and toning up, therefore weight training HAS to be a part of your routine.

Cardio burns plenty of calories, but it also eats up your muscle mass. Which is why every hard core long distance runner I know is a toothpick, or the infamous “skinny fat”. Looking good, and toned in your clothes might be nice during the day light hours, but what happens when those clothes come off? And by the way, I do not want to spend 7 nights a week on the treadmill just to loose 5 pounds and then hit a wall…because where do you go from there? 10 nights a week?

Muscle burns fat. The more muscle you have the more fat you can burn just sitting around doing nothing. Weight training increases your muscle mass, and speeds up your metabolism, which means you burn MORE calories when your body is at rest. You do not want to do so much cardio that you eat up all your muscle mass now do you? That is your most important tool in your tool box! Don’t you know cardio kills gainzzzz.

Now, sure the scale may increase with weight training. That is normal as we all know muscle weights more than fat. But 1 pound of fat is about the same size as 5 million pounds of muscle (over exaggeration). Here is a great example.

Another great example I will throw out there. My own personal measurements. Day 1:

Chest 34″

Waist 26″

Hips 37″

Biceps 11″

Quads 22.25″

Fast forward 3 months and 8 inches less..

Chest 32″

Waist 24″

Hips 35″

Biceps 10.5

Quads 20.5″

We have all seen my biceps selfies on IG, because I just cannot resist…yet they are 1/2 an inch smaller…We have all seen the muscle growth my quads have taken. I went from squatting 120lbs tops, to maxing out at 215lbs.  Yet they are almost 2 inches smaller…hmmm. I have some chest muscle, but my chest is 2 inches smaller. And my waist! I can see ab muscles for the first time in my life! I am now into my 6th month sustaining these measurements with weight training, and only predict to get smaller.

More examples:

I also see those girls in the gym, throwing around those cute little pink weights for 1,000 reps scared to pick anything up over 5lbs. They think they are geniuses! They have found the magic answer. They have had a scientific breakthrough!!! Omgosh…You can’t simply shape your muscles into looking the way you want them.  You grow them.  You can’t say, oh I do high rep low weight to make sure I have lean, long muscles…Sorry. Your muscles will grow one way, that is bigger, and you can’t control them, that is genetics. Just like you cannot spot choose where you lose fat, you cannot choose the shape of how your muscles grow. You are either growing it, losing it, or sustaining it.

Muscles grow in response to exercise and surplus food, and they aren’t going to grow unless you exercise to the point of destruction, and then they repair themselves.  You know you’ve gotten the job done when you leave the gym with a nice big pump! When your muscles are red and feel like they are about to explode off of your body, and you can barely fit into any of your clothes. It scares the shit out of you if you aren’t expecting it! Do you have to work out that hard every night? No. Because when your diet is on point, your body is a calorie killing machine, and a few short work outs a week is all it should take! Now what pretty pink fuzzy weights will ever do that!?

To Summarize:

1. Lifting weights does not make you look like a man. If your diet is on point and you are not eating everything in sight they can make you tiny. Even if they just supplement what you are already doing.

2. Large amounts of cardio, for most people, does not a banging body make. As long as you are doing the right kind of cardio, one short session a week should be plenty.

3. Less is more, if you are spending the majority of your life in a gym our bodies adapt very quickly.  Where do you go from there when you hit a wall? Quality NOT quantity. Don’t be afraid to push yourself and get out of your comfort zone. That is when great things happen.

4. Food is good! Pants are unnecessary. The goal is to eat as much as possible and be able to walk around naked with confidence!