Strength Training For Weight-loss Plateau

If your weight loss has stalled despite your frequent cardiovascular workouts, consider strength training. A circuit training workout---resistance exercises performed in succession with minimal rest---burns as many calories as moderate-intensity cardio exercise. But unlike cardio, strength training builds lean muscle, which burns calories even when you're at rest. Furthermore, circuit strength training produces greater levels of excess postexercise oxygen consumption---an increase in metabolism---than cardio exercise.

Benefits

Strength training burns the greatest number of calories when you perform exercises that recruit multiple muscles groups simultaneously. For example, while doing a basic squat move, perform a biceps curl during the lowering phase and a military press at the top of the move. Resistance moves performed at a greater intensity also burn calories more effectively than those performed at moderate intensities. For example, in a biceps curl, the lifting phase might last one to two seconds, with no pause at the top of the move before you lower the weight as quickly as possible.

Considerations

Muscle memory makes strength moves easier over time. So to keep your muscles guessing and keep the challenge high, perform a variety of exercises for each muscle group. For example, for your biceps, instead of just performing biceps curls, also perform hammer curls. Add variety to your leg exercises by doing squats, bench step-ups and lunges. Variety also works each muscle from a slightly different angle to ensure that you challenge all of the fibers of a particular muscle group.

Expert Insight

Although you can perform endurance exercises such as running or swimming on consecutive days, MayoClinic.com recommends that for size and strength gains, you allow yourself 48 hours between resistance workouts. This gives your muscles time to recover and rebuild before you work them again.

Potential

Greater training volume in the gym produces better results on the scale. Volume simply refers to the amount of exercise performed in a given time. Typical strength workouts involve recovery periods after each set. A circuit training workout, however, encourages the greatest training volume in the least time because it virtually eliminates rest periods as it moves from one exercise to the next. A typical circuit training workout may include three sets of 12 to 15 repetitions of each exercise.

Function of Lean Muscle

Building lean muscle, or hypertrophy, results in burning more calories all day long. To increase lean muscle, use heavy weights. The National Academy of Sports Medicine recommends using at least 70 percent of your one-rep maximum for hypertrophy goals. For example, if your bench press one-rep max is 100 lbs., lift 70 lbs. during a bench press set.