If you're trying to lose weight, don't ignore your free weights. Although cardio is a great way to burn calories and spur weight loss, resistance exercises can help you burn fat and build muscle. Replacing fat with muscle gives you a leaner, trimmer look and helps you burn more calories even while at rest.
Identification: Resistance
In a guide titled "A Healthier You," the Department of Health and Human Services notes that resistance exercise makes your muscles work against an applied weight. This type of exercise forces you to push, pull or lift, whether it's your own body weight or a specified amount of weight from a gym machine. Also called "strength training," this type of exercise builds muscle, strengthens your bones and can also improve balance and coordination. You can do resistance exercise with gym machines designed to work particular muscle groups, free weights such as dumbbells, resistance bands or old-fashioned resistance exercises such as push-ups and sit-ups.
Resistance and Muscle Building
Resistance exercise builds muscle by tearing it down and rebuilding it. According to Young sub Kwon, M.S., and Len Kravitz, Ph.D., of the University of New Mexico, resistance training damages your muscle fibers and activates "satellite cells" outside your muscle. These satellite cells replicate themselves with self-division, then fuse together and bond to your damaged muscle fibers to repair them. When the repairs are complete, the new combination of satellite cells and healed muscle tissue may appear larger than before.
Muscles and Weight Loss
Having more muscle can actually help you lose weight -- and not just by toning and shaping flabby areas of your body. According to MayoClinic.com, your metabolism determines how many calories you burn on a daily basis to carry out basic bodily functions such as breathing and repairing damaged cells. People with less body fat and more muscle generally have a higher metabolism, burning more calories. This, notes MayoClinic.com, is why men generally burn more calories than women and why young people burn more calories than older people. More muscle equals more calories burned, even while resting.
Other Health Benefits
According to a position paper published in the American Heart Association's "Circulation" journal, resistance exercise does more than build muscle and raise your metabolism -- it can also increase your endurance and reduce your risk for heart disease. Resistance training, notes the AHA, is especially beneficial for staving off chronic health problems such as back pain, osteoporosis and a loss of skeletal mass due to aging. As you age, resistance training can make it easier to perform daily activities such as climbing stairs, lifting grocery bags and even resisting falls.
Resistance Training Guidelines
The AHA's position paper notes that resistance training performed 2 to 3 days a week for 3 to 6 months can improve your strength and endurance 25 to 100 percent. At a minimum, the AHA suggests you do a single set of at least 8 resistance exercises, including such exercises as the chest press, bicep curl, pull-down, abdominal crunch, leg press, calf raise, shoulder press and leg curls, among others.
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