Lifting~

[eupepsia]

Some of you may be avoiding weight lifting because it does not add to your step count, and I used to do the same, lots of cardio, no strength.  I recently started weight training, and I have lost more inches, look much better, and have become stronger!  Remember, you may not burn as many calories when weight lifting, but muscle burns more calories than fat!  The scale will also not go down, but muscle is more dense than fat, and you will fit better in your clothes and look better overall.  🙂

[WendyB]

Yep strength training is important!

The scale might not go down at first but once it gets use to it then the scale will drop.

Any new exercise the muscle will retain water to repair them self  and that's what causes no loss or a gain. But it goes away.

[eupepsia]

Hey Wendy!  Check this out: 

Fat is denser than muscle, but burns more calories!  your scale will go up, but your clothes will be looser and you will look better.

[WendyB]

Yes I have seen this a thousand times. I know muscle is denser than fat. I did not say it was not.

I said when starting a new Exercise your Muscles will retain water to repair them self. This can cause a gain and it freaks people out and they give up on lifting weights.

Strength training is very important for everyone. Its not all about Cardio

[eupepsia]

When you lift weights, you're breaking down weaker muscle fibers and building stronger muscle fibers, which is why you gain weight.

Water is retained in muscles when you have creatine, not lifting.

[Heybales]

---

@eupepsia wrote:

When you lift weights, you're breaking down weaker muscle fibers and building stronger muscle fibers, which is why you gain weight.

Water is retained in muscles when you have creatine, not lifting.

---

Wendy is right, the body retains water when a part is under repair - inflamed, inflammation, ect.

If you indeed got the micro-tears a good lifting workout causes, which if you have the right diet and allow an actual recovery, then you will retain water during that process.

I just finished a month of training for triathlon, and did first circuit training last Monday. Was sore until Friday, and Friday night was up about every hour getting rid of that extra water. Dropped 5 lbs by Sat.

Happens every time there is big gap before doing lifting again.

Also - You know how long it would take a woman to add on that 5 lbs of muscle eating in surplus and doing a progress weight lifting routine, and everything else just right?

About 6 wks per pound. So that trade you mentioned above would take 30 weeks.

And you know how much extra metabolism muscle adds - 6 calories per lb per day. Fat is already 2 cal per lb per day.

So as far as metabolism - you are only gaining 4 cal per lb per day, or 20 calories for the above trade in 30 weeks. Now obviously you use the muscle through the day, so in use more is burned in exercise, but not daily use. It takes so much energy to pick up those grocery bags. With little muscle, it's hard, with more muscle, it's easy. But the amount of calories burned picking it up doesn't change just because you have more muscle.

You ain't gaining as much muscle as it sound like you think you do.

Always good advice of course, but keeping it in the realm of truth is always good for setting good expectations too.

Also, you can gain strength without gaining one ounce of muscle. People in a diet do it all the time, since it's harder if not even possible to build muscle in a deep deficit that many take.

[RobynKTakami]

The rumored FitBit Charge HR may have heart rate monitoring that is sure to be a good accessory to weight lifting.

[Heybales]

---

@RobynKTakami wrote:

The rumored FitBit Charge HR may have heart rate monitoring that is sure to be a good accessory to weight lifting.

---

Eh - once you've used a HRM with lifting you discover a few facts.

If you are fit, your HR drops faster after doing a set - but that doesn't mean your muscles are ready for the next set yet. Full body compound moves take longer recovery if you plan to do that same heavy weight on another set. Shoot, even overhead press does too, with very small muscles there.

If you are unfit, your HR may take forever to drop, and you may be waiting too long if basing your wait time on HR reaching a certain low point.

Of course HR is useless for calorie burn in anaerobic exercise, or non-steady state, so it wouldn't be useful there at all.

HR as tied to calorie burn is ONLY correct for steady-state aerobic exercise, not resting levels wearing all day, not intervals, not lifting, not constant up and down changes.

That being said, it would confirm that if you had trouble getting a lift done with same weight as done before, and you see your HR didn't get nearly as high as normal, your muscles are already tired and can't push the HR up. Then again you can usually that merely from the fact of having trouble getting the weight up.

[loveabull]

I definitely recommend regular lifting and weight training for anyone over fifty. Especially women! I'm 52 and have a retail job that requires heavy lifting regularly. I also have two klutzy dogs who are around sixty pounds each, picking them up to go in the bathtub, the girl having a panic attack and having to be carried a few blocks...the boy has most of his weight in his head and shoulders. That means boosting his bitty hind end up on places he can't climb up on.

Some of us are afraid we'll pull something. Being older doesn't make us fragile, really it doesn't. And you won't get weight lifter arms...just well toned. Sure beats the dreaded bat wing upper arms some people have. Plus you boost your metabolism and lifting enough to break a sweat is great cardio too. I am so proud of customers who appear to be petite seniors and they're hoisting their own bricks and mulch!