By Derek Beech
As you start the next phase of your life graduation
can be both a time of excitement and extreme
nervousness. Excitement at finally leaving high
school behind but nervousness at what life may have in store for
you in the future.
Reflecting back upon my graduation, it was also a time when we
all hoped to put our best image forward for the upcoming grad
ceremonies. For some this meant losing a few extra pounds as
I'm sure it does for many of you also. However, BEWARE, there
is a ton of bad weight loss advice out there which if followed,
will leave you worse off than you were to begin with. Yes, you
could follow some fad diet and rapidly lose those pounds but
without the proper exercise regime while doing so you will end
up gaining back even more weight than you originally had to lose
when you stop dieting. Why? You ask.
Because you have unknowingly slowed down your metabolism by
destroying a lot of you're active muscle tissue, tissue which
burns more calories even while your at rest sleeping.
Weight training I find is the best method to keep this active
muscle tissue from being destroyed while dieting, however don't
fall for the common weightlifting myth that doing more repetitions
with a lighter weight is better to tone up and add definition.
Yes doing more repetitions may burn a few extra calories when
compared to a normal weight workout but it would be far more
beneficial to your body to just add an extra 5 minutes on a
cardio machine.
Fact of the matter is - a muscle can not define itself, - it can
only do one of three things. It can get larger, smaller or
stay the same size.
If you wish to make your muscles larger you will need to subject
them to some progressive intensity overload, in other words you
will have to either lift more weight each workout or increase the
speed of the same workout so as to create more intensity than
your last session in the gym. If you wish to keep your muscles
the same size you can just do the same workout over and over
again, and of course if you want your muscles to get smaller,
just stop exercising altogether.
Muscle definition itself, comes as a result of both muscle size
and the absence of bodyfat. Therefore by increasing the size
of your muscles and reducing your bodyfat thru diet and/or cardio
activity your body (muscles) will become more defined.
So, in your quest to look great for graduation this year it makes
much more sense to lose those extra pounds thru running or some
other form of cardiovascular activity while lifting heavy weights,
with proper form, in the lower Rep range (6 to 10), in order to
build more muscle mass.
Now, the next time somebody tells you to train "High Reps for
Definition", ignore them and think "Heavy Training = More
Muscle = Lower Bodyfat = Definition".
Derek Beech
derekbeech@yahoo.ca
www.derekbeech.info
