JORIAN HOLKA
Special to The Leader
Throughout history and in society, weight training has been regarded mainly as existing solely for men who want large muscles. Although resistance training is in fact the primary manner by which to add muscle mass to your body, it is not just for people who wish to be “buff” or “jacked.”
Consider this — Claude Bouchard, an obesity researcher from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, revealed that one pound of muscle burns three to five times more calories than one pound of fat. As an example, a 165-pound person who has greater muscle mass will more easily metabolize calories than a 165-pound person with less muscle and more fat on their body.
It is important to note, however, that a pound of fat at rest burns only two calories per day, while a pound of muscle at rest burns six to 10. Therefore, the amount of excess calorie burn from a greater amount of muscle mass is not incredibly sizable. However, there is no doubt that more lean muscle mass can aid your metabolism and in turn help you meet your body goals.
And how can you add more muscle mass? That’s right — weight training!
Unfortunately, the general sentiment that resistance training is reserved only for “manly men” is a widely accepted stereotype. “Cardio bunnies” is a humorous phrase often used as a stereotype referring to women who spend all (or the majority of) their time in the gym using the cardio machines (treadmills, ellipticals, etc.) in the hope of losing weight. However, if muscle burns more calories than fat and weight training builds more muscle than cardio, then why can’t people see the fallacy in their ways and dedicate at least some of their time to weight training?
“I don’t want to get too big.”
Ever heard that before? It’s a common response to the question of why people don’t employ resistance training in their exercise regimens. But two main points can be made against this:
1. It takes a significant effort to get “too big,” so don’t worry about that. You’ll have time to figure out what type and amount of weight training works for you before you become abnormally large.
2. Whether your goal is weight gain, weight loss or even weight maintenance, you need to implement resistance training into your routine if you want the body you’ve always striven to achieve.
According to Bodybuilding.com, proper weight training increases good cholesterol (and decreases bad cholesterol) and lowers your risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, breast cancer, osteoporosis, premenstrual syndrome, stress and illness.
The guidelines for resistance training are relatively simple for beginners.
First, identify your goal. According to Layne Norton, PhD., exercises performed in sets of six to 12 reps work optimally for muscle growth. To strengthen and shape (but not necessarily grow) muscles, sets of 12-15 reps will suffice. Start by performing three sets of each exercise with one or two minutes of rest in between.
Second, choose how to craft your weekly weight training schedule, which should include full-body resistance training days, an upper/lower body split (a terms which indicates “splitting” your workout schedule into days on which you train specific muscle groups), and a three-day split. The three-day split is most often chosen by beginners, as it allots three days for weight training (chest and back day, biceps and triceps day, and legs and shoulders day) and four days for rest and cardio. With this schedule, three or four exercises are chosen for each muscle group that is being worked on the given day and performed as described above.
Finally, as you achieve a deeper understanding of the mechanics of resistance training and your body becomes more accustomed to the practice, you will be able to incorporate more complex practices into your routine, including drop sets, rest-pause sets, supersets, four-day splits, five-day splits and more.
Education is the name of the game, and it is important for all who wish to get more heavily involved in weight training to take it upon themselves to learn proper form, recovery techniques and other methods to stay safe while exercising.
In the third part of “The do’s and ‘donuts’ of college fitness,” you’ll read about recovery techniques as well as the importance of water — both in and apart from exercise.