Do You Weight Train?

I will admit, I was completely against doing any kind of weight lifting when I first started on this journey.   I was thinking I needed to burn as many calories as possible in order to lose weight quickly.  Lifting weights does not get my heart rate up the way cardio exercise does - things like running, walking, swimming, playing raquetball, etc. - and I needed to get my heart rate up in order to burn calories.  If I only had limited time to work out, I thought I needed to spend all of it on cardio activity.  I thought weight lifting was something I could do after I lost the weight, in order to tone up.  I thought like this for at least six months, even when I had several people try to extol the virtues of weight lifting. 

At Christmas my gym at school closed for a week and I got a free pass to go to a local Rock Hill gym in the mean time.  At this gym they offered a class called BodyPump. BodyPump is a weightlifting class that uses barbells and the latest music to get you hyped.  You do lots of reps and it lasts for 60 minutes.  One of my good friends has been teaching BodyPump for awhile in Florida and she makes it sound like a great progam, so I decided to check it out at this local gym. 

Even though I only made it to one or two BodyPump classes that week, it got me thinking about weight lifting again.  I read that weight lifting (also known as resistence training) has all kinds of benefits, including building muscle, which burns calories when you are at rest.  So while it doesn't burn as many calories as cardio activity when you are performing the exercises, it burns more calories for you in the long run. 

I stuck with the weight training.  After just a few weeks, I could feel a difference in my "guns" (read: biceps).  In about a month, I could tell a huge difference in my shoulders (they're pretty sculpted). Now I can tell a huge difference all over. I'm not big and bulky like some professional weightlifter or body builder (turns out its really hard for women to "bulk up" that way), but sleek and toned. In hindsight, I think it really helped that I was lifting weights as I was losing, helping my body and skin adjust to the new size.

Now I look forward to the weight lifting sessions almost more than cardio (don't worry, I still do a lot of cardio). I love being in the weight room, doing my thang, right alongside all of those big bulky men. The routine I do only takes me about 30 minutes. I aim to do it three times a week, but often bump it down to two.  And it doesn't take that long for it to make a big, noticable difference in your body.
 
If you're not doing any weight lifting or resistence training, why not?  Don't think it's important? (It so is!) No time? Not sure what to do? Don't have a membership to a gym? Intimitated by the whole thing?  Let me know, I'd love to see if I can help.