Starting a Strength Training Program

Strength training is beneficial for everybody! It doesn't matter whether you want to be a competitive athlete, be healthy enough to play with your grandchildren, or just lose weight.

That's right...I said lose weight! Many people who want to lose weight are afraid of building muscle. They think that strength training will make them look big and bulky. This couldn't be further from the truth! By strength training you build muscle, which increases your metabolism. That means that your body will be burning more calories even when you're resting. By strength training you are actually transforming your body into a lean, mean, fat-burning machine!

So if you really want to "lose weight" don't focus on losing weight, focus on losing body fat and building muscle. Muscle is active; it never stops burning calories for you! Fat, on the other hand, is inactive. It just sits on your body and does nothing for you, so get rid of it. And the best way to get rid of that fat is to surround it with fat-burning, metabolism-boosting muscle!

Strength training is also important for anyone who wants to be an athlete or anyone who wants to reduce the risk of injury in their everyday lives. So, now that I've convinced you of the importance of strength training, where should you start?

1) Figure out what your goals are and what your current fitness level is. Any personal trainer can help you with this.

2) Start by balancing out your body. People usually want to jump right in to lifting heavy weights...BAD IDEA! You should spend you first few weeks doing "stabilization" exercises to strengthen your core and develop your balance, so you don't hurt yourself.

3) Work on "muscular endurance." For the second month of any program, I usually recommend that clients do a combination of "strength exercises" followed by "stability exercises" to help them build up their endurance.

4) After about 8 weeks you can really start focusing on building strength and even explosive power if you're a competitive athlete. This is when you can really start having some fun with some real high-intensity workouts!

Now that you know the basics of strength training, get started!