Aire Blog

Let me start this health and fitness blog off with a riddle:  Two women are sitting on the couch watching an episode about Honey badgers on Animal Planet. Woman #1 spends her time using weights to get lean three times a week, but woman #2 only does cardio. After an hour of watching T.V., who will have burned more calories?

Most people would instinctively say they both burned the same (almost nothing), since they were merely sitting on a couch.

In fact, the correct answer would be that woman #1 burned more calories for one reason: the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, thus the healthier your overall lifestyle.  I’ll explain how this works later in the blog, but first let me clear up one of the biggest misconceptions about strength training, muscle-sculpting workouts: Lifting weights does not make you bulky, lifting weights like a professional body builder makes you bulky.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard a woman say, “I don’t want to lift weights because I don’t want to get bulky” I could probably buy myself a small island. I would then stick all of those women on that island so they couldn’t go around spreading false information!

When you think of intense muscle toning workouts, you probably think of body builders. You think of men and women in little swimsuits with big immense muscles popping out all over the place.  First, these people are an extremely small percentage of the population and most of them are using performance-enhancing drugs like steroids to look that way.  More importantly, women do not have enough of the male hormone, testosterone, to get big muscles. You probably couldn’t even get big and bulky if you tried to.

Check it out… when you lift weights, your body builds more fat-burning machinery: muscle.

The more lean muscle you have, the more calories you burn (even at rest).

The more calories you burn, the more tone you become.

Bada bing bada boom!  Easy enough?

Lean muscle is much more compact than fat. It actually takes up less space than fat does because of its density.  If you took 10 lbs. of fat and 10 lbs. of muscle and roll each of them into a ball, the 10 lbs. of fat might be the size of a bowling ball. The 10 lbs. of muscle would be about the size of a baseball.

So you’re probably wondering… why are you telling me this, Mike?  Get to the point!

Our “Whipped“weightlifting class at Aire Urban Fitness is the most fun and effective way to get your butt, arms, legs and abs nice and firm.  A circuit of 10-15 stations incorporating bodyweight, free weights, and the occasional tire will get you on your way to Perfect Butt Town or Six Pack Abs City.  Research has proven that high intensity interval training is the most effective way to burn fat, so not only are you burning calories while you sweat and scream how much you hate me during class, but you’ll be burning fat the rest of the day.

Take away message for everyone who didn’t pay attention to anything I said:

1) Lifting weights will not make you bulky (it will make you leaner and more toned).

2) Muscle is more compact and denser than fat, so you will be able to fit nicely into your skinny jeans.

3) The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn (even at rest!).

4) The class kicks butt and we’ll see you at 7 am on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays! To sign up, click here.

Written by Mike Sherbakov