Weight Training to Build Self-confidence and a Great Body

If you’ve found this article while looking for a personal trainer on the Wirral or Liverpool then you’re probably looking to get Fit, Lose Weight, be Healthy and Strong. And that’s great but, my question to you is why?

I’ve been a personal trainer and fitness coach now for 20 years and delivered over 20,000 one to one private fitness and coaching sessions to clients across the North West of England. With every single client, I’ve had the pleasure to serve, I’ve always asked them the same question once they’ve told me what they want to accomplish… Why? Nine times out of ten, and after a degree of tough questions, we arrive at the same point, Self-Confidence.

This may be body confidence due to how they feel in front of their partner, the fear of what people might say when they’re on the beach or, for general self-confidence in Life. Well, the solution you’re looking for my friend is called weight training.

You might be one of those people that do cardio all the time because they want to slim down and be leaner, more aesthetic, and more confident.

But if you’re looking to burn more fat, look leaner, and get that great body that will skyrocket your confidence, here’s a simple answer: build lean muscle!

After the years of training clients online and face to face, I’ve found building strength through resistance training helps you lose fat, gain lean muscle, look awesome and  actually keep that body for life.

Even though usual fat loss programs combine high-intensity intervals, fat-burning intervals, and countless more cardio options, strength training won’t just help you lose weight. It will help you look and feel better, gain more strength, and all of that while burning more calories at rest due to the prevalence of metabolic tissue in your body. Imagine being able to burn 10-20% more calories a day by sitting on your backside, how good would that be?

Whether you choose bodyweight alone or extra weight, resistance training is an effective way to build muscle, burn fat, and do it all with one single activity. That being said, it still requires a different approach to increase muscle strength and size.

Side note – Don’t worry about becoming an over muscular monster. The images you see on Instagram and other social platforms are the outcomes of people dedicating their entire lives to training, nutrition and, for most, taking a great deal of anabolic steroids and/or, cosmetic surgery. I think this would be a good topic to blog on at a later date!

Strength training places large muscle groups in a state of combustion, increasing the production of hormones that help reduce body fat.

Hormones that help burn fat and grow lean muscle directly during exercise get elevated, and those are the same hormones that regulate metabolism, heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and more.

In addition, strength training can help burn more calories during cardio workouts by increasing the number of calories you will burn during and after your otherwise normal cardio workout.

In fact, incorporating a weightlifting routine to build lean muscle can make your cardio workouts even more efficient as long as you exercise to burn the same number of calories.

If you have difficulty getting under a layer of fat and your primary goal is to lose weight, you might want to lift weights first. Obviously, this is especially true for someone who focuses on losing weight because your body starts burning fat before you start your cardio work. This may seem contradictory to my blog (Fitness for a High-performance Mind, Body, and Life) where I give the advice to use cardio first for a weight loss journey but, this is where of we start diving into individualisation, one cap does not fit all. If you’re finding cardio difficult then switch gears and hit the weights instead.

What you may not realise is that both styles have their place in your routine, and you can do cardio and lift weights to lose weight.

In general, cardio burns more calories than weight training, but you can combine both by doing weight training first and finishing your workouts off with cardio.

Do the same weight loss workout for two or three weeks, and then start investing more time in your aerobic workout and doing more strength training. Once you have finished your cardio, you should do a cardio workout every two weeks for the rest of the week.

To find out more on cardio training and its benefits you can take a look at my previous blog here... Cardio Fitness for the Heart and Mind

If let’s say, you’re 100lbs overweight and you’re looking to make a massive transformation, you should be aware that cardio alone is probably not going to cut it.

If you want better and faster results, you have to incorporate strength training workouts in your weight loss regime, so you’re not just spending all your time trying to burn calories – you’re also improving your overall body composition, which will help you get the body you desire much, much faster.

More muscle helps your body burn more fat than muscle, which is important if you want to lose weight and maintain your strength.

The inclusion of weight training can increase the intensity of your workout, which is ideal for losing weight. By adding elements of strength, cardio, and HIIT, you can perform a series of highly effective workouts to lose weight and build lean muscle in just a few weeks!

Strength training can help you manage and lose weight, and it can boost your metabolism, causing you to burn more calories. There are several other ways to lose weight that have not been mentioned, such as diet and exercise as a means to weight loss. 

Endurance and strength training are excellent ways to burn calories, but to really improve your results, you also need to incorporate exercises that build lean muscle. Even though you don’t really feel like you’re losing weight when you’re lifting weights, you should remember that creating more metabolic tissue in the body means you’ll be burning more calories at rest, resulting in much faster overall weight loss.

What does this mean for you?

It means that if you want to burn fat, sculpt an awesome body and massively boost your self-confidence, weight training is going to give you all of that and more my friend. Bottom line.

If you’re looking to learn how weight training can help you grow and develop your muscles, as well as become healthier… and how you can create the perfect home workout routine, check out some of the training videos on my workouts page: Lewis Bailey Personal Trainer Workouts 

LOOKING FOR AN ONLINE PERSONAL TRAINER IN LIVERPOOL OR MANCHESTER?

If you’re looking for a FITNESS TRAINER & MINDSET COACH that can help you create that perfect cardio + weight training routine, sharp up your nutrition, strengthen your mindset and kick your arse when you need it, then I’d be happy to help you!