Most exercise “professionals” will tell you that the harder you train, the more weight you will lose. Sometimes that is partially true. However, the whole truth is, you cannot out train a bad diet! This means you can work as hard as you want (kill yourself in the gym) and still not lose body fat. The loss of weight does NOT mean you lost body fat. A lot of the time people are over training and losing muscle, and your heart is a muscle.
When you lose muscle on an extreme training program, you will hold subcutaneous body fat. Your body will store it and not release it all (which means loose skin). This type of body fat is the same fat we call the “lower stomach pooch”. Most people can't get rid of their pooch due to lack of knowledge and improper training/diet. Consider a runner that loses weight and slims down. If an overweight runner loses weight without weight training and proper diet, their skin will flop up and down with every step they take! In order to keep skin tight and lose weight, you must keep the muscle you have. That doesn't necessarily mean gain muscle (of course that helps), just don't lose muscle.
No exercise on earth can replace weight training! All other exercise is secondary. That’s why the best athletes on earth weight train for exercise to get better at their sport (No matter what sport it is). They aren't doing Yoga or Zumba as their primary exercise. If they are, they are not the best! Even the athletes on ESPN that compete in the fittest man on earth do weight training as their primary source of exercise, not fit camp or boot camp. They only train that “extreme” 3 months out from a competition. A bodybuilder also typically trains “extreme” 3 months out from a contest. Neither a bodybuilder nor an extreme fitness competitor can train “extreme” year round for the rest of their life.
Training extreme all the time will cause you to burn out and your body cannot handle it. Consider boot camp courses…doing the hardcore ones is really over training and, whether you want to hear it or not, it will tear down more muscle than it builds up. When you tear down more muscle than you build up, your skin will start to loosen! The first 3 months of a boot camp are great as a “shock” to your body, but you have to ask yourself, how long can you keep it up? If you want to do it forever because it feels great, you will be in for a big surprise when you eventually get injured. It’s a matter of time before your knees or lower back or both starts hurting.
Now if you want to relieve stress, go run for 30 minutes, or go do boot camp. But do it only as a stress reliever. If you are a runner or a boot camp enthusiast, you need to start doing some weight training to off-set the damage being done. Weight training pulls fluid into the muscle and keeps it stable in the muscle. Once stable in the muscle, it helps prevent muscle breakdown when running or boot camping. If you’re not weight training then you are just constantly stripping fluid out of the muscle, and it will burn off. Running causes this fluid stripping faster than boot camp (because there are some weights used in boot camp). However, just like over training with weights, it's just a matter of time before you get injured due to the muscle breakdown not being able to support the re-connective tissue (i.e. tendons & ligaments).
There is so much money in research toward running and over training, you can find a study to prove anything right and wrong. People become blind to the truth. There are no secrets. There are more heart attacks among runners than any other sport on earth (the heart is a muscle). So if you want lifelong results, lift weights without jumping up & down all the time and eat healthy! If you think training like the Biggest Loser is real, then go be locked in a room 24hrs a day away from friends & family with 1200 calories a day. INSANE! And after the show you will gain all of your weight back, because you lost your muscle, and your muscle is your metabolism!
In summary, if you want to lose “weight”, go anywhere and do a boot camp class. If you want to lose body fat and keep skin tight (without joint pain) visit www.easternshorefitnesscenter.com or www.mikejanhorn.com. For more information on how to train to get the body you want, email mikephelpsmail@gmail.com.
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