ABOUT THAT FAT

By Lee

There seems to be a common misconception among men and women in thinking that they should lose weight before they start lifting weights.  Mostly because of fear that the excess body fat will turn to big muscle and they will remain big.  Well, we could only wish it was so simple. All of us, including professional bodybuilders would only have to eat everything and anything-then start to work out so that it could all turn into this great big muscle and we wouldn't have to worry about eating a specific way to gain mass!

The fact is losing fat is really hard.  Your body can burn muscle much faster than it can fat.  So skipping meals because you want to lose weight will only make you fatter as it slows your metabolism more.

It still begs the question of why you wouldn't want to weight lift . There are so many other great side effects from it that you should be aware of.  Especially if you are a woman.  We have to worry about osteosporosis as we age.

Most of your cardio burn will end shortly after your cardio ends.  With weight lifting it can go on for  more substantial time depending on the load and your metabolism.  The more deconditioned you are the more you have your work cut out for you so you really have to commit yourself to it.  There are no short cuts.  Get comfortable with being uncomfortable while your body makes its adaptations.  If you do you will achieve success faster than those who want to workout and not feel a thing the next day.  Ughhh… wait,  did I just say uncomfortable like meaning a little soreness?  Did you get away with all those years of eating hamburgers and STUFF without any consequences ..EVER??  WRONG.

I'm also going to tell you you should be ashamed of yourself if you have been training and you don't feel a little soreness. That only means you haven't been pushing yourself.  If you want results you have to push yourself if you really want to lose that fat.  No, I'm not talking about those comfortable walks on the treadmill or "running" that is really equivalent to a fast paced walk on the treadmill.  Setting the treadmill to the highest incline and walking while holding on to the rails is NOT considered a good cardio workout. That's right!  That is right up there with the "stupids" that think they can go out and eat anything because they are  going to hit the gym "hard" later.  You're wasting your time!  You need to run…like hell.  Like your neighbors dog is chasing you.  Ok, maybe not an all out effort, but you need to step it up.

 Weight training will help you lose fat.  It will make your bones stronger.  It will improve all facets of daily life.  It will help stave off the negative affects of aging and stress. It will define your muscles. There's so many good reasons to lift.  So combine the two.  You need to increase the intensity as you adapt.  Adapt as you increase the intensity.  Do the same with running.  Increasing the intensity means running a bit faster.  Or do more short runs at a fast pace.  Intensity with weight lifting and running will help you lose fat.

We're not going for the bodybuilder look (extra heavily muscled) and we're not going for the marathon runner look (gaunt, under muscled look), in fact we're not going for any look.  We're shooting for better performance.  The CrossFit methodology improves athletic performance and provides a very healthy lean, muscular athletic build in the process.  You get the best of the weight training world and the running world with CrossFit.  With all the modalities involved in the daily workouts you can't help, but lose body fat, gain muscle and improve the quality of all aspects of general physical preparedness.

If your reading this chances are you've already started your training and you understand.  If you're reading this and you're concerned about getting too big or waiting for a better time to start training we're here to tell you not to be concerned.  You won't get "too big", there's no such thing as too strong and there is no better time than right now.  Do it for yourself and for those that love you and would love to have you stick around…

See you in the box!