You’ll often see heavy lifting programmed for our clients on a daily basis.
There is frequently a fear that correlates with lifting heavy. Fear of looking too bulky, getting injured or a decrease in endurance.
In reality, that fear can keep you from reaching your goals of fat loss, increased strength, injury prevention, improved athletic performance or increased endurance.
Below I’ll address how lifting heavy is beneficial for your goals.
FAT LOSS
Lifting heavy is hugely beneficial for burning fat. When you build strength you are basically replacing fat with lean muscle tissue, in return lean muscle leads to a higher metabolism.
A misconception is that if you lift heavy you’ll look bulky, however, to look lean & toned you need lean muscle. Lifting heavy builds this lean muscle that allows you to have the look you want.
STRENGTH
If you’re already looking to get stronger, lifting heavy challenges your body to adapt to the stresses of lifting heavier weights. Lifting heavy is HOW you gain strength!
INJURY PREVENTION
Lifting heavy helps stimulate tendon and ligament strengthening, which aids in injury prevention. As you lift heavier weights you’ll notice that you have to control the eccentric or lowering portion of the movement which limits being out of control and aids with dialing in solid technique.
NEW OR RETURN TO FITNESS
If you’re new or returning to fitness, a focus on movement quality is of utmost importance, as it’s easy to feel ‘ready’ muscularity to lift heavy. But if your tendons, joints and ligaments aren’t ready to be loaded heavily this could backfire and result in injury. Take your time, trust the process and soon you’ll be lifting heavy.
ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
For performanced focused athletes getting stronger by lifting heavy weights translates to better power production and results on the field of play.
For the CrossFit competitor, strength is highly beneficial to improve performance. Being able to lift heavy results in higher lifting numbers, faster times and better scores during competition.
ENDURANCE
Lifting heavy is beneficial for improving aerobic capacity. Strength training leads to an increase in the ability to deliver oxygen to the working muscles as well as increased tolerance to the build-up of lactic acid. These physiological changes result in improved endurance.
Because there are small nuances that can help you improve in any of these areas, it’s important to work with a coach to modify your training to benefit you the most.
Schedule a session with a coach to set goals and see how our team can help you. I WANT TO TALK TO A COACH ABOUT MY GOALS!