Is Stronger Really Better

New years has come and gone, most of us left our fitness resolutions, a number of us met them with victory while a few people have sadly missed the mark. With good intentions we set goals, purchased exercise gear and joined gyms. Outcomes haven't come easily for most of us, some got hurt, time is scarce, the children are sick...

But, there's some great news on the horizon. For those people in the fitness and health industry there has been some very interesting research coming out recently that can allow you to achieve your targets. When it comes to overall fitness and weight loss, stronger is better. What I mean is that time or endurance, has been shown more effective at stimulating weight loss and increasing the capacity of muscles to stabilize. We were created to move, most people unfortunately do too little of that. The more consistently we proceed the greater our overall endurance.

With respect to muscles it's been proven that the longer we proceed the more healthy our muscles become. This equates to lighter resistance, frequently body fat, to make muscular endurance and excite our metabolism. If you suffer from neck or back pain you'll want to know that the study is conclusive on backbone exercise. Body weight exercises with long holdsup to 5-10 second contractions stimulate the stabilizers of the spine and increase their endurance. The higher the endurance of the spinal stabilizers the less opportunity there is for harm. What this signifies is that those jokes on TV and machines in the fitness center made to strengthen you back don't work. The truth is they might actually make your back worse! . Lifting heavy weights and crunches really increases the forces on the spine causing injury and eventually weakness.

Cardiovascular exercise for weight loss and health is in precisely the exact same category. Longer is better, the longer we keep the heart rate up the more calories we burn off and this equates to weight reduction. Most men and women train really hard but for short durations which are spread sporadically during the week. The trick to consistent and fitness weight loss is keeping the heart rate up for extended periods of time 5 or more times per week. If this looks like a lot contemplate that taking a stroll after dinner and taking the stairs whenever possible can easily add to this time.

The take home message is that heavier and harder is definitely better, unless you're specifically training for a game. Consistency with exercise, a healthy lifestyle, good sleep, great foods and a proactive outlook will always aid on your exercise efforts.