Use it or lose it!  Having toned, active muscles means that they are "metabolically"  fit.  This means that they can handle all the food and calories you can eat without gaining any storage (fat).  Here's how you can start building or re-building your metabolism today with a very specialized form of exercise called Metabolic Strength Training.

The word "metabolism" often mystifies people who are not familiar with how their bodies actually use and burn the foods (calories) they eat.  For the sake of this short discussion, it is enough to say that your metabolism is the continual, 24-hours-a-day mechanism in your body that is responsible for taking the food you eat and converting it into the energy or "gasoline" your body needs to run all of its active and passive functions. 

It provides the energy your body needs for pumping blood through your body, inhaling and exhaling air, maintaining your body temperature, thinking, and a whole host of other bodily processes.

It also reacts to the physical activites you do each day, and can be enhanced if you do the right type of exercise on a regular basis. Over the last decade, many men and women have taken an interest in weight training as a way to help their metabolisms run more efficiently. 

Strong muscles build a faster metabolism

Toned, active muscles demand far more of our caloric intake than inert muscle and stored body fat. The more active lean muscle we have, the higher our metabolic rate.

When we work our muscles, they change to meet the demand we put upon them. If we work them regularly and keep them toned and active, we can, not only improve our metabolic rate but maintain it at that improved rate also.

In short, working our muscles on a regular basis makes you lean, hard, and mobile, as opposed to fat, soft, and sluggish.  But the biggest question that remains is "how"?

Metabolic Strength Training

Mounting evidence and legions of successful clients here at Genesis Personal Fitness clearly suggest that the "how" is key to achieving maximum results from strength training.  Different from all other methods of weight lifting, ultra-efficient Metabolic Strength Training delivers optimal fitness, increased strength, and a faster metabolism without bulking-up or sore muscles.

It's safer, time-efficient, and more productive.

"Metabolic work" is the goal when you exercise on each specialized strength-training machine at Genesis Personal Fitness.  The vast majority of people who try strength training on their own or at other fitness facilities usually perform their repetitions at a speed of movement that is too fast.  By carefully timing and slowing down the speed of each repetition, you not only exercise the muscle group(s) more thoroughly, but you also stimulate your metabolism to change for the better and burn more of what you have stored (fat) the other 23 1/2 hours per day.

Genesis clients find that by making their muscles stronger, they are able to raise their metabolic rate, limit and reduce body fat, lose weight, increase bone density, reinforce and better support joints, and prevent the loss of lean muscle tissue particularly as they get older.

Doing It On Your Own

If you already perform strength training on your own, here are several tips that will make it much more effective:

• Exercise using proper strength training equipment.  Avoid using barbells and dumbells if possible, particularly if you are over 40 years of age.  Using barbells and dumbells predisposes you to injury because of the joint instability that begins to occur once we hit 40.  Further, using barbells and dumbells can extend your muscles (and joints) well beyond their normal range of motion and cause irreversible damage.
  
  
• Perform one "timed set interval" of each strength-training exercise that lasts no more than 120 seconds. Avoid working the muscle group(s) longer, but instead when the weight you're lifting seems easy at the 120 second mark, increase the weight next time by a few pounds.  
  
  
• Lift the resistance (weight) in a smooth, controlled 4 seconds, turnaround smoothly at the top, lower in approximately 6 seconds, smoothly turnaround at the bottom and lift again in 4 seconds.  Why? Slow repetitions rely more on muscular contraction and less on momentum. Conversely, the faster the repetition, the more momentum you've recruited and the less muscle you're using. This is one of the most important exercise principles we emphasize here at Genesis Personal Fitness since it will bring you the most benefit from your exercise efforts.  Even though it is easier to move faster than it is to move slowly and smoothly, just slow down!
  
  
• A strength-training session should last about 25-30 minutes and consist of five to eight exercises.  Avoid "over-exercising" when you use strength training as part of your exercise plan.  Allowing adequate to recover from this type of exercise is just as important as the exercise itself.
  
  
• Strive to do your strength-training routine 2-3 times each week, allowing for a day of rest in between.  When done consistently, you'll find that you'll begin to look forward your exercise sessions more and more with each passing week.  Soon you'll "feel the power" you've been missing, and your body's metabolism will love you for it!

If you would like to visit with us to see and "feel" firsthand how Metabolic Strength Training can help you improve your metabolism, call us for a FREE 30-Minute Personal Consultation at 215-504-0100 or contact us online by Clicking Here.