Day Six: Muscle Basics

Muscle has three main purposes which are movement, stability, and protection. It helps to protect organs and bones from injury. It helps stabilize parts of the body during activity, i.e. stabilizing the spine when walking. Finally, muscle tissue allows the body to move.

The human body is an amazing thing. It can adapt in so many different ways. When it is hot out, the body has ways of cooling itself down such as sweating. When the body is attacked by disease, the body can defend itself and often win the battle. Muscle is no exception. It adapts to what you put it through. When you start working out it will be hard but as you maintain your regimen it will get easier. If you do a bunch of intense cardio, your muscles will become more resistant to lactic acid (one of the biggest contributors to muscle fatigue). Lifting heavy weights will help you to increase how much you can lift.

This concept is why I am such a big advocate for cross training. Using your muscles in as many challenging but safe ways helps to keep them confused which will help to keep from hitting any sort of plateau. Also, it can help to keep the workout regimen interesting. Finally, it can help with weight loss.

Many people think of weight loss and resistance training as two separate things. However, a resistance program can really be a great supplement to an exercise regimen. Cardio is great because it is an excellent way to burn a bunch of calories in a short amount of time. Once you stop exercising though, the extra calories stop burning. Building up a little extra muscle helps you burn extra calories even when you are sitting on the couch. One pound of muscle burns an extra 50 calories per day.

Now, imagine you put on an extra ten pounds of muscle. That means you would burn an extra 500 calories a day and an extra 3,500 calories a week. If you don't know, 3,500 is the magic number in the world of calories. One pound of fat is about 3,500 calories. Therefore, if you put on that ten pounds of muscle, you would automatically be burning an extra pound of fat off per week without doing any extra work. Putting on a little muscle with each major muscle group can really help in your weight loss goals.

There are many more benefits to a resistance training program and I urge you to give it a shot if you have never been interested before. Thanks for reading! Hope you keep coming.