Monday, March 12, 2012

Happy Monday!

So I'm not usually a fan of Mondays, especially the Monday after Spring Break, but today was a good day. I decided to switch to M/W/F for my strength training schedule this week, and had a great workout tonight. I went right after my evening class, so between 7 and 8pm. It was pretty busy both at the treadmills and other cardio machines, and down in the weight room, so I had to wait an extra minute or two here and there for some of the weight machines. That's okay though, it was nice to see so many people working out. Tonight's workout:

I've been reflecting the last few days on why it is I chose resistance training for my immersive research project. The biggest reason is definitely because I want to develop a healthy lifestyle, and strength training is one of the keys to a healthy body. Of course, part of my motivation is to help with my weight loss goals, but that in itself is just another aspect of getting healthy. In my research leading up to this immersion project, I read several articles that commented on the benefits of resistance training, and one of the common points was that building muscle, increasing lean tissue mass, raises your resting metabolic rate. That means you burn more calories even at rest since lean tissue requires more calories. That's something I hadn't thought about before. Another big bonus from strength training is that in addition to building muscle, it strengthens bone and helps prevent osteoporosis. That becomes more and more important as we get older, especially for women. Here's to building a life-long habit of exercise, including strength training!

Question of the day: What do you like most about exercise?
I love that I have more energy throughout the day and just generally feel better when I exercise.

2 comments:

  1. I like the endorphins. In fact, I like them so much, I find it mildly annoying that my brain doesn't always WANT to exercise. Curse you, laziness.

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  2. I can definitely relate to that!

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