There are several reasons that people do not lift weights but several more reasons why it is important to add weightlifting to your health and fitness regimen.

Today lets just start with the basics.

First of all did you know that fewer that 10% of the population actually does any weightlifting in their pursuit of fitness? I know that the number is low for a few reasons.

1. It is hard to do weights, People don't like to sweat.

2. Women especially are scared of becoming muscle bound like some freaky looking female bodybuilder

3. Most people just do not know why weghtlifting is important and how to do it correctly.

Hard to do weights? Don't like to sweat? One of the really tough things about getting started lifting weights is that you think that you need to be in the gym for a couple of hours every day. To start with as a beginning weightlifter you do not need to do more than 30 to 40 minutes of weights three times a week and instead of making these workouts longer over time you will just make then more intense.

Women have a really hard time building the msucle that it takes to get really huge looking. If you look at the fitness athletes now or even the female bodybuilders of just a few years ago and think of all the hours that they had to spend in the gym to get that kind of form then you will realize that you will get toned and strong a lot faster then you are going to get big and bulky. Don't be scared of that at this point at all.

Finally the unknown, I am hoping that ove the next week you will leanr all that you need to get started lifting weights and hopefully you will see in the next few points why you should lift weights before we get into the how of weightlifting and you get started.

So now that I have put your mind at ease about weightlifting lets look at the reasons why you should be weightlifing.

1. Weightlifting will strengthen your body which will improve the way you carry yourself and keep you from getting those little injuries that plague you from time to time

2. Weightlifting will help you lose fat

3. Weightlifting will increase you confidence

The big thing for dieters to know is that if you gain a pound of muscle that pound of muscle takes a lot more calories to maintain than a pound of fat. If you gain 10 pounds of muscle and keep your diet the same as today (hopefully a good diet rich in veggies and meat) then your body will need a lot more calories to just maintain you as a being and will need to burn some of your fat for energy - good for weight loss.

Next weightlifting will get you stronger and better able to handle day to day tasks be they moving the lawn or shovelling snow and you will have a better posture and get through work in a day with more energy and look better doing it.

Finally one of the big problems that I see with a lot of people are problems with confidence. There is nothing that helps your confidence along than some successes with lifting heavier and heavier weights in the gym.

In the next few days we will look at some of the very important parts of your workouts and your future with weightlifting. Also I want to cover the best exercises that you should be doing for each muscle group.

Warmup

• Only 10 percent of people do any weights
  
• Very good compliment to cardio
  
• Build muscle so that you can burn more calories
  
• Cardio will not work alone. weight loss will eventually end

Doing the Weightlifting itself

Compound Exercises

Compound exercises are the types of exercises that use a lot of muscle groups. Compound exercises are really the key in how to gain weight. There is a synergy to working multiple muscles and then ending your workouts after this. One bad habit some people have is that they will do a lot of exercises and really drain their bodies and then have no energy left to heal, the classic overtraining. Compound exercises are exercises like bench presses, lat pulls downs, squats, leg presses, military presses. When doing these exercises you want to stress as many of those muscle fibers as possible so make sure that you do your sets and reps very deliberately, slow and very controlled.

Low rep sets

Decreasing reps is very important. Most people try to do 8-12 reps per exercise for four sets. Try instead to do 4-8 reps instead and try to get in an additional set. This means that you will still be doing less reps overall but you will hopefully do more weight overall. Lets say this is your current weight and reps for bench press are four sets of 10-12. Try doing four sets of 4-8 reps with long breaks in between and slow reps, maybe 50% longer reps. Count when doing your reps and have it take three seconds down and three seconds up for each of these heavy reps.

Quick Workouts

The last importatn part of weightlifting espeically when you are getting started is to lift weights and get our of the gym quick. There is always an urge to talk to people, socialize, take longer breaks and just basically waste time. What you really want is a high quality workout that is going to make you really tired by the time you leave but take no longer than 45 minutes from the time you get into the gym.

If you are interested in weight lifting then check out my High intensity training and diet review or for the really ambitious I have reviewed a real muscle gaining program.