{"id":135,"date":"2010-06-08T07:00:21","date_gmt":"2010-06-08T14:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/keepwellfoods.com\/blog\/?p=135"},"modified":"2010-06-08T07:05:36","modified_gmt":"2010-06-08T14:05:36","slug":"dont-hold-the-mayo-at-least-not-the-healthy-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keepwellfoods.com\/blog\/?p=135","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Hold the Mayo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Strength Training Takes Many Forms<\/p><\/div>\n

A colleague and I were recently discussing the importance of strength training, aka weight training or resistance training. What’s great about strength\u00a0training is that it\u00a0can be done in several ways: with resistance machines, free-weights (dumbbells, barbells, kettle bells), rubber tubing (more effective than you might think), or your own body weight as in\u00a0push-ups, squats or abdominal crunches.<\/p>\n

Strength training is an important subject for me as osteoporosis runs in my family and it is a condition I refuse to have. Strength training can increase bone density and reduce the risk of osteoporosis so I make strength training a regular part of my workout routine. There are several other benefits including\u00a0\u00a0increasing\u00a0lean muscle mass and burning calories more efficiently.<\/p>\n

My colleague told me about a\u00a0terrific web site from the Mayo Clinic. TheHealthy Lifestyle<\/a>\u00a0section of the web site has\u00a0excellent information, written in plain English, on exercise, nutrition, weight loss, stress reduction, and more. The articles are written by credentialed professionals in their respective fields. If you weren’t sure why you should strength train, here is an excellent reason from\u00a0Edward Laskowski, M.D., a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., and co-director of the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center:<\/p>\n

Muscle mass naturally diminishes with age. If you don’t do anything to replace the lean muscle you lose, you’ll increase the percentage of fat in your body, but strength training can help you preserve and enhance your muscle mass \u2014 at any age.”<\/em><\/p>\n

So, no strength training =\u00a0the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man<\/a> (or in my case, woman).<\/p>\n

I don’t know about you, but increasing my body fat percentage is something I want to avoid. I know some woman think strength training will make them look like a bodybuilder. Well, it won’t. Unless that is your goal and those ladies train very hard to get that way.\u00a0There’s a world of difference between muscle tone and competing in the Ms. Olympia contest.<\/p>\n

I normally\u00a0use\u00a0a combination\u00a0of the methods mentioned above\u00a0and do three sets of 15 reps.\u00a0As someone who is pressed for time (aren’t we all), there are times when I need to leave the gym before I can complete all of the strength training exercises I would like to. Imagine how excited I was to find out\u00a0that I could cut down on\u00a0the amount of time I spend strength training and still get all of the\u00a0benefits of my normal routine.<\/p>\n

The Mayo site features a podcast by Dr. Laskowski who explains why multiple sets are not necessary\/productive. You can listen to it here (approximately\u00a0eight minutes in length): Podcast: Weight training for busy people \u2014 5 timesaving tips<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I went to the gym last night and gave it a try: only one set for each exercise. This knocked nearly\u00a030 minutes\u00a0off of my typical strength training workout and allowed me to\u00a0do\u00a0several more\u00a0exercise and even add a few extra\u00a0minutes of cardio. It did feel a little strange not to do all those sets and reps, but I did feel good about getting to do more exercises.<\/p>\n

For more information on strength training or related topics, I encourage you to visit Mayo Clinic’s Healthy Lifestyle web site<\/a>. They have a Q&A section, podcasts and even exercise videos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The benefits of strength training are numerous and the exercises can be done in a short period of time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keepwellfoods.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keepwellfoods.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keepwellfoods.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keepwellfoods.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keepwellfoods.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/keepwellfoods.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"https:\/\/keepwellfoods.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keepwellfoods.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keepwellfoods.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keepwellfoods.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}