If You Can’t Run, Lift

  Consider being clinically obese. Imagine that it’s hard to climb the stairs at home without being out of breath, and walking more than a few st…

I used to think running was the most easily accessible exercise. I’ve since changed my mind.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think running is great, and the fact that it requires little to know prior knowledge or equipment is fantastic; but it’s not something everyone can do.

 

Consider being clinically obese. Imagine that it’s hard to climb the stairs at home without being out of breath, and walking more than a few steps has you panting. If that’s where you’re starting from, what does exercise look like? What can you realistically do?

Enter Crossfit and Weight Training.

CrossFit and weight training are great for a number of reasons:

 

They make you practice functional exercises

Pretty fit woman doing frontal lunges or squat exercise indoors in a flat.

CrossFit is all about normal everyday movements, like squatting down to look at something, carrying heavy items, etc. It will improve posture, strengthen leg, arm and back muscles, and just make your day to day life a lot easier.

 

You see progress fast

Close up woman hand doing push ups exercise in a gym in morning, sunlight effect.

One of the most motivating things for anyone is to see an improvement, no matter how small. Weight training is great because you can start simple, with the lightest handheld weight, and just measure how many reps you manage each time. Going from one rep to two is progress, going from, two reps to five is progress, going from a lighter weight to a heavier one is progress. This is especially motivating if you’re unlikely to see physical changes in your body right away.

 

They build your confidence

Athletic young adult girl focused on a fitness training with ropes at the gym

CrossFit and weight training are some of the few exercises where you’re only benchmarked against yourself. If you join a CrossFit, typically they’ll keep track of your fastest times, most reps and so on, so that you can see what you’re capable of. The best thing about this is that once you’ve built up your confidence, you’ll feel more confident doing other exercises too, and won’t be put off by the fact that you haven’t done them before.

 

They’re major fat-burners

Group of fit people in sportswear doing chin ups together during an exercise class at the gym

If your goal is to lose weight, it doesn’t get much better than weight training. Once you start building muscle, the fat burn continues not only during your workout, but after it. This is something you just can’t do with cardio, which will burn more calories per minute while you exercise but has no post-workout effects.

 

Interested in starting to weight train? Try one of Lifesum’s High Protein diets to help you get the right fuel for your workouts – it’ll be worth it!

All of the content and media on Lifesum is created and published for information purposes only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for medical advice or treatment. Users should always consult with a doctor or other health care professional for medical advice. If you have or think you are at risk of developing an eating disorder, do not use the Lifesum app and seek immediate medical help.