Ok, so you’ve decided to make strength training a part of your routine. Don’t worry, you don’t have to spend hours at the gym with those guys who grunt while lifting massive amounts of weight. In fact, you don’t even need a gym membership to get the benefits of strength training. With just a few items you can develop a great routine you can do at home. Dumbbells come in a variety of sizes and resistance bands are also a good option. If you haven’t been to the sporting goods department of your local store in a while, you may be surprised by all the products now available for home use.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

1.Always warm up. It is very important to give your body a chance to warm the muscles and lubricate joints before adding additional weight. Warming up can be as simple as marching or jogging in place. Warm up should last about 5 minutes.

2.Stretch. After your warm up spend a few minutes stretching. This increases muscle flexibility.

3. If you are just starting – keep it light. Proper form is more important than the amount of weight. Develop good technique and then slowly work up to heavier weights. For weight loss, use enough weight that you feel fatigued after 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions.

4. Maintain a neutral spine and engage your abs in every movement. Go through the complete range of motion, move slowly, and remember to breathe.

5. Choose one exercise for each major muscle group: Chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and abdominals. It is important to work muscles in groups. If you consistently leave out one of the major muscle groups you could develop an imbalance which may lead to injury.

6. Rest is vital. Your muscles actually strengthen after lifting weights as they rebuild and recover. Rest at least 24 hours between strength training sessions.

Ideally, you should do three sessions a week, but any amount is better than none. As with any new routine you should gradually increase the difficultly. Stick with it and you’ll be impressed with the results. Healthy eating and cardio workouts are great, but with strength training you will obtain noticeable results.

Despite widespread recommendations to incorporate strength training into their workout routine, many women avoid it because they afraid of bulking up. Women have low levels of testosterone, so women do not bulk up with moderate strength training. In fact, if you cut calories without adding exercise you can lose muscle along with fat. There are numerous benefits to strength training and you really should add it to your healthy lifestyle. Below are just five reasons you should make strength training a part of your life:

1. Burn more calories. Another reason some women don’t lift weights is because they think they will gain weight. Yes, it’s a fact that muscle weighs more than fat. But, did you know that at rest 10 pounds of fat burns 20 calories, while 10 pounds of muscle burns 50 calories at rest. This effect is also true during aerobic activity. No matter what you do, muscle burns more calories than body fat.

2. Look better. As stated in my last article, get your mind off the scale. Take for example a woman weighting 150 pounds. At 20% body fat, she has 30 pounds of fat and 120 pounds of lean body weight. After incorporating strength training into her routine, she replaces 5 pounds of fat with 5 pounds of muscle. She still weighs 150 pounds, but has reduced her body fat by about 4.5%. Even though her weight stayed at 150 pounds her muscle tone has improved giving her a fit appearance. Conditioned muscles will also help your posture, which also improves your appearance.

3. Strengthen your bones. By stressing your bones, strength training increases bone density and reduces the risk of osteoporosis.

4. Reduce risk of injury. As your muscles strengthen, you are also strengthening the connective tissues surrounding them. This provides protection against injuries caused by weak ligaments, tendons and muscle fibers.

5. Feel better. When you are strong, your quality of life is enhanced. Strength improves your self -confidence and makes your daily activities easier.

If you want learn more about strength training and what exactly that means (it’s not lifting 100 pounds over your head!), check back for my next article. .