Hello There,
Welcome back to K&T blog.
How was your week? we sincerely hope that it was manageable and that you got most of your planned tasks completed, especially for your fitness journey. Our week was hectic, it was one of those week where you have no choice but to roll-up your sleeves, make necessary changes and get things done, as Denis Waitley said “There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them” . But we survived, most importantly we managed to stick to our training routine, we even attempted to make improvements on our meal plan by replacing lunch with a shake. Surprisingly we were able to get through these days with 2 main meals without feeling starved, which makes us wonder, do we eat because we are hungry or do we eat because we are used to ? if you would like to try our shake, here is a recipe we posted previously.
This week we talk about resistance training, it is one of our most enjoyable workout type and we have realized many benefits from it. We started resistance training by buying a few small dumbbells (very small 🙂 ), then slowly increased the sizes, then as we got stronger and more interested, we bought various barbells, weight plates and benches. As the journey continued, we started being interested in other forms of resistance training and got equipment’s such as home gym machine, medicine balls, sandbags, resistances bands , suspension trainers, Olympic rings, doorway pullup bar, dip bars and parallettes bars…it does not stop once you start 🙂 , kettlebells are probably next on the list.
Here are some benefits we experienced from resistance training:
1.Improved look – lean muscle and definition.
2.Progress in weight loss – More energy is used in lifting things.
3.Increased strength – Daily activities that requires lifting becomes easy.
4.Improved self esteem – Anything you are capable of doing improves self esteem 🙂 .
5.Retaining interest on our fitness journey – Variety keeps you interested.
Here are some benefits of resistance training from medical literature :
1.Protect you from injury
2.Boosts metabolism
3.Improves functional independence
4.Reduces blood pressure
5.Strengthens bones
6.Improves heart health
7.Helps control blood sugar
8.Boosts mood (so true :))
9.Improve physical performance
10.Improves body composition
Resistance training is beneficial for overall health and longevity, more especially as we age because we naturally lose muscle mass with age, from the age of 30 we lose 8% of our muscles every decade. Resistance training helps with countering the loss and is recommended for at least two times a week, this is worth the effort and time 🙂 . Starting with resistance training is like adding another insurance policy that will enable you to keep enjoying life later on, and hopefully to be able to still move, play and perform at an age where it is usually not so.
The best way to start with resistance training is by starting with what you have “Your body“, exercises such as push-ups, squats, planks, lunges, pull ups, burpees and mountain climbers enable you to use your own bodyweight as a source of resistance. The next cost effective way to start with resistance is buying resistances bands or small dumbbells, these provides the necessary resistance, as well as a variety of exercises to make up a full body’s worth of resistance training. Remember not to overwhelm yourself, start small and progressively increase in equipment, sizes and duration.
Below are two videos we recorded this week to help with getting started in resistance training, we hope you will enjoy trying them 🙂 .
And oh yes, remember to warm-up first to avoid any injury.
Until next week, Stay blessed.
Kat & Tshepi
Kat & Tshepi 