Why should you lift weights.

Why does my personal trainer ask me to lift weights? Will lifting weights make me bulky? I want to lose fat not build muscle.

These are common questions we hear all the time as personal trainers, they are absolutely the right questions to ask - it means you are protective of your body and confidence.

With all of this in mind, I wanted to give you all 10 main reasons why you should lift weights:

1. You burn fat - not only do you burn calories during resistance training, you burn calories afterwards whilst the body recovers

2. Increased strength - being strong is amazing, it helps you do day-to-day activities and protects you from external stresses

3. Reduces illnesses later on in life - conditions such as osteoporosis are reduced due to increased functionality of joints and bone density

4. Reduce risk of injury - increased muscle protects joints

5. Improves posture - having stronger muscles improves your posture, this is incredibly important for individuals with desk jobs

6. Increased stamina - being able to withstand greater loads for longer periods of time improves your muscular stamina

7. Sleep better - exercising will assist your sleep patterns

8. Higher sex drive - higher testosterone levels will increase your sexual appetite and general well being

9. Happiness - natural endorphins are released after exercise and self esteem will increase

10. You will look awesome! Whilst losing body fat or simply building a little more muscle will make you look incredible!

The final point is that most clients or individuals I speak to wish to look "Toned".

Tone is a mixture of the following - fat loss and muscle gain.

Typically I would split both into the following:

Fat loss - food

To efficiently lose body fat - it's all about calorie deficit (more to come on calorie deficits)

Muscle - weight training (resistance training)

Improve each of these and you are on track to smashing everything you want in life.

Be your best.

P.S ladies - you will not get bulky