Why Strength Workouts Aren’t Working for You
Written by Kim McLaughlin
There are a number of different reasons why you may choose to do metabolic conditioning (metcons) over the strength work, or vice versa. However, if one of those reasons is that you want to lean out and look good naked…contrary to popular belief, metcons aren’t always the right answer.
Don’t get me wrong. Metcons are great and they will improve your cardio and you’ll burn a good amount of calories while you’re doing them. All of this is great for heart health and lung capacity and a host of other things. In fact, I encourage most of our members to try to attend at least 1-2 “Engine” classes a week BUT is it the best way to slim down and lean out? I would argue – NO.
The intent of our strength work in programming is to build muscle. The more muscle you have on your body, the more calories are required to maintain that muscle – therefore the more calories you burn throughout the day. You may burn 350- 400 calories in the course of one metcon workout but as soon as that workout is over and you go back to your stagnant job where you sit at a desk all day. You go back to burning 45-100 calories (on average) per hour. In a strength workout, you may burn less calories during that hour of working out (maybe…maybe not) but throughout the remaining 23 hours of the day, your overall calories burned is higher because your body is working on rebuilding muscle breakdown and building a greater muscle mass. According to some studies, 10 pounds of muscle will burn 50 calories in a day spent at rest, while 10 pounds of fat would burn 20 calories. If you do the math, a lot more muscle means a lot more calories burned.
Here’s the catch – you have to build the muscle in the first place for this all to work out. Building muscle is hard work – and it should be! Just because you show up for the strength workout does not mean you automatically get muscles. The programming is there to do it (read Holden’s article about hypertrophy training for more information on that) but you have to put in the work! As coaches, we are constantly harping on form and identifying and connecting with the right muscles in each movement. That’s our job. Before anyone starts lifting heavy things, we need to make sure they can do it correctly. HOWEVER – once you are doing it correctly – challenge yourself! If you always strict press the 15 pound dumbbells there will come a point where that is not challenging for you. Instead of continuing to use that weight because it’s comfortable and you know you can do it – try the 20 pound dumbbells. Can you keep your form and still lift those?
If you think you’re close to lifting that next heaviest weight but are afraid to try because you might not get all the reps in – it’s ok to FAIL! Failing gives you GREAT feedback. There is rep range written on the board for a reason. If you see 8-10 reps that means 8 should be do-able but 10 should be ROUGH…If you grabbed heavier dumbbells and you can’t quite get 8 reps but the 15 pound dumbbells are too light (you can rep out 10 no problem) what should you do? ASK YOUR COACH…Maybe you stick with the 20s for 6 reps and finish off with 15s. Maybe you slow down the tempo with the 15s. Maybe you get some assistance for those final reps. Whatever it is, the coach can help challenge you so you’re breaking down and building muscle like intended.
Strength workouts should be challenging. It’s one of my favorite things to coach at Invictus. BUT If you are doing those workouts and feel like “you’re not getting anything out of it” – please talk to a coach (I’m all ears). If you’re showing up but not moving challenging weight… you’re probably right…you’re not getting anything out of it. You’re not building muscle so you’re not getting the benefits of the body composition changes that should be occurring, nor are you getting the extra calorie burn later in the day AND you’re also not getting the cardiovascular benefits that happen in your metcon workouts. Essentially, you’re just going through some motions and probably wasting your hour. Don’t waste an hour! Move some weight and build some muscle!
Talk to us if you don’t know what weights are appropriate to be moving and keep a “log” of the weights you have been using for each movement so you can see whether you’re improving or not! Talk to us for other ideas on how to get the most out of strength workouts but it only doesn’t work if YOU don’t put in the work.
