I eat right, do I still have to work out?

I eat right, do I still have to work out? Even though eating right makes up for about 80 percent of how we look and feel, we can't forget about training. Combining proper nutrition with the right kind of exercise is the best thing you can do to stay strong, lean and healthy!

Working out is critical for many reasons. The most important being your health. The benefits of regular exercise on your health are numerous. They include cardiovascular benefits, such as lowering your blood pressure, keeping your heart ( which is a muscle) stronger, and increasing your lung capacity. Exercise also benefits your body by improving your posture, building or retaining lean muscle mass and prolonging your life. We also know that exercise prevents all major diseases such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. Wow!

Regular exercise has emotional benefits as well. Since exercise produces the "feel good" hormone endorphin in your body, regular exercise has the effect of making your feel happier,more well balanced and better able to handle stress. What is the best way to work out? Study after study shows that the best way to exercise is by doing weight training combined with cardio! You want to workout SMARTER, NOT HARDER! By combining the two, you will increase your fat burning for up to 24 hours after training. This is called metabolic training and I love it. Research states that the best way to increase your metabolism is by adding lean mass. Lean mass is muscle. By adding muscle you will burn more calories even at rest! This happens because muscle requires energy to sustain itself. Fat does not. So, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, all day long. Also, by combining resistance training with cardio "bursts" in between sets, you go into an aerobic state and stimulate fat burning long after your workout is over. This is called EPOC or Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption. Simply put, while your body is recovering from your training, oxygen consumption increases and so does your metabolism. If you are doing just cardio to stay lean, you are missing the most important component of fitness, namely weight training. Women especially are afraid of weight training because they fear "bulking up" or "getting big". It is very difficult for the female body to build large muscle due to the lack of the hormone testosterone! We simply do not have the hormonal profile to build big muscles. Women benefit immensely from weight training! Adding lean mass is not the only benefit. Increased bone density also comes along with weight bearing exercise. As women often suffer from bone loss and even osteoporosis with the onset of middle age, weight training becomes even more important! Combine it with cardio bursts, and you have the BEST WAY TO WORK OUT! Skip the long, boring cardio sessions and add weight training with cardio burst and in just a few weeks you will see the incredibl e results!