 It
is interesting that you believe that the home gym machine you are using is more
appropriate for men. This is a common perception among women.The chief concern of women is that by doing
resistance training they will become big, muscular, or highly defined. This is a nasty
myth, because women normally do not have the genetic make-up to develop large muscles.
Many women also believe they
are incapable of becoming very strong. Based on these silly fears many women choose to do
toning to keep in shape, which usually means using light weights and lots of
repetitions to tone the muscles.
Fact is that proper strength
training at high intensities is one of the best ways to lose weight and improve your body
composition. Loss of muscle mass due to aging and dieting causes a reduction in your basal
metabolic rate (BMR).
Basal metabolic rate refers to
the energy used by our body to maintain normal body functions. Muscles need a lot of
energy to be created and maintained. A reduction in muscle mass leads to a lower BMR,
which means that your body is less able to use the food you eat as energy. In other words,
the unused energy gets stored as body fat.
If you do regular strength
training you will achieve an increase in lean muscle mass throughout your body and
increase your BMR. In other words, you can actually condition your metabolism to work
better and more efficiently even when you are at rest. Anyone interested in decreasing
body fat should do some form of strength training to help condition their metabolism!
Therefore, I would suggest you
continue with the resistance training on your home gym. I also believe it is good idea to
consult your physiotherapist on which exercises to exclude.
However, I would suggest that
you reduce your resistance training to 2 to 4 days a week doing exercise for all the major
muscle groups, allowing a day in between for rest. Your muscles need time to recover and
grow.
Instead try to increase the
intensity of your workout. Is there any way you can use your body weight or the home gym
machine to add a little more resistance to your exercises? Start slowly and work in a
progressive manner.
Be careful of doing too much
too soon. Maybe you may consider buying a barbell with a set of weights that you can
adjust? Of course simple body weight exercises, such as push-ups, are also very effective.
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I have purchased a home gym. You pull against your
own weight, via pulleys and raising or lowering the bench. I guess this machine is
more for men, but will it help me lose weight - Pat Harris