Starting your fitness journey is an exciting, transformative process to improve your health and well-being. Whether you consider yourself a fitness beginner or a regularly active individual, getting into a new routine can be challenging. For beginners that struggle with being overweight, it’s essential to begin working out at your own pace and gradually increase your intensity over time. Strength training for overweight beginners is an incredibly effective type of workout for reducing body fat and increasing metabolism.

What is Strength Training?

Strength training is a type of exercise that focuses on increasing muscle strength and endurance. Beginning your fitness journey with strength training is advantageous for those looking for workouts to increase their metabolic rate and improve functional abilities. Strength training involves exercises with resistance, such as body weight, resistance bands, or weights, to challenge and stimulate the muscles. The primary goal of strength training is to progressively overload the muscles, causing them to adapt and gradually become more muscular. Strength training exercises often include lifting weights, using resistance machines, or performing bodyweight exercises like push-ups, planks, squats, and lunges.

For overweight beginners, starting with low-intensity workouts enables your body to acclimate and is more effective for burning calories from fat. As you pay attention to your body and how it’s adjusting, you can gradually increase the intensity of your strength training workouts. The long-term health benefits of strength training include reduced risk of chronic illnesses, better cardiovascular health, and improved joint stability and insulin sensitivity. Traditional workouts have a range of cardiovascular benefits and improved fitness results, while strength training offers unique advantages in improving functional strength and body composition. The benefits of strength training for overweight and obese beginners include more than just weight loss, such as enhanced metabolism, functional abilities, and bone health.

How Strength Training Benefits Overweight Beginners

Overweight individuals starting their fitness journey often search for the best workouts to lose weight fast, but that’s only sometimes the most effective. Quick weight loss is only sometimes the healthiest fitness route for overweight beginners. Strength training starts with bodyweight exercises for overweight beginners to build strength while minimizing the risk of injury. Beginning with low-intensity workouts is less excessive than high-intensity exercises, which helps shift focus to correcting and perfecting your form and technique. When doing high-intensity workouts for weight loss, you’re often more focused on the number of reps and amount of weight than your form. Proper form and technique while working out are crucial for seeing results and preventing injuries with strength training.

Whether working out alone or with a fitness trainer, you can devise a personalized plan and learn how to focus on progressive overload training. Progressive overload in strength training is gradually increasing the intensity of your workouts—weight, frequency, and number of reps—to improve your overall performance. Progressive overload for weight loss differs from muscle growth as it depends on a client’s specific fitness goal. Strength training has proven to be an effective workout for overweight beginners looking to improve their physical appearance, overall health, and well-being. 

Increases Muscle Mass

Strength training aims to promote muscle growth, which also helps maintain lean muscle mass. More muscle mass can increase your resting metabolic rate, meaning you burn more calories while resting. Strength training increases resting metabolic rate (RMR), promoting weight loss, weight management, and more significant calorie burn.

Improves Body Composition

Strength training can help improve your body composition by reducing body fat and increasing muscle mass. Compared to traditional workouts focusing on burning calories, strength training burns fat and builds muscle simultaneously. These workouts benefit weight loss, resulting in a more toned and defined physique.

Enhances Metabolism

Strength training boosts your metabolism, allowing you to burn more calories throughout the day. For overweight beginners in strength training, this can be particularly beneficial for those with a slower metabolism due to excess weight. Building and maintaining lean muscle mass with strength training exercises can increase your metabolic rate. Muscles require more energy to maintain, so having more muscle mass leads to a higher calorie burn. 

Increased Strength and Functional Abilities

Strength training regularly improves your ability to perform everyday tasks and activities. Strengthening the muscles and connective tissues enhances your functional abilities, such as carrying groceries, climbing stairs, or lifting heavy objects. Better functional movement for overweight individuals improves their quality of life while reducing the risk of injury.

Better Insulin Sensitivity

Strength training has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, which is essential for individuals who are overweight or have insulin resistance. Increased insulin sensitivity helps regulate blood sugar levels, improve energy levels, and reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Better insulin sensitivity is essential to the overall health of overweight beginners as it plays a role in fat metabolism and reducing the risk of obesity. 

Enhances Bone Health 

Strength training is a weight-bearing exercise requiring your bones to support your body weight while working out. This form of exercise enhances bone health by stimulating bone growth and density. Strength training for bone health can also help reduce the risk of osteoporosis and make your bones less susceptible to fractures.

Improves Cardiovascular Health

While strength training primarily focuses on building strength and muscle, it also positively affects cardiovascular health. Strength training improves heart function as it increases your heart rate during exercise. Circuit-style strength training, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and incorporating compound exercises with minimal rest periods improve aerobic capacity. As strength training increases your resting metabolic rate (RMR), it also helps reduce the risk of obesity and cardiovascular diseases. 

Boosts Confidence and Mental Well-being

Starting your fitness journey as an overweight beginner is a challenging yet rewarding and transformative experience. Regularly engaging in strength training workouts boosts your confidence and self-esteem as you begin to look and feel better. As you progress and achieve your fitness goals, you’ll likely feel more confident in your abilities and appearance. Engaging in regular exercise has been shown to release endorphins, the feel-good neurotransmitters in the brain that the body releases during pleasurable activities. Endorphins can promote feelings of happiness and well-being, increasing cognition and general quality of life. Resistance exercises, including strength training, can act as a natural mood booster, reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Feeling better emotionally and physically positively impacts your confidence and mental well-being for better quality of life. 

References:

• Medical News Today, 2023. What to know about endorphins.

• National Library of Medicine, 2014. The anxiolytic effects of resistance exercise.